Unbelievably our 5 weeks have come to end, where did time go?! Our fifth and final week here did not disappoint, starting with another fun dive at manta and ending with one final paddleboard in the bay. The penultimate weekend started with some lovely sunrise yoga orchestrated by Ark and then a gorgeous dive at manta reef to follow. No devil rays this time, but with crystal clear water we were still spoilt with a fab dive. And the fun was not over as Libby and Ark had coordinated the first inaugural LTO sports day. With events ranging from tug of war to dodgeball to musical chairs, the ‘Sexy Sardines’ secured a narrow victory over the ‘Devil Rays’ and ‘Team Spectacular’. Amid the mayhem of sports day, we welcomed the arrival of Lena, the new marine biology field specialist! Following this brilliant but full-on day Sophie and Libby opted for a chilled day while Ark, Mal and Joe went on what can only be described as an interesting and comical seahorse safari before picking up the new volunteer Becca from the airport.
The final week then truly began with fisheries on Monday with Team Barcelona heading off to Paindane while Team Chelsea settled in at Guinjata. Choppy seas saw a lack of fishing activity but plenty of whale action kept us entertained with both teams seeing multiple breaches and blows. These choppy conditions then put a holt to Tuesdays diving plans so both teams combined forces to do a beach clean and then alternated between the plastic machine and whale watching in the afternoon. With conditions slightly calmer diving resumed on Wednesday with both teams headed out on the boat, one to dive and one to whale watch and drop the hydrophone. Despite a couple of big breaches close to the boat, the whales managed to elude us under the water, however Barcelona did see an Octopus! To match the celebratory atmosphere of Mozambique’s Independence Day we all headed off to ‘Top of the world’ for a magical sunset over the bush.
With choppy seas returning, Thursdays activities swapped with Saturdays, and we all squished into the back of the truck and headed of to a sunny Tofo for a day of surfing and Mexican! As if this wasn’t enough, we headed to the Sunset lodge to watch the sunset over the mangroves and estuary, which was stunning.
Friday was back to normal with the second round of transects performed along with Mal finishing their advanced PADI and seeing a white-tip on the same dive – not to shabby!
Our final weekend began with the five of us heading out for a sunrise swim, the perfect way to mark the end of the programme. Followed by breakfast and then waffles/ice-cream from Cowries, Saturday was of to a flyer. However, the mood was dampened by Sophie’s departure as she left for the airport as the goodbyes began. The final evening meal was the delicious bean stew with lime (crucial component), and we discussed the many many highlights of the programme with the devil rays, sports day, the cultural tour (fioses in particular) and Tofo trips being shouted out to name a few! We then all descended on the girl’s house for a movie night whilst indulging in the delicious biscuits courtesy of Julia and Yud. Watching the ‘Incredibles 2’ seemed a very fitting way to spend the final evening as the whole 5 weeks was truly Incredible!
