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Still half asleep @ 2am, we got on to our bus to Vilanculos. To our surprise, the bus actually left on time! But this easy start wouldn't last long. After 1 hour the police stopped us a couple of hours, apparently it's illegal to transport people before 5am. After that we continued our journey, only to discover that at every police control post the 3 white guys had to get off the bus and we had to show our passports! We were treated as criminals! The last surprise we got in the evening, we only had 2-3 hours left before we got to our destination! But that wasn't going to be that day, we had to stop for the night… because it was too dangerous to drive in that area after dark! So we had to sleep in the bus together with loads of cockroaches . Because of the high comfort of the bus, there wasn't much sleeping… it was more counting down the hours before we could start riding again!
The next morning we finally arrived in Vilanculos… after 36 hours!!! We immediately felt a change in the atmosphere compared to the northern part of Mozambique, the people were friendly and helpful. Because of the beautiful beaches and the nice vibe of the place, we decided to stay here for a few days. We stayed at the Baobab backpackers, a very nice place right at the beach! We met some interesting people and enjoyed their company for some days (a Dutch couple, Swiss couple and a South African couple). Together we went to one of the islands of the Bazaruto archipelagos, were we stayed for a day. It was a little piece of heaven, white shores… almost no people… just enjoying the moment!! Vilanculos was also a kitesurfing hotspot, so it didn't take long before Casper was on the water showing the locals how it's done!! After 4 days it was time to move on… off to Tofo/Tofino, where we would become surf masters and swim with whale sharks!! And apparently you can also see the humpback whales from beach!
After a short trip(yes we have those too), we arrived in Tofo. A small nice little village at the beach! The first place where we had a place to stay through couchsurfing! Because of some miscommunication, we had to stay at a backpackers for one night! Our backpackers was located at the beach and it had an amazing deck, we were standing there for a few minutes and we already saw 4 whales jump out of the water! Crazy!! The next day we went looking for a dive and surf center, we found both at Liquid diving center. There they told us the bad news…the last time they saw a whale shark was more than a month ago! But we felt lucky and we booked an ocean safari anyway… we even let faith diced the day and flipped a coin… Monday or Wednesday… Wednesday it was!! We also booked some surf lessons, to our surprise the surf instructor Arjen was a Dutch guy! Funny how small this world is! It made it a lot easier for us to understand and learn! We also moved our stuff to our couchsurfing spot… we weren't the only ones staying there… some German girls were crashing there too! It was a nice house, with a lot of life in it…people coming in and out all day! Because of the poor waves we didn't do any surfing on Sunday and Monday… we just hanged out and enjoyed the sun! But on Tuesday we got some action on the water, our first surf lesson and after a few attempts we were(to our own and Arjen's surprise) all standing on our boards!!! Unfortunately our host started to ask money after a few days… so we had to look for a new place! And at what better place to find it, then at the bar with some drinks! Thanks to our surf instructor we got acquainted with an Australian guy named Steve, who got his heart lost in Africa and was the owner of a local diving center! We got talking and thanks to Casper's slick tongue, we found us a new place to stay!! A really cool guy, full of interesting stories!
Then came Whale shark day!!! Full of excitement we left on our ocean safari, after a a good 20 min of just spotting one humpback whale… we got our hopes down, but then the anticipated words came… WHALE SHARK!!!! Everybody was ecstatic… even the people of the dive center… we all jumped in the water like crazy people! Swimming as if our lives depended on it… and then there it was, an 8 a 9 meter long whale shark slowly moving through the water! An amazing creature! We got to swim with it 4 times! The rest of the day we were too exhausted of the excitement! The next day we had another surf lesson, bigger waves this time… so less standing and more falling! The next few days there were no good waves… so today we decided it was time to move on! Tomorrow we're on the road again! Untill next time!!!
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Inga What tremendous adventures!