Ponta was our last region, in a sense. We still had not received the permit for Issimangaliso, and were running out of days to get the boat through some really bad costal weather and down to Cape Town. We would have to leave the South African portion of the sample for later, so a false end in a way, but after what we had just come through over the past five months it was the best thing to an end we could get.

Two days, 13 dives, and home literally around the corner. 

Inhambane was a sweet relief, as we had fairly calm, blue water from top to bottom, even though the two reef dives we sampled we nothing really to write home about. It was another region down, and for the first time since we had turned around there was a definite air about the boat that a milestone had been reached. We were on our way to making this an actual success, something we had thought on many instances would be out of our reach.

We said goodbye to Caine in Vilanculos, and did a refuel of boat and got in a few days of much needed land time. But the weather was also closing in on us, and not in a gentle “Out of Africa” kind of way either. We miss timed a trip out to have a meal on land, and ended up having to hide under the port’s very sparse roofing while a electrical storm raged around us, lighting up the entire night. The electricity in the air was so strong that pieces of Tan and Linda’s hair was actually standing up on end. We had to sit the storm out for a day, and then hope for a window to get into Bazzaruto and try and dive.

From this point down is where we have begun to play catch up. Coming up the coast heading north we had faced bad weather and conditions that were un-divable and then there was all that drama with the last boat that forced us to bypass a lot more than we would have liked. Now three months later, heading south, we needed to complete all the dives we had moved past.