Our Dolphin Safari, by Ben (June 2nd, Ponto do Ouro, Mozambique)

Only four days ago, while the Adams family (except for Xander) went diving, we had our own adventure. We had organised to go on a dolphin safari. At about nine o’clock, we went to the dolphin office. After about five minutes later, a lady came to tell us about the safaris. The dolphins she said we were most likely to see were Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and the In-Shore Bottle-nosed dolphins. She also said we might see a Whale-Shark. That seemed almost impossible!

We took a Rubber Duck out to sea. It was a one hundred and eighty horse-powered boat with two engines. It was fun going over the waves! After twenty minutes, about fifteen km out, we saw a fin. Then the skipper Mitchell told us what it was...a whale shark! We saw a massive black shadow under the water. Mitchell told us to put our fins and goggles on and jump in the water. It was seven meters long, but completely harmless. These whales can get up to eighteen meters long. After that, we travelled about five kilometres and then we stopped and went snorkelling. Not everyone got in the water. I’m glad I did though, because we saw a turtle.

On the way back, another man that was with us, spotted some dolphins. We were so excited, but unfortunately they were sleeping so we couldn’t swim with them. We carried on. A bit after that, we saw a massive pod of dolphins. There were about forty of them. Then Mitchell said, “Hey look, there’s Rob!” Rob was one of the dolphins. They could tell who he was, because he has white markings on his left side. But yet again, unfortunately, they were sleeping, it was so annoying! Then a bit later on, we saw another black shadow in the water. It was the same whale shark as before, but this time, there was another one with it. We got in the water and swam with the bigger one.

When we got back on the boat and started going back, Mitchell told us to hold on. We picked up speed, caught a wave and crashed onto the beach! It was so fun! We said thank you. One of the best things that I have done is that.

 

 

My 7^th Birthday, by Little Max

Three days ago I had my 7^th birthday on the edge of Africa. I got a remote-controlled Batmobile and two really cool lego seta, a wobble-board and a soldier set. We woke up in Cape Agullhas . It was the last time we camped together as Jangano team.  Now we are in Cape Town and we are staying with Benjamin.

Feelings by Max A

Our last night as Jangano 2OO9 was spent camping at the very bottom of
the continent, at Cape Agulhas. Here a vote was held comprising of ten
questions about the trip.

1. Favourite campsite? Dune palm camp
in the Western desert.
2. Least favourite campsite? Bee camp in
Western Tanzania.
3. Favourite non-campsite? Staying with the
Phillips in Cairo.
4. Favourite meal? Coshery, a
mixture of rice and noodles made by the three lighties. Guess who the
winning votes came from?
5. Least favourite meal? Raw chicken in
Quelimane, Mozambique.
6. Coolest thing we did? Swimming with
the whale shark in Mozambique.
7. Most enjoyable day? Find the LRDG
vehicle in the middle of the desert.
8. Favourite landscape? No winner but
Ethiopian highlands, Rwenzori mountains and the Great Sand Sea got two
votes each.
9. Most interesting people that we met? David and Bridget,
fellow travelers who we met up with on the Aswan-Wadi Halfa ferry.
1O. Favourite beach? Jakobsen's
beach on Lake Tanganyika in Western Tanzania.

Although these were the winning votes they did not show the whole
story. Everybody had different opinions on every question. Other votes
included:

1. Guzman's Pass, Western Desert, Egypt; Namunyak, Northern Kenya
2. Russels Place, Pemba was another but Bee Camp had this category
pretty well wrapped up.
3. Chimpanzee Place in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda and Casa
Heinrich on Ilha do Mozambique.
4. Fried breakfast in Colobus Camp, Uganda and Breakfast in Mike and
Arlene's B&B in Durban.
5. Gus cooked a meal of corned beef in Sudan that had Xander throwing
up. Soggy cornflakes in the NFD got my vote and Jake picked his 'three
legged chicken' in Western Kenya.
6. I loved the White Water Rafting in Jinja, Uganda and the Gorilla
trek also ranked pretty highly. Axe-throwing in Pemba was Little Max's
choice. How out of character. NOT!
7. The desert won outright here. Four votes went to the LRDG day and
two more to the desert transect in Sudan.
8. I love the view of Kariba and the Zambezi escarpment and Marsibit
National Park also got a vote.
9. Ben liked the Mursi tribe and another one was the Australian biker
that Robert and Gus met in Wadi Halfa.
1O. The beach on Lake Kivu in Rwanda and in Pemba took a vote each but
Jakobsen's was a real favourite and got most.

This still doesn't cover everything but most of it. It was extremely
hard to choose with over 17O days on the road to choose from. I think
each section of the trip was given a fair showing except for the
desert sections. Even though we spent less than three weeks altogether
in the desert it pulled almost 4O% of the 'favourite' votes. It is
officially our favourite section of the trip!
Although this is slightly a self-indulgence exercise I hope you find
it interesting.
Max from Gabarone, Botswana.

P.S. The Adams/Harfords are getting home tomorrow. Its going to be our last day.

13 June - Into Cape Town - by Alexander

We've got to Cape Town at last! We are staying at Lucy and Loki's house. Before we got to Cape Town we went to Cape Agulhas the southern most tip of Africa (meest sudlike punt van Afrika, in Afrikaans). We had bacon and eggs and pee'd off the end of Africa.




We had pictures of us and shouted JANGANO!!! We stood one leg on the Indian Ocean side and one leg on the Atlantic side and waved our Zim flags.

And then we drove into Cape Town. We got there at night so we basically had supper and went to bed.

The next day I got up and went downstairs to play with Felix, Lucy and Loki's son. We played with aeroplanes. About an hour later me Daddy and Max went to a shop where we bought some books. I bought a VW camper and caravan in the toy shop. We we to the top of Chapman's Peak and looked for whales but we didn't see any.



