Is it a whale, is it a shark?

On December 23rd, we were not yet thoroughly worn out, though the girls had been partying every available minute. We signed up for an Ocean Safari with #Peri Peri, daughter's dream, but the rest of us weren't complaining ;-)

At the last minute Peri Peri calls the hotel to saw they were canceling for the day, but if we could make it #Liquid Adventures was going out in 15 minutes. Luckily, Tofo is a very small place and lost though we got, we arrived in time.

We had thought we were signing up for diving, but not quite. Just as well, with no diving experience, I think we would have had less fun anyway>

So ocean safari it was. They shove all your stuff in a locker on the boat, no pics, sorry. The boat is on the shore. I had been watching them go in and out from shore in spare moments, and thought this might be an adventure. It sure is. With the waves crashing towards shore, everyone lines up on either side and start to walk the boat into the surf. When you are already impossibly deep, they yell "Ladies up" and indeed, you are supposed to haul yourself up over the side while the boat continues to pitch and bounce.

They tell you there are no promise on seeing the whale shark, but we found one quite quickly. Everyone over the side! Daughter was in just the right spot and dropped in right in front of the beast the first time out. I got to see it too, so not complaining.

Went in 2 more times, skipping the process when we passed a hammerhead shark, and got to swim with 3 different whale sharks. The challenges are 1) getting back in the boat, even with the help of the guide and 2) their snorkels suck. Stopped trying to use it quickly.

by the 3rd time in, many of the passengers did not go in, we were pretty tried. And that was the best one as the Whale shark passed right underneath our boat.

Coming in is as much fun as going out. They have you brace for impact as the boat speeds through the surf for the shore. but in our case, we ran out of gas part way in! I start contingency planning for when we are pitched into the sea, but the pilot knew how to stabalise us while the guide changed tanks and off we went.

That was pretty much enough for one day, with sunburns all around. We move to #Casa barry for the night, having negotiated to a relatively reasonable price, but mostly I didn't want to spend yet another night in a room with no windows and no breeze.

The title is because we were a bit confused. And that's Ok. My daughter would not have gone in if she thought it was a shark, her friend would not have if she had known it was a whale. Confusion worked for all of us.

The 24th, Christmas eve was the long ride back to Maputo and got a room upstairs at The Arabia boutique hotel.