THIEVES, SNORKEL EARS AND SAND DUNES
- 10/8/2010 <--Prev : Next-->
For our Pearl Wedding Anniversary, HeeHoo decided not to buy me a pearl but instead to take me pearl diving !! A wonderfully romantic notion, except that LAM Air Mozambique got involved ..
Now Indigo bay on Bazarutto Island is one of the most idyllic places on any coast anywhere in the world and we had a glorious holiday, except that for the first three days, he only had the clothes he travelled in from Joburg and so did I.
Somehow the boots one wore from a cold and rainy Joburg did not look too good on the fabulously sunny beach, and one just cannot dive for pearls in one's city slicker trousers !!
It was not easy for HeeHoo either, nothing that a pair of scissors would not fix, and with some clever cutting and shredding, hey ho, from his elegant chinos, a pair of shorts emerged !!
He resisted the temptation to carve a pair of rafters out of his dapper Joburg shoes however !! The staff at Indigo Bay were so apologetic and caring, but knowing Air Mozambique as they did, the prognosis on our luggage was not good, so a pretty turquoise bathing suit, the exact colour of the sea, was found for me, and HeeHoo ate swam and dined al fresco in his one and only shirt and pair of shorts, which the attentive staff tumble dryed every evening after his swim and before he wore them again at dinner.....
Indigo Bay is fabulous but very far off the beaten track and replacing one's wardrobe was out of the question, there are no shops within many nautical miles. The resort gift shop produced a tiny pair of children's sandals for me which macerated my toes very nicely, and with the aid of a kikoi, and an island cotton shirt, one could ring the changes adequately.
Possibly not the best three days of our lives clothes-wise, especially as HeeHoo was now convinced that this minimalistic way, was obviously the only way to travel in future, and he would be limiting me to hand luggage only.
Of course when our luggage did arrive four days into our five day holiday, there was much jubilation amongst the hotel staff, but sadly it had been so badly pilfered there was not much left of it !! Sticky fingers had purloined as much as they good in O.R. Tambo, Inhambane and Vilanculos.
All of our shoes had gone, all of HeeHoo's shirts and shorts, my underwear and my favourite beach dresses as well as my brand new bathing suit and its cleverly matching lime green sarong. No tee shirts, no shorts, no cool cotton trousers were anywhere to be found ...
Every cosmetic was gone and even our little medicine bag with special ear drops for "snorkel ear" and vitamin A for the sun !!
Now that new swim suit was a grave loss. I had purchased it only last week in a trendy Joburg boutique and it had an history. I am sure it was designed by an aeronautical engineer out of some superfast elastane they probably used in space missions. It had features that no other bathing suit could possibly have had (if the price had anything to do with it) with specially designed nips, tucks and grasps that pulled one's flab into elegant if not regal proportions.... even if I have to say so myself.
And the pretty speedo that I was loaned had none of the above. Speedos are worn by those slender beautiful young people whom I dislike intensely. The nike sign was stretched and flattened about four metres across my chest, I looked like I had been bandaged like a mummy, and all the flab splattered into submission by the spandex, popped out behind my back and just above my generous hips !!
Mind you it made excellent ballast and buoyancy for snorkeling ..... so it had its place in the big picture .
All in all, in spite of our limited apparel, we had a fabulous time. We had a barbecue on Paradise Island, once known as the very best honeymoon destination for Zimbabweans in the sixties, and we had quite the best day of snorkeling one could possibly wish for. Sadly no pearls were located though ....
We had dolphins racing our boat and frolicking playfully around us for a blissful hour, and we ate prawns and crayfish and fresh seared tuna, all day and half of the night.
Horse riding on the beach and the sand dunes was fabulous and HeeHoo thoroughly enjoyed the dune boarding. Sadly its back home soon, where I shall prepare to take on the slothful might of Air Mozambique and it's thieving ways.
