Underneath the sea, far away from land, that's where I will be, laying on the sand......

I have been sooooooo lazy this week and just haven’t mustered up what little energy is needed to upload a blog. This is why there are three blogs all in a row so I hope the flow makes sense and I know they have been a little random. This week most days have been between 35-40oC….and yes I am complaining about it! Im sweating like a trooper day and night and I have turned into a human water fountain. The sweat is just raining down all over me and at night its even worse.

So its 10.13pm here and I ate dinner at around 9ish but this time its my fault as I came in at around 8.45. I thought I would ‘quickly’ tell you about my trip to Inhaca Island which as MARVELLOUSLY BRILLIANT! I woke up on Saturday morning at 5am in order to dress, eat and wash so I could be out the house at 6am  and on a chapa so I could reach the ferry to Inhaca at 7am. The boat took 2.5hrs and I cannot tell you the amount of people that were drinking beer at 7.30am. Hard back Mozambicans who clearly had not slept the night before and were just lacing themselves with more alcohol to stay awake. Im surprised, actually wait there, am I really surprised that they let people drink alcohol on this boat…..errrr no. Im in Mozambique! Im thinking about it and the sides of this boat were sufficiently low enough for a drunk person to just idly fall over board. It happened on the way back and everyone was shouting “Just leave him in the water….” This was only some 30mins into the journey. Anyway, we arrived with Inhaca just in our sight. The boat doesn’t take you all the way to shore so you have to get in a speed boat (for more money) which almost takes you to shore. You then have to walk through water infested with star fish, crabs, sea urchins and Nastasias favourites - crabs. Nastasia and I did the walk in together screaming like proper girly tourist all the way. People were staring at us and at one point we just stopped with water up to our knees and just laughed to the point of tears. Reallllll city girls. It took us ages to walk to shore….when we finally arrived we quickly by passed the ‘island security’ (don’t ask). You have to pay 100 metical’s to these men as an ‘entrance fee’ to the island HOWEVER if you are from the cruise ship you pay nothing….out of order. Nastasia and I didn’t see these men so we didn’t have to pay…..in your face! Next….more drama! Where to stay? We had planned to make a weekend of it. Apparently the four of us had said we were going to stay on the beach…..I don’t remember that conversation but none the less I thought maybe it would be cool to be in a hut on the beach. The area of the Island we wanted and had heard from other volunteers was a really beautiful was a place called Santa Maria. We managed after a length negotiation to borrow a tent as apparently there were no beach huts where we wanted to go and sort out a ride there. The tent cost us nothing but the ride there was £50 spilt between 4 people there and back. Apparently this was waaaaaaaaay to much and we really should have only paid about £20 between us but when you are a ‘tourist’ the price of everything triples and we have not yet mastered the art of bartering. We will get there don’t you worry about that.

THE TENT!

So to cut a verrrrrry long story short we ended up camping on the beach and it was really lovely. Frenke, who lent us the tent, came along for the drive and helped us set it up. We paid the driver half the cash and then RAN to the beach which was literally 2mins from our tent. I felt so relaxed and it was just so nice. We got to the beach at around 3 and went back to our tent just before sunset at 6….. I decided to be a brave solider and partaking in a little snorkelling. I was convinced I was going to see a shark and parts of my body were going to be found washed up on the shore but Jan said I should stop being so stupid! It wasn’t stupidity Jan I call it ‘keeping it real’. He said the opportunity could not be missed as he had seen Octopuses, puffer fish (poisonous….another death threat) and a plethora of other sea life. The Octopus really did put me off but when my fearful friend Nastastia plucked up the courage I followed shortly after. I was cacking my bikini the whole time but I did see some amazing fish….it was like being in the film finding Nemo. The coral was so beautiful and there were clams and rainbow coloured fish and it was really amazing. Im glad I did it. My heart was beating double time the whole time I was in the water and at some points I couldn’t wait to get out but despite all of that I really enjoyed.

We bought some tomatoes, samosas, bread, water, beer and biscuits before we arrived and that was our breakfast, lunch a dinner. Our camping neighbours we two couples from South Africa who looked like professional campers. They had soooooo much food and camping equipment we really did look like 1^st class amateurs despite Jan being a scout! We were hoping if we told them our plight about being poor volunteers they might give us dinner that night as a tomato and samosa sandwich wasn’t looking so appealing after all. Anyway, Nastasia and I were getting ourselves freshened up after the beach and we were fantasying about what sort of meal the South Africans were going to cook for us (despite not having been asked)….then we said we shouldn’t get our hopes and we started doing really poor South African accents and saying there was no food at the inn and laughing our arses off. Then there was a knock at our tent door and one of neighbours appeared with a bag full of apples, milk, cereal bars and cereal. Of course it wasn’t dinner (tear drop) but it was food so we were royally grateful for the donation. Nastasia was convinced he had heard us but I don’t think so and grabbed the bag smiling.

We had a really nice night but sleeping was my idea of hell. As you know Im no animal or insect lover and the noise from these insects was ridiculous and it was HOT. I thought that sleeping on the sand was going to be more comfortable then sleeping on that concrete floor at the apartment in town but no….sadly I was very mistaken. I think in my head I had a vision of the sand moulding around my body so I would be cocooned within it but it was as hard as sleeping on a rock especially when the heavens opened and it started raining. Overall it wasn’t a really bad night sleep but it was no Holiday lnn.

The next day at Santa Maria was very over cast but still VERY hot. We had more tomato and samosa sandwiches mixed with an apple and a cereal bar. Delicious! The tide was out and there was a ginormous (spell check is telling me that’s not a real word….is it enormous then? Or have I spelt it wrong?!?!) school of fish at the waters edge. It was amazing. The coral that we had been swimming in was no longer underwater and was an amazing sight to see. Ive taken lots of pictures for you to have a gander over.

Arriving at Inhaca Island

Speed Boat Chappa to shore.....

The walk into shore from the boat with star fish and crabs at our feet

Santa Maria

Chilling out on the beach watching the sunset......aaawww lovely!

The tide was out so the coral reef was clear to see

The Coral....

More Coral....

Jan the scout man holding a Sea Urchin....the spikes are extremely poisonous so touching them is a no no.....but not for Super Man Jan! 

The weekend was a nice change from partying all night into the small hours of the morning. It is defo a must if anyone comes to visit.