A Delayed Eloping {Darrell}

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After celebrating the best day of our lives with the best people in the world, it was time to head out to celebrate or wedding on our own. The whole wedding along with all its picking wines, music and stressing about the weather was now behind us and it seemed like all of a sudden we were back at the airport with our backpacks on our backs again.

When it came time for us to board our plane we huddled into the airport bus and bounded out over the tarmac. We passed the refuelling jumbos, we passed passengers queueing to board the smaller domestic planes, we even continued on past the loading cargo planes. Standing parked out here in the back of the Johannesburg International airport was one of the smallest planes we have ever been on.

We ducked into the tiny plane and strapped ourselves in. The ride was a bit bumpy, but a few hours later we found the real bumps on the small airstrip that is Inhambane International Airport. Passport control and immigration were both handled by a single official sitting behind an old wooden desk. Many of the our co-passengers were catching the same waiting van as us to Flamingo Bay Lodge, and since there were four other couples on honeymoon, we could tell we were heading to the right place.

The little van drove us along some some hugely potholed roads towards the beach. It felt so great to be back in Africa, bouncing along the road with lush green palm forests on either sides and grass houses sprinkled amoungst the trees.

As the van pulled up at Flamingo Bay Lodge we realised that we'd come to the right place. In front of us a raised boardwalk stretched out across the mangrove swaps towards a large wooden building. Our bags and the women were put onto golf carts, and the guys walked along behind, enjoying the sea breezes and marvelling at the beauty of the place. After checking in we were through the large stilted reception building, where the boardwalks continued to stretch out across the blue waters of the Inhambane lagoon.

A waiting golf cart took us and our bags out over the creaking wooden planks to our individual rooms. Neither of us had ever seen, let alone stayed in, a place anything like this. The bungalows are built in a row on raised stilts out in the lagoon. Each bungalow has its own wooden boardwalk and they are completely free standing. The bungalows are completely built of wood and thatched with grass. Although they are very solidly built, from the inside you could just feel the gentle touches of the waves on the stilts below.

There are surely few places as private as a room in the middle of a lagoon. The Lodge was less than half occupied and the reception very sensibly spread the guests out so that we really felt like we had the place to ourselves. The walk back to the main restaurant and reception was about 5 minutes over the lagoon, but there was always a golf cart waiting for those who were not in the mood for walking. The whole atmosphere was so incredibly peaceful that it was the kind of place where you find yourself always speaking in hushed tones.

In the evenings we saw the other honeymooners coming and going from the buffet dinners. We chatted a bit about the snorkeling and other activities that were available, but mostly just whispered excitedly about how amazing the place was. The photographs speak for themselves.

We stayed at Flamingo Bay for three nights enjoying the sunsets from our balcony and living in our little wooden sea bungalow, and the rose early on the fourth day to catch a transfer to Barra Lodge, the sister Lodge next door. We had opted to stay the next three nights at the family-orientated beach side accommodation because from here we were able to do several dives on the reef off the coast of Tofo, one of the big attractions for us of visiting Mozambique.

This stretch of Mozambiquan coast is known as the Manta Coast and is particularly famous for a series of cleaing stations. Tiny little fish hang around rock pinnacles waiting to peck clean the giant rays that literally queue up for the service. We were able to drop from the boat down to the sea floor and watch as massive rays swooped overhead like some form of massive craft in this foreign world. It was really humbling how these great creatures moved so gracefully past us with no apparent regard for our presence.

We also took the opportunity to catch a boat ride out to look for Tofo's other seasonal guest, the whale shark. We bounced along for an hour and a half on the inflatable with our skipper scanning the water keenly. With Cathy focussing on keeping her breakfast down, I was starting to doubt our chances of spotting the great animal from above the surface, when our skipper caught the dark shadow of a whaleshark passing and signalled us to get in the water. I had been unable to sit still with excitement the entire trip and so was instantly the first in the water. I happened to drop in right in the path of the approaching shark, and was just able to get my camera ready in time to take a few shots as the 7-meter fish swam right up to me, changing direction right at the last moment to cruise silently by.

The largest fish in the sea seemed completely unfazed by the mad excitement of a boatload of tourists suddenly splashing in the water, and in fact allowed us to swim alongside for a good half hour before he decided he'd had enough and started to dive back to the depths.

After the excitement of the morning dives, our afternoons were pretty much left to walks on the beach, watching the dhows pulling up their nets, and reading our books outside the bungalow. In the evenings we were blessed with clear skies frosted with stars.

All together it was pretty different kid of adventure. Buffet meals and hot showers are not a common occurrence in our travels. But for a honeymoon, a week in such a peaceful place with the added bonus of diving with some of the oceans' real big life was a treat to remember.

Check the second page for more photos

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Photos

Planelet
Boarding the little twin-prop on the outskirts of the Jo'burg airport

The road to Inhambane
Well pot-holed

Lionfish
One of the ocean's dangerous beauties.

Baby Lionfish
Tiny little guy we saw at Mike's cupboard. My hand for size comparison.

Comments

[Burgert]

CAtchin up!
Hey guys! Great to catch up on the blog a bit :) Thanx for your effort! We all missin you!