Before that we went to see some seals. They are so sweet they are furry and swim really nicely. We got about a meter away from one that barked at us. We went to a restaurant. I got an Appletiser and a sandwich> We got home and for the rest of the day we played with toys. Before supper we went to the beach where we kicked a ball around and then we had fish and chips.

5th June - Ponto D'Oro, Mozambique, by Alexander

On the second day at Ponto d'Oro the Le B's and I went on a dolphin safari. The first thing we saw was a whale shark. The boat driver said that everyone should put on their mask and snorkel and fins. We slipped into the water and swam off to find it. I couldn't see. The shark was camouflaged with the coral. What I saw was that it had white spots and was at least five or six meters long.




It wasn't a very good sighting so we got back on the boat and went to look for dolphins. We saw a turtle but I didn't snorkel with it. I only saw it's shell. After a but we carried on on our dolphin trip. We finally found a pod of three but they were all immature (so can't be swum with - RA) so we went to look for more.

We found another pod of at least forty. We saw a dolphin called Rob, who had white spots from a cookie-cutter shark. They say he is at least twenty years old. The dolphins were sleeping so we couldn't snorkel with them either.

On the way back we found the same whale shark, this time he was easier to see because the sea bed was sandy. His eye was tiny but his head was about one and a half meters wide. I had a lovely time on my ocean safari

NEWSFLASH NEWSFLASH NEWSFLASH

At 10.15 am, on a blustery Thursday morning (11th June 2009), the Zimbabwean flag was hoisted over Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa. In so doing, the Jangano team ended the downward leg of their trip and turned towards Cape Town for the final run in. The end, sadly, is all too nigh! More news shortly.......

Ilha da Mozambique (By Ben)

Sunday 24^th May (a bit late, sorry!)

 

We are on an island in the Indian Ocean called Ilha da Mocambique, meaning Island of Mozambique. We are staying in a friend’s holiday house. The house is really big with three floors and a beautiful view of the sea and the mainland. There is a causeway to get across from the mainland to Ilha. The history about this place is that it used to be the capital city and the country was named after the island.

 

We have been here three days and in that time we have gone to the Governor’s palace, which was amazing and huge. It had a big chapel in it with a huge wooden thing painted with gold paint. It used to belong to monks before it was a palace.

 

Yesterday we went on a dhow to an island called Ilha da Goa. It was the best. It looked like something from a magazine. It was paradise with its soft white sand, turquoise water, really big waves, palm trees and loads of really beautiful shells. There was a lighthouse about one hundred and forty years old and it still worked and there was still a lighthouse keeper.

 

I loved Ilha! I’m definitely going there again one day!

 

Diving by Max A

I missed the chance of diving in the Red Sea but more that made up for
it in southern Mozambique. Two wonderful spots, Inhambane and Ponta do
Ouro. In the former we had two wonderful dives, just the parents and
me, and our Dive Master, Alan.

But my favourite dive was right down south, off Ponta. Again the three
of us jumped in a boat with a few others and buzzed out to Doodles
reef. We kitted up in wetsuits, BCDs, regulators and of course, air
tanks. Then we rolled off the side of the boat and descended. The
water was amazingly clear and warm and I could feel that this was
going to be a good dive. At 18metres we hit the bottom, adjusted
everything and set off on our underwater safari.

I'd never seen such richness in underwater life. Little yellow fusilia
fish hugged the reef in the thousands, trying to avoid the hungry
tuna. Red and white striped lionfish swam in threesomes with all their
spikes upright. A large ray with a white belly and grey top 'flew'
gracefully past, flapping it's 'wings'. A Guitar fish or Sand shark
hid in the sand and didn't move as we swam past. They are quite rare
and very good at looking like the sandy bottom so you don't see them
often.

A fat, yellow and black spotted moray eel with his angular, shaped
face languished on the rocks outside his cave, most of his body and
tail hidden. It's tempting to hold onto the bottom at times like these
to get a better view, but a good reason not to are stonefish. Like the
lionfish they are extremely poisonous and a serious sting can kill you
in under an hour. Stonefish, funnily enough look just like stones,
they don't move and unless you can recognise the shape or spot the
eyes they are impossible see. I very nearly put my hand on one even
though it had already been pointed out to me. Now that would have
ruined the dive.

My two favourites though were the massive potato bass. About the size
of a sofa they dominated the 'horizon' and were like zeppelin
airships. I swam along side the biggest and looked it in the eye. It
tolerated me for a bit but got rid of me with just a shake of his
collosal head.
And the other was a turtle. He was a hawksbill with a sharp beak, a
green smooth shell and brown coordinated flippers. Very relaxed and he
just let us watch him while he chomped on coral and swayed around in
the surge. I love turtles. They are so pre-historic and all of them
look like they've lived for 65 million years since the dinosaurs left
us.

It was the perfect dive and I have no doubt that I'll be back at Ponta
do Ouro very soon.

Update

We left Ilha de Mozambique on the 25th of May and travelled hard for
three days via Quelimane, Gorongosa, over the Zambezi and on to
Pomene. From there we drove to Inhambane where we stayed for two
nights and squeezed some diving in. A night in Maputo and then a bit
more diving in Ponta do Ouro. The non-divers had an adventure of their
own which I'm sure they'll write about soon. Then into South Africa on
the 2nd. Jangano reluctantly hit the shops in Durban and then moved
on.

We are now in Howick. Where? You say. It is just inland from Durban
where we parked up last night. We were aiming for Sani Pass near
Lesotho but unfortunately a bit of plastic on the front of Mahali was
melted by some over-enthusiastic grease. So the wheels are wobbling
all over the place, but hopefully it will be fixed today.
And then onwards to Cape Town!