All are well, and have had a magnificent time in South Africa and Mozambique. Mozambique was incredible and not the way you may picture it - we lived in a Colonial style hotel, with great diving and an amazing flying dog (when the Boat stopped too fast) - fantastic time and great drive through South Africa there and back. We stopped the night in Tenbe Game Reserve and saw lions, elephants, rhino, orik, warthog, mongoose, giraffes etc etc etc and all up close and personal and spent a night in a tent which was fantastic - the meal was like an officers mess under under canvas - truly spectacular service and great people. We then hit Aliwal and Protea and I do not know what to say - dive one was a large handful of raggie tooth sharks which make the palau and tropical sharks look like clown fish, oh and a school of hammerheads came by as well, oh yes and a zambeze (bull) shark. In Protea on one dive was - huge zambeze, 30 plus raggies, another zambeze and a tiger shark on the safety stop - topped off with 2 humpback whales trying to tip the boat over with their tails. South Africa is hard diving, but the results are tremendous - it is like the UK, with heavier surf, way more interesting boat rides and animals with enormous numbers of teeth that are actually reasonably cute and cuddly.
We topped off the Durban area with Richard leaping off a gorge with an elastic band around his waste and was followed by Glen and John - some great photos to be seen !!
The team are in Gansbaii now looking for Great Whites (not a lot of looking is required), and we know how far south we are by the weather - rain, cloud, and freezing - not surprising that the antarctic is not too far away - cant quite believe this is Africa especially with the way Cape Town is - a great city. The guys are due up to Cape Town on Friday night and Saturday morning I believe they have a Huey helicopter flight around the Cape of Good Hope booked !!!
All are in good spirits but the spectre of the end of the trip has appeared and people are reading their air tickets a little more frequently now. All will be very happy to be reunited with families I am sure, but be gentle as I am starting into the anticlimax zone and I am sure they will too.
Well thats me signing off, and I hope the occasional posting has been useful and of interest. A final big big thank you to the great providers - Dive South in South Africa care of Reon and Karen, Dive Tutukaka with Jeronne in New Zealand, Sams Tours in Palau - these are the best of the best ..... a big big big thank you to Monty personally for allowing and inviting me onto this trip - mate, I had the easiest job in the world as the group are self sufficient and great divers, but I thank you from the depths of my bottom :-), and finally finally a huge thank you to the team who have made the last few months so memorable, easy, funny, interesting and overwhelming. We didnt hit all our targets but we had a lot of fun and saw more than most divers will in a lifetime as well as travelled to places others dream of... thank you.

And John ...... the turntable story is safe with me :-)

ed
ed@poseidondivers.com