It’s wonderful to wake up to the sight of the sea splashing by outside a cabin window. National Geographic Orion continued making her way along the coast of Mozambique this morning, as we relaxed out on the deck over omelets and toast. As our goal for these next few days is to enjoy ocean activities and the extraordinary life that these seas have to offer, we went straight from breakfast to a talk by National Geographic Emerging Explorer Andrea Marshall, who has studied the marine wildlife in this area for the past fifteen years. Andrea’s moving talk focused on two charismatic species, manta rays and whale sharks, that are the focus of her Marine Megafauna Foundation. This stretch of coastline, marked by sandy dunes, is the premier site in Africa for these graceful animals, though they are both at risk due to fishing practices and more general maltreatment when they are misunderstood as a threat. We all left the talk with a strong sense of the importance of preserving their habitat and protecting these species.
We had a second excellent talk by Eric Benjaminson, cultural specialist, on the very interesting topic of why certain African countries struggle to develop economically. Mozambique provides an interesting illustration. Maputo has long been a cosmopolitan city—trade has been vibrant here for many centuries, and since Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese explorer, first reached this part of the world in 1498, there has been much interaction with Europe. And yet Mozambique has had a difficult time with economic development. This is no doubt in part due to the country’s late achievement of independence in 1975 and subsequent civil war, which lasted for nearly two decades. But there are hopeful signs. In fact, as we sailed into Maputo yesterday, Eric commented on the impressive development of the city and its infrastructural achievements, since he first came to Mozambique more than a decade ago.
In the afternoon, we began our ocean expeditions. The scuba divers were able to get into the water for the first dive of the voyage. Their check-out dive involved making sure everyone was properly weighted for buoyancy, and general sorting out of gear. Once they had taken care of important dive safety steps, they even got in some reef exploration. Meanwhile, the rest of our intrepid guests boarded Zodiacs, many of them with snorkel bags packed, and headed out to search for whale sharks. As these are wild creatures, sightings are at the animals’ pleasure, not ours, and the sea state was a bit too full of swell for good visibility. However, we were all in expedition mode, and found a lot to enjoy in our cruise. The thrill of driving along the waves in fast Zodiacs, with the stunning scenery of Mozambique dunes all around, certainly gave us a memorable afternoon. We look forward to continuing our search for local wildlife tomorrow, and enjoying all that this very special part of the world has to offer.
