Mafia Island

30 and 31 Jan And so the long travel home started. We had a slow breakfast, settled our bills and packed. Our driver arrived at four in the afternoon and we got a much bigger plane back to Dar. At Dar es Salaam our drivers were waiting for us and took us to the upmarket area called slipway where we had dinner. Around 11 our drivers, who had been looking after our luggage, took us beach to the airport. At 12:30pm we could book in and not at 2 in the morning we are waiting the last hour for our flight to Johannesburg. They keep announcing that plastic bags are illegal in Tanzania, even to store. I didn't realize and still have the takelot one in my bag from buying my spare batteries on the way to the airport on Cape Town.

 28 and 29 Jan We woke up early on Friday and were collected at 6 to travel across the island.  Mike cheerfully woke up the locals calling random Swahili words out the window as we drove past the villages. We were off to swim with whalesharks. Unfortunately they were elsewhere for the day, and we never got to see any. I was feeling a bit I'll with stomach cramps so didn't mind the chilled day.  Mikes lovely photo as the terns flew away Today (29th) we did our PCR test and then two boat dives which were great. Jenny's photo of the rare sea moth Raoul and his camera Rob and Mike Holiday is almost over - doesn't seem much point in trying to find whalesharks as they seem to have left the area for now. Mikes photo of our Masai security guard

 26 and 27 Jan  Another two days of boat diving, eating and chilling in the lounge chatting over beer. I'd told Hamisi that I really wanted to see octopus, so he found me one at the end of our second dive. And as he was changing colour and hiding from us, me GoPro decided to overheat and freeze 😠 Here are some of Jenny's beautiful photos. The pink paper fish Drinks down at the beach in the evenings

 Tuesday 25th January Dave turns 79 today and had to wake up in the dark!  We all met at the dive club at 6:15 and had two dives in the bay.  Dave on his 79th birthday 🥂 Rob and I dived together and saw the same eels where we did the night dive. Our highlight was the big friendly lion fish (photos to follow when I've taken off my GoPro). We had a relaxed afternoon and drinks on the beach. Man and dog watching crab Champagne and cake with Dave.

 Monday 24 Jan Today the tides are in-between so we don't have any morning dives. Rob and I read a while and now we are all chatting over a slow breakfast. We did just a shore dive and saw seahorse and jellyfish. Rob and I walked around a bit, looked at Pola Pola lodge and bought some biscuits. Mom and her chicks In the evening we had Aperol cocktails

Sunday 23 Jan After a slow morning (Rob went for an early morning run) we met at 11. Did two dives from the boat, one in the bay and one out of bay. We don't return between dives.  The out of bay dive was fabulous, visibility about 15 meters with groupers, rays and eels. I saw unicorn fish which reminded me of probuscus monkeys. Unfortunately, when I took my first pic of the day, my GoPro said "please insert and card". Duh. I'd left it in Robs laptop after downloading the photos last night. Sigh.  Mike The current picked up during the dive and eventually we were going quite a speed, no chance of swimming against it - it's great - you just chill and everything comes past you at a lovely pace. I'm now chilling with a glass of wine before our night dive later this evening. Me and a nudibranch Jens pic of a ray I love this picture of myself and turtle The night dive was great!  Jens pic of crocodile fish we saw

 22 Jan It was great having a slow morning and meeting for diving at 12 only  We did two boat dives, both out of the bay (about an hour by boat). Visibility was great and the abundance of life was beautiful.

21 January 2022 This morning we walked down with our gear to the dive club at the beach and arranged to be back at 10:30.  Breakfast was great with fresh watermelon, pineapples, mangos and granadilla. Bobby would be pleased to know there is also cocoa pops which I had too. Rob decided to do his advanced diving course, so I went with Roaul and our dive master for a shore orientation dive. He found us a small octopus, which seems off, turning from beige to white over the sand, then dark brown as he/she went into a hole. What a magical sighting. Saw a strange big mouth fish we think it's called and two frog dish (I thought it was a stone fish). I was so sorry I hadn't taken my GoPro, but was nervous lose it on my first dive!  As we surfaced, Dave, the owner of the dive club was waiting to say our boat was waiting, so we climbed straight. Half an hour later we arrived at the site and had a second dive (we didn't go deep on the first, hence the short break was ok). Saw a big gro...