Oh, the Places We'll Go

I’m not sure I have enough stories to fill a post about our time in the amazingly peaceful Tofo Beach (but I’ve definitely got enough pictures to make you jealous of our time there!). That’s not to say we didn’t have a great time, we had a fabulous time – what I mean is that we didn’t do a whole lot. We’d sleep until our little beach bungalow got too warm and then we’d throw on our swimsuits and go sit overlooking the beach. We would read, go for walks, talk to fun people staying at the hostel, wander into to town, go swimming, and watch the sun go down. We’d then clean up for dinner, gather a group together and check out one of the handful of eating establishments within walking distance.

Tofo Beach

Sunset

Highlights and memories of the week include:

• Top-notch SCUBA diving – we hadn’t been since May 2008 so we were long overdue for a dive. The quantity and variety of fish and critters was fantastic and the coral reefs were no more than a 10 minute boat ride from shore.
• Aggressive salesmen in the form of 8 to 12-year old boys trying to sell you their hand-made beaded bracelets. I bought about 8 of them!
• Caprinhas – Think crab cakes but served in the shell of a crab! Cheap, beautifully presented and irresistably good.
• Staying awake for the sunrise – It’s been awhile since either of us had pulled an all-nighter but the night was perfect and our company was entertaining.
• Ted identified a brush fire that was scarily close to our very flammable reed bungalow, and the staff was so grateful that they gave him free drinks all night long.
• Swimming in the ocean every day! We’ve seen a lot of snow and climbed a lot of mountains on our trip, but we were still way behind in the ocean department. The current was VERY strong but waves were a lot of fun.

Persuasive Bracelet Vendors

Our beach bungalow - made out of reeds!

Party on the beach!

Sunrise after the party

And that’s about it. We did some variation of the above activities every day and we loved it! Moz, as it is affectionately called, was very good to us. I see why South Africans have been keeping it a secret!

Tofo Beach, Mozambique

Tofo Beach

Swaziland is a teeny, tiny little country in Southern Africa that most people have never heard of – look on a map and you’ll see that it is nearly encompassed by South Africa. They have a much-loved King (with many wives), their own currency, and a lot of national pride. We didn’t get to experience much of what Swaziland has to offer but we did spend a night there and enjoyed the beautiful green hilly scenery from the car on our shortcut through the country to get from the Kruger Park area to South Africa’s Elephant Coast.

Swaziland's green rolling hills

Swaziland from the car

Spanning the northeastern seaboard, the Elephant Coast is a popular vacation destination for JoBurg folks looking to escape the big city. St. Lucia is the main hub around these parts and thanks to its location on the Indian Ocean (rather than the Atlantic), the water temperature is much more inviting for swimming than we’d experienced at the other beaches in South Africa.

Elephant Coast

Elephant Coast

One of our favorite days with Martens was a bush-to-beach-to bush experience. At the iSimangaliso Wetland National Park, you have the opportunity to self-drive your car through an incredibly beautiful and world-renowned wetland landscape, where you see everything from kudu, to zebra, to rhino, to hippos – only to end up on an amazing strip of white sand beach where you can swim, surf, and snorkel. We picnicked along the beach and then took turns swimming in the beautiful blue water and snorkeling along the small reef near shore. When we’d had enough sunshine for the day, we piled back in the car to look for more animals as we headed towards town.

Kudu

Picnic on the beach

Cape Vidal

Bush to Beach to Bush

I can’t imagine there are too many places in the world where you can see a rhino in the morning, eat lunch with monkeys in the trees overlooking the beach, swim with fish, and then spot dozens of zebra and warthogs on your way home. What a day!

Family photo