MsMozi in Mozi…

So I’m back in Jozi after my weekend in Mozi…

The adventure started at 2:30am on Friday morning – as ungodly as that hour may sound, it really just added to the excitement of the weekend away. D fetched me in the pitch black darkness and torrential downpour and we headed off to the rendezvous point – the big boss’s (Big D) house. By 3am, all of us had arrived, loaded our gear and we were on our way to Mozi.

Even the drive there was fun – someone had the brilliant idea of bringing along walkie talkies and one was handed to each vehicle in our Mozi convey. We quickly established military-style code names for each of the vehicles – We were ‘White Rabbit’ and following us were the ‘Blue Techies’ and the ‘Silver Tortoise’. I don’t recall the walkie talkies ever being used for something practical – like directions – but they were used to transmit highly entertaining wildlife noises between the vehicles, including Big D’s much requested hippo impersonation.

By 10am all 15 of us had arrived in Ponto, just in time to get ready for our first dive… and my first ever dive in the ocean. In retrospect, I probably should have taken my 2 hours of sleep the previous night, empty stomach and non-existent sea legs into consideration before happily bounding onto the boat and into open water. I already began feeling distinctly dodge before executing my backwards boat entry into Mozi’s waters.

Enjoyed the dive tremendously at a reef called ‘creche’ – very shallow and full of small and colourful fish. Me and my dive buddy surfaced after about 30 mins. We were bobbing up and down on the open water waiting to get back onto the boat and I began to realise that I probably wasn’t going to get through this experience without feeding the fish. I was hauled up onto the boat and we sat…. and waited for the others to surface… and waited… and waited… and with that I was over the edge of the boat doing my bit to ensure the aquatic life of Mozi wouldn’t go hungry that day.

After finally reaching dry land, I recovered quickly and we all headed off for a frollic in the waves and a couple of cocktails, taking in the sights and sounds of gorgeous Ponto. This was followed by many prawns and many 2Ms before hitting the sack.

The next day dawned, and so did Dive No. 2. We headed out to a reef called Doodles – at about 17m. Now I know 17m doesn’t sound that deep – but when you hit the water and the bottom is absolutely no where in sight after about 3 solid minutes of descending, you begin to realise that it’s pretty darn deep. I eventually got to the reef, and started to let my mind wander. I began thinking about the intricacies of scuba equipment. Why did I have such blind faith that this invention would continue to fill my lungs with breathable air?? So much so that I would allow myself to be 17m underwater in the middle of the ocean?!

As these thoughts swirled around my brain I saw the other divers all pointing at something under a coral cliff. As I swam closer, I saw the outline of the most enormous fish I have EVER seen in my life. I thought to myself – holy crap – it’s got to be a shark, and now I have to pretend that this is something I actually wanted to encounter underwater, as opposed to the starfish, parrot fish and occasional clown fish that I had really hoped to spot.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a potato bass. Not exactly ferocious and fearsome, but still flippin’ huge!! A couple of blue spotted rays, eels and enormous schools of fish later I managed to begin enjoying myself. So much so that I decided not to entertain my colleagues by displaying the contents of my stomach after this dive – so all round an awesome experience.

The rest of the weekend flew past in a haze of excellent Portuguese food, even better company, 2Ms, Manikas, midnight swimming and endless laughter.

What a fantastic weekend – anyone keen to head back tomorrow?????