PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE

From Blue Skies and Empty Beaches to Cyclone Weather and Surfer's Paradise

Week 133 of the photographic documentary of my daily life

Mozambique has it all. Abandoned beaches and remote campsites, lots of marine life, and a scuba diver’s paradise. But Mozambique has as well a coastline that is used to be hit by cyclones...

And yes, we knew about this. We knew about the rainy season. We knew about cyclones and the possibility of experiencing one while on the road. However, we didn't expect to have wind every single day during our stay in the country.

And we didn’t know we’d choose to stay and experience a tropical storm.

Let me start this week by hanging in my hammock somewhere in paradise. I'm telling you. This is my all-time favorite beach destination.

It might be crowded and busy in the high season. But this beach resort with about 50 camping sites and more chalets and other accommodations was ours. Ours alone.

Located just north of Inhambane it sits on a remote stretch of coastline nestled between palm tree forests and the crystal-clear waters of the Indian Ocean.

We camped right there. Next to the beach. With my hammock between the palm trees in the first line. White beach sand to my feet and the salty smell of the sea to my nose.

There was always some wind blowing which made the waves too big and dangerous for me to go out on my paddleboard but instead I went for long beach walks and flew the drone above my tropical paradise.

That night again, I walked down to the beach when the water was far out during low tide and put my camera on the tripod. The resort had some lights shining on the beach but the milky way was still bright enough to shine above all else.

Can you spot our hidden camp? Hint, our car is red…

Since we couldn’t paddle out on the water or go scuba diving while staying in this little piece of paradise, we moved on after two nights looking for some adventure.

We drove to Praia de Tofo, the diving hub of Mozambique. While it's a crowded and bustling tourist place during peak season, it was rather calm upon our arrival.

We didn’t do much but set up camp and enjoy the sunset above the lagoon.

The following day, we went diving and I’m cheating here a little as I don’t feel comfortable enough yet to film while diving. David is the born diver and swims around capturing all kinds of fun stuff and still ends up with more oxygen than me in the end.

So here’s a picture of me in the background and him going face-to-face with one of the underwater living creatures.

Right after getting back from diving, we went back in the boat for an ocean safari. The sea was rough, the sky overcast and all odds again us but we ended up seeing four whale sharks and swimming with three of them.

The diving resort is also a research station for whale sharks which haven’t been documented a lot and they do encourage you to swim with the largest known fish species.

A whale shark is a slow-moving and filter-feeding carpet shark with no teeth and therefore cannot bite or chew.

We were told to stay a minimum of 3 meters away from the living monster, mainly because they chose to dive down and escape if you get to close to them.

The first one did that exact thing, it went down but there was another whale shark right next to this one and he stayed with us for almost half an hour feeding on the surface.

It was an experience like no other I am going to write about in a separate post.

The next day, another day for scuba diving.

And again, I'm using my husband's footage. It's a screenshot from the video and I apologize for the quality but I loved this moment as he captured me together with a school of yellow fish.

Talking about yellow. I know they might not be special but I love starfish. We’ve seen them in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors. Red, green and blue and David did spot a smaller yellow one too with which one he surprised me when I scrolled through the footage later on.

What a great surprise!

The next day, the winds were too strong and the ocean too rough to go diving as we're facing the incoming weather being pushed from Cyclone Freddy out on the Indian Ocean.

I took a picture for you from our camp. I know it's not as dreamy as the previous one but there are no campsites right on the beach in Tofo. This one's in the sand but very cheap which is ideal for us as we plan to stay longer.

Despite the stormy conditions, I did head down to the beach and captured this Strandloopertje. I love watching them feed right next to the water always running away as fast as their tiny feet allow as soon as a wave arrives.

I enjoyed this shot a lot as it captured the blurry mirrored reflection of the small bird in the wet sand.

And while everyone is waiting for the cyclone to come, there was this very weird, calm day in between. Tuesday. We took the chance and got one more dive in.

David took off the red filter thinking we didn’t go deep enough but he clearly should have left it on. As you go diving, the colors change and the first color to disappear is red, which is why we use a red filter on our GoPro to capture the colors in real life.

And while I did not capture the creature below, I was the one spotting this stingray and was overly excited about it. Usually, I’m the one others point out the marine life but on this dive, I did spot two stingrays and 3 octopuses. Very exciting.

And looking at the picture below, I’m going to write up an article on camouflage masters below the water surface. I hope you’re in for some find-me-if-you-can games.

Now diving is officially off the charts. At least for as long as the cyclone is due to arrive.

however, the afternoon was rainy and we decided to go for a long walk when we were surprised to see the ocean packed with surfers. We counted 20 locals at one point in the water and had a blast watching them catch waves.

Cyclone Freddy is due to hit on Friday at 2 am. Stay tuned for if we stayed dry.

P.S.: We did take down our camp and moved into a chalet.

This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.

Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian / Shell / Ivy / Lisa / Lynne

And these are the previous weekly photo essays:

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