In contrast to most activities covered in this blog, the next leg of our travels would take us north. Tales of rough roads, mileage restrictions on our rental, and the early encounter with the local police deterred us from bringing our rental north. Instead we traversed via African Bus, aka a thirteen seat van stuffed with anywhere from 13 to 20 people at a time. It was a cramped and uncomfortable way to spend 10 hours, but each time the van was stopped by a police checkpoint, we closed our eyes and exhaled instead of frantically shuffling through our passports and rental documents in preparation of a bribe.
Furthermore, the guava juice I was served overlooking the beach the next morning proved worth the squeeze into the African Bus. Our destination was Tofo, a small beach town known to be teeming with tourists during the high season and krill that sustained a healthy whale population year round. Again, it appeared that we were lucky to be traveling during the off season.
Our first full day in Tofo was a Sunday. Bodds and Kulsum really wanted to attend a local church service. I had heard that church services in Tanzania lasted the better part of the day, so I opted to divide and conquer with a different set of activities. I was going to find a surf board and later go on a hike.
The church reviews that filtered back to me were very interesting. The event lasted two and half hours. The service was conducted in a tribal language but not an entirely local one. The abundantly friendly congregation sent translators over to help Bodds and Kulsum understand the proceedings. The service was heavily dependant on song and dance. Offering was taken for each visiting minister as well as for the local church. Things culminated in frantic members of the energized congregation talking in tongues and a woman writhing on the floor until exorcized.
My day included more exercise than exorcism. The welcoming local population of Tofo is well characterized through the church congregation that met Bodds and Kulsum with open arms. The expat community's attitude is best represented by my attempts to find a surf board. I had heard that a place a few blocks down rented surf boards, but I arrived to an empty house. As I was about to try a different spot, the owner of the diving school next door poked his head out and yelled that the owner wasn't around today, but the boards were out back. Just keep track of my hours of use and give the owner a couple bucks if I should happen to see him. Very laid back, man. The boarding itself went well enough. I struggled at first to regain my footing, but eventually I found it and finished the day with a consecutive pair of standing runs.
The hike proved a little more out of the ordinary as I walked 5 miles or so up the coastline over wide stretches of cliff-like coral fields that replaced the once sandy beaches. The hike was half climbing and scrambling over grippy coral inhabited by crabs of all sizes. Once or twice a chasm in the coral required me to perform some creative climbs and long jumps. Despite the sharp coral below, I hopped the gaps until I returned to stretches of untouched beach.
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