Tofo

I have been cursing, sweating and enduring agony for the last 12 hours as I finally arrive in Tofo. Mozambique isn’t exactly the most developed of countries and the local busses are a torture. It’s a cramped and hot 12 hour ride and I had to endure full blast African pop music for most of it. In the end I chose to put in my earplugs.

But Tofo! Finally! It’s a centre of tranquillity after Maputo. Even without cell phones I don’t have to go through the hassle of finding my long-time friend Joonas. He’s right there waiting for me as I arrive. We exchange hugs and he suggests a Pizza. Can’t refuse that after eating wheat buns for the whole journey. We walk the sandy roads a mere 200 meters to the pizzeria and get some beers. It’s good to be here.

Joonas at Tofo beach

Tofo is a small village on the east coast of Mozambique. Famous for diving and especially the marine mega fauna. Whale sharks and manta rays. My friend Joonas Kinni found it by chance when googling diving in Africa. He’s been here since August 2015 doing his dive master course and writing he’s theses regarding the scuba diving industry in Tofo. A bubble of serenity, Tofo is a beach bums paradise with great surfing, excellent diving and friendly people. Joonas basically knows everyone and I get introduced to a couple of dozen people on the first day. It’s a weird feeling walking in the local grocery store and being greeted by your name. “Aah, Johannes! Dom dia! Tudo bem?” My neurons don’t fire as fast as I would like and I end up grinning stupidly and muttering something weird to the man I don’t remember meeting.

The avocados were huge

After Pizza we head to the Crib. My friend is living in the coolest house in Tofo. A complex structure of wooden beams support the house on a hill side. A balcony the width of the whole house and a view to the Indian ocean and I can’t refuse to crawl up to snooze in my hammock to see the sun rise on the first morning. The mornings and evenings are also the only time when sweating like a pig can be avoided.

Morning dozing on Joonas' balcony

We spend most of our time in Tofo doing random extempore stuff with people and getting ready for a gig Joonas has fixed for us. The local Finnish owned restaurant Happi is having a grand opening and we get to show off our musical skills. We get accompanied by Kalle Taivainen who’s moved here with his family to take care of the restaurant. During our jamming sessions we find out that he’s actually recorded the whistling for a legendary song “Läski mulkku” by Samae Koskinen. Obviously this has to be on our set list. Another finnish couple also owns the dive shop that the restaurant’s in. This is where Joonas did his dive masters and also a great chance to check the diving in Tofo.

Being a certified open water diver I choose to do an adventure deep dive on a site called Giants Castle. It’s apparently offers a chance for spotting the famous manta rays. The largest of the species with a maximum fin span of a whopping seven meters!

I sit on the round rubber side of the boat as our instructor shouts the drop in. “Three, two, one GO!” All eight divers, including me, fall in for the backward entry. After getting reoriented from the back flip I empty my BCD from air and start sinking to the depths. A feeling of weird claustrophobia hits me as I turn my body to swim to the bottom. It’s not there! All I see is endless blue space! Luckily there’s a descent rope going down and I choose to ignore my brains survival warnings. Rationalizing the situation I drop down deeper into the abyss. Slowly the reef below me starts materializing. Equalizing pressure every meter to avoid my ear drums from popping I swim down to meet the others and also Joonas my dive buddy. 28 meters down we start calibrating our depth meters but suddenly a sharp metallic rattle breaks our number hunt. That’s the sound of our instructor hitting a metal rod to her scuba tank. It means she’s seen something significant.

I turn around in the blue. A dark shape is swimming past about 20 meters from us. I immediately think of a hat, but suddenly my perception is altered as the shape majestically turns and tilts it massive body to the side. It’s a manta ray! I can make out it’s white under side with gills and a pointed tail before it swims off. I turn to find my dive buddy as another rattle vibrates through the water. Now there’s two manta rays! They swim in opposite directions past each other like enormous eagles in slow motion. The other one makes a u-turn and comes directly at me. I decide to leave the bottom on my back side as I cruise under the huge being facing upwards. I feel unreal as the manta rays body aligns right over me and I can glance the real size of this magnificent creature. Slowly flapping its wings up and down it calmly swims over me and leaves me baffled by the encounter. Before continuing our dive we even see a fourth one swimming past us a bit further away. The manta’s come here for the equivalent of a shower. The reef Is spotted with so called cleaning stations where specialised fish species eat algae and parasites off the mantas bodies while they hover close to the bottom. Seems alien to the ignorant and a spectacular case of symbiosis indeed.

The Diving team

Our gig at the restaurant was a huge success and the self-made Babofone was vastly admired. On the day after we get to meet Tofos own Crocodile Dundee. His name is Darren and he’s also a good friend of Joonas. Apparently he’s very interested in snakes and orchids. The story tells that when he was sixteen years old, he had 40 snakes in his house. Then he figured it’s not exactly the smartest set up. He released them all back to nature. Now we walk into his office at Casa Barry’s Lodge. Joonas has told me that he has a surprise for us. The office is packed with people and on the desk lays a plastic box that everyone is staring at. Darren is next to the box talking inaudibly. Then something in the box lunges for his hand! It’s a snake and not any snake. It’s a Boomslang. The deadliest of Africa’s many poisonous snakes. Darren tells us that, without anti venom, a bite could kill you in 24 hours. Symptoms include… He’s caught the snake from the village. It was crossing the road and Darren went to catch it. At first he didn’t realise it’s a boomslang, but when he did, he was in a bit of a shock. It’s too dangerous to catch a boomslang and now he wants to go release it with us. All 20 people in the office want to come along.

Darren going crazy about the Boomslang

We drive in a four by four convoy on the bumpy sand roads of back country Mozambique. Passing palm trees, clay huts and playing children with a boomslang in the trunk. Darren finds a small cashew nut tree and carries the box next to it. “So you should all stand there about 10 meters from the tree. Probably it will stay in the tree but if it comes straight down and right at you, YOU SHOULD STAY ABSOLUTELY STILL! And don’t take it personally if you end up dying of snake bite” A snakes vision is based on detecting movement so the first part is not a joke. I wasn’t sure of the second. Darren removes the tape that’s sealing the box and places it in the tree. Inside the box the boomslang is going wild. Thrashing around and making attacks at Darrens hands, it doesn’t seem too happy . With long stick he the prods the box open. 

Suddenly the snakes energy changes. It slowly and carefully slides down from the box and onto a branch. It senses the freedom and slithers up to the highest point. Tongue licking the air, it observes the surroundings like a an emerald green sentinel. We snap a few photos of the snakes freedom and leave to let both parties recover from the stressful situation. We spend the rest of the day chilling on a beach and cliff jumping in praia de Rocha. Even get to make a short dodgy climb on crumbling sandstone!

The Boomslang tasting freedom

A weird epidemic of odd abscesses is plaguing Tofo. Joonas is having his third one and many of his friends also have them. Between fingers, on arms and butts and even one on the danglings is reported to me. As a medical student I get excited about collecting pus and tissue samples but that might get me in trouble in the customs. A German friend has a bad one between his index and middle finger and I end up checking and cleaning it every day. Luckily, taking care of basics hasn’t become boring yet. I feel happy as it is showing signs of healing on the day we are leaving.

Cleaning the abscess on Joonas's hand

We were hoping to catch a ride to Maputo with someone leaving Tofo, but didn’t succees in acquiring one. So we wake up at three in the morning, pack our stuff and head out to catch the 10 hour bus ride to Maputo. Our journey continues towards South Africa and the world famous climbing spot in Waterval Boven. It’s great to be on the road again. So long paradise and the Indian ocean! I think I’ll have to return for the whale sharks some day.