Our first “date” wasnt officially a date, but we were meeting up to talk about planning a vacation together. When I posted on social media asking who wanted to go dive with whale sharks with me, Moo was one of the first to respond (and I believed she would actually go too, because I was jealous of all the places she had traveled to on her own). We decided to go to one of the best places in the world to see whale sharks year round, Praia De Tofo, Mozambique!
We decided to take the trip in about 4 months, and since we were going that far we wanted to try to fit in as much as possible. This led us to book a stop in Zimbabwe to visit the widest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls. The waterfalls are on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. We stayed on the Zambia side of the falls at Victoria Falls Backpackers, and loved it!! One day we crossed into the Zimbabwe side and were able to swim in the Devils Pool, right up to the edge of the 300+ ft waterfall, the next day we did a day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana, and the final day we bungee jumped across the gorge that causes this waterfall, then did an all day white water rafting trip down the Zambezi river.
After Victoria Falls we flew to Maputo, Mozambique (with a long enough layover in Johannesburg to go out and grab a drink). We stayed the night then took an 6-8 hour bus ride to Praia De Tofo, and checked into our “Mick Jagger” Suite at Mozambeat Hostel. All of the rooms are themed after famous musician, and we decided on the Mick Jagger private room because it looked really cool and moderately priced (if I remember right it was about $300 total for 6 nights).
We were able to go out diving for whale sharks a few different days, but they were being shy and we didnt get to see them. We saw other fish and pods of dolphins and still had a great time. Since we were missing Thanksgiving back home with our families, we decided we would treat ourselves. When we realized is was only $6-8 for 2-3 lobster tails and fries, we decided to try them at all the different little restaurants and bars we could find. It was too hard to pick the best one.
The first leg of our flights home was on my birthday, and we got delayed 4 hours in Maputo airport in Mozambique (MPM). This was an issue because we only had a 2 hour layover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For most people flight delays can put them in a bad mood, but Moo and I just took it in stride (with a little help from some delicious Amarula). When we landed in Addis Ababa most of the people were told they were delayed until the next morning, but we were lucky enough to get rerouted through London later that night.
Route there: Los Angeles (LAX) – Washington DC (IAD) – Addis Ababa (ADD) – Victoria Falls (VFA) – Johannesburg (JNB) – Maputo (MPM)
Route home: Maputo (MPM) – Addis Ababa (ADD) – London (LHR) – Washington DC (IAD) – Los Angeles (LAX)
