Dive Vilanculos: Check.

20:07, December 11, 2011. An amazing thatched roof house, Vilanculos, Mozambique.

Man, this has been one of the craziest days of my life. Ha.

Before I tell you about it, some background: I’m currently in the town of Vilanculos, located on the east coast of Mozambique, in a province called Inhambane. Several colleagues and I decided to spend a few nights here to break up our long drive to Maputo, and we went in together to rent a Swiss Family Robinson-reminiscent house at an amazing resort located right on the beach.

The beach itself is, I believe, the most beautiful of any I’ve ever been to (other than the Oregon coast, of course). Seriously, though. I’ll put some pictures up on Facebook sometime in the next few days, hopefully, but it’s on par with the best airline ads out there – white sand, groves of tall coconut palms, impossibly-turquoise (and warm) water, and picturesque fishing boats called dhows. I couldn’t really process the view when we first arrived here yesterday, and had to sit down for a while to contemplate how amazing God’s world is.

The other relevant piece of background is that I have a bucket list of things I’d love to do before I die, and one of the things on the list was to go SCUBA diving somewhere warm and clear. I was SCUBA certified in the Puget Sound, off the coast of Seattle, and while that area is amazing and beautiful in its own way, the conditions are quite challenging (incredibly low visibility, cold water, strong currents, etc.).

So, after lots of thought and waiting, I finally had the chance to cross that item off the list, as my colleague Katie and I spent the whole day on and around some islands offshore of Vilanculos, diving, snorkeling and hanging out with a small group of very interesting people. The weather was calm, the sky was clear, and the day included a series of ridiculous experiences that I can’t really imagine repeating. Ha. Here’s a short list of things I did or saw, in order:

1. We started off by setting up a base camp on a desert-looking island (it’s basically a big sand dune in the middle of the ocean), putting up a makeshift shelter there, and did some pre-dive briefings. The snorkelers stayed at the island, and the divers headed out for a nearby reef.
2. On the first of two dives, I swam along with a sea turtle for the first several minutes, and subsequently saw eight devil rays, a white tipped shark, multiple moray eels (including a giant moray swimming along the bottom), and a gazillian other types of fish and corals. The visibility was about 20m, which is almost unbelievable, and I spent most of the 50 or so minutes underwater with very wide eyes. Seeing the rays was probably the highlight for me – I don’t think I’ve ever seen such graceful animals, in any medium, and they reminded me of very beautiful and efficient aircraft.
3. After returning to the island to pick up the snorkelers, we all returned for a snorkeling session at a reef. We came across a school of spinner dolphins on the way out, so we threw on our snorkels and fins and jumped off the boat. The dolphins were a little shy, but we swam around with them for several minutes before they took off (they’re fast!), and it was very cool and surreal to hear their clicks and whistles underwater. The rest of the snorkeling trip was very neat, as well – we saw lots of other amazing fish, including my favorite, a juvenile angelfish (they look more like fancy doodles than fish).
4. We went for a second dive after lunch, to finish off the day. About ten minutes in, my dive buddy and I were cruising along at a depth of about 60ft when we saw some dark shapes in front of us. We inched forward slowly, hugging the bottom, and watched as two gray reef sharks approached us and began circling at a distance of about 30 feet. It was amazing to see them in their own space, and to appreciate how powerful and authoritative sharks are underwater. Shortly after that, I dove down into a little canyon-type coral formation to look at a HUGE potato grouper (which is as ugly as its name), and was surprised to catch some movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked back to see three large batfish crowding me from behind, after apparently having followed my yellow fins for some distance. Ha! They looked really embarrassed to be caught, bumping into each other as they turned around and swam away. It was very goofy and comical, and I wasted some air laughing at them. Other neat sights on the dive included a huge tuna, clown fish in anemones, several iridescent parrotfish and crescent-tail wrasse, and a multitude of other beautiful creatures.

So, in conclusion, it was an amazing, wonderful day, and I feel super blessed to have had the opportunity to see and interact with such a crazy part of God’s world. He’s so good, and such a creative Creator!

Our little Vilanculos interlude will come to an end tomorrow morning, when my colleagues and I will continue on in our drive to Maputo. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Advertisement