23 September 2011
Woke up to the sounds of the ocean outside our tent. Yep, I
said tent. We were sleeping in a 5 star tent with two little bitty ceiling fans
to circulate air. Stumbled out of bed and looked out at the Indian Ocean. Looks
like it is going to be another grey day. But, I’m okay with that.
After we showered and headed to breakfast, we were still
tired from our escapades the night before and decided to go back to bed. I’m
liking “relaxing with Liam.” Means we might actually catch up on all the sleep
we have missed over the past few months.
Woke up just in time for lunch. Yummy. The food here is so
delicious. I could spend all day in the dining area or pool side café.
Decided to take a double kayak out around all of the
mangroves during high tide. Mangroves have a root system that needs saltwater
for survival. Additionally, it’s a type of wood used for dhow boats, furniture,
canoes, etc in this area. We have fallen in love with mangrove wood and will
hopefully have a few pieces before we leave Tanzania.
So, we get the boat off of the rack and walk down to the
water with it. I get in the front of the boat, and Liam pushes it out and tries
to get in. Well, guess what. This particular kayak takes on water like nothing
we’ve ever seen before. I think we were sitting in at least six inches of water.
So, we decide that maybe getting in the kayak with waves beating against us
wasn’t a good idea and we should try a different technique. So, we flip over
the boat, empty all the water out and try again. This time, we are very careful
and try really hard not to accumulate excess water in the boat. Well, no such
luck. We are still sitting in 6 inches of water. But, the boat doesn’t appear to be trying to
flip. We bail out a little of the water and away we go.
We paddled around the point of the peninsula and broke
through the chop to beautiful flat water. We paddled in and around the mangrove
trees.
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| Mangrove roots during high tide. |
There were a bunch of dhow canoes anchored in this area as
well. Apparently, this is a man only beach. Oops. I wish someone would have
given me the message. There were about 6 boys playing in the water, bare
bottomed. They started to chase us and were screaming mzungu. It was pretty
cute.
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| Dhow canoe |
Make it back to the lodge and try to float the kayak into
the beach with the waves. Well the tide was rolling out and the waves were
being uncooperative. Finally, we both jumped out, grabbed all our stuff, and
carried the kayak the rest of the way to the beach. Put it up and headed back
to our banda to get cleaned and relax before dinner since the sunset cruise was
canceled due to strong winds.
As we were relaxing in the pool, all of a sudden I looked up
to see a monkey on our deck outside our bedroom. Then, there was another. And
another. Then, a few mommas with the babies. And another blue-balled male. Must
be breeding season! Now, I understand the need for the padlocks. Of course,
ours wasn’t locked. However, the monkeys were too busy watching us take their
pictures. The general manager of the
lodge told us that one day a woman was doing yoga and the monkeys began to
follow her poses. That made me giggle. Even monkeys like yoga!
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| Another monkey... |
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| A momma and her baby... |
After all of the monkeys went back into the trees, we were
able to get into our banda and take showers and clean all of our gear!
Made our way down to the bar and while we were waiting on
dinner, we learned how to play bao. It is also called mancala. Basically it is
a game that is played with 32 holes and whatever “token” pieces you can find to
play with. It’s a counting game. In a very short amount of time, we caught on and
fell in love. Now, we need a board at home.
Ate another delicious meal and then headed to bed. Tomorrow
we are going snorkeling at Misali Island. Apparently, it is rumored to be an
island where Captain Cook hide some of his treasure.
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