Puff Adder

You know, I am doing this for a living.  No kidding. 

So I'm up at 6:30 am, have a nice omelette, then go flying.  I've got the new guy on base, a very fine Italian fellow who has never flown offshore before, sitting beside me as I indoctrinate him to the world of International offshore oil exploration.  He's got tons of African experience, so the conversations are entertaining to say the least.  Then back to our hotel for a quick avocado and prawn lunch, then off to the beach for some snorkelling and yet more pictures of clown fish.  One brazen Clarke Clown, in his deep maroon colouring, is a tad put off by my presence, so he bravely charges at the pale skinned mazungu standing over his claimed anemone, camera in hand.  I'm impressed with his bravado, but as he leaves the safety of his anemone, another predator, I think a Stripedfin Ronquil, bursts out of somewhere and clamps onto the clownfish!  Now I'm torn between the thought that the clownfish's demise is my fault as I'm the reason he's left the safety of his anemone, and capturing some pretty awesome National Geographic photos, but luckily somehow the clownfish makes it back to his anemone, and the ronquil gives up and heads off.  I didn't get any shots.

Then I go mountain biking.  It seems the cashew factory gets out at sixteen hundred, as we thread our way through hundreds of local gals in brightly coloured kangas headed home.  We smile and get a slight Tour de France vibe as the girls cheer us on happily and run alongside our bikes, yelling Swahili greetings and flashing friendly smiles.  It warms my heart.  As we head deeper into the rural hills, we pass fields of fire as farmer's burn for future crops.  I guess the snakes don't much appreciate the burning fields, and we pass a four foot long Puff Adder crossing the road, doing his best to escape.  It's thee most deadliest snake in all of Africa.  I don't get any photos but it's impressive.

Eventually we find ourselves back at the Laso View Hotel in Mtwara, legs burning but happy, having passed through numerous small villages and responding to countless Swahili greetings.

It really is a hard life.....