The Boys in Mozambique

Hugo:

Today I was snorkelling in the Indian Ocean with wild dolphins. One came so close that when I was doing doggy paddle on the surface I had to lift my hands up and do breast stroke. And then it leapt out of the water right next to my arm. It was awesome. The funny thing was the mummy dolphin wasn’t scared of me, it swam round me just looking at me with it’s baby. It looked at me straight in the eye and I looked straight back. And it was so amazing I didn’t know what to so I just stopped swimming. It was still looking at me and then it swam away.
The dolphins made a squeaking noise – it was a beautiful noise, I could feel it in my ears.

We went out to sea in a rubber duck (not a real rubber duck! That’d be funny. It’s what Africans call an inflatable boat). We put on snorkel gear and wet suits. My mum and dad had to help push the boat out off the boat and we sat in the boat saying “Hurry up. Push harder!”

We were on the boat until we saw a strange sight; the dolphins were leaping out of the water into the waves and then we jumped into the water to join them. The first animals we saw were bottle nose dolphins, then humpback dolphins and then we dived with clown fish on a reef. I saw a huge fish as big as my dog Baffin swimming on the bottom of the reef. Thumbs Up. It was a good day.

Ben:

Today we saw 4 pods of dolphins, zero mantra rays, zero whale sharks, zero turtles but a hundred zillion clown fish and one giant fish on the reef. The dolphins were nice but I was hoping to see a whale shark.

The dolphins made a squeaking noise like a door closing – but not that mysterious – just like a eeekeeekeeek. You could hear and feel the sound like someone was tickling you with a piece of grass.

We did quite a few amazing things. It’s not everyday you snorkel with dolphins, swim with clown fish and see a giant fish.

I felt happy when I saw my first dolphin.

We also swam in waves as big as the coconut trees – almost – they were huge.

They lent me a wet suit. Major failure. I put it in on but it was like being in the centre of an elastic band ball. It was too small. I immediately asked how long I had to stay in this giant monkey suit. They said it would loosen if I went into the dive pool, so I went into the dive pool. It did no good. It just made me look like a inflated balloon because all the water had come in the neck. It looked like someone had inflated me and I might float away.
When we came back, the boat had to go super fast and we rammed into the beach and it felt like somebody was trying to push me deliberately off the boat. The captain went in a circle and then went – at top speed – straight into the beach. I jumped off immediately into the surf and, as i said, the waves were as big as coconut trees. It was fun.

We saw a giant, pink moon rising on the horizon. It was enormous.

Oliver:

Today I had a great time. I wanted to see dolphins and whale sharks. We found dolphins and clown fish – stripy, like Nemo. I had to hold very tight on the boat and put my feet in straps to stop me falling out of the boat and hold onto a string to stop me collapsing into the water. I jumped out of the boat with my snorkel on. I saw the dolphins coming out of the water. I felt like I was being swarmed by one million dolphins.The bad thing about today was water came in my snorkel and at the end I felt sea sick. I thought I was going to vomit. I was disappointed and not very happy that I didn’t go back in the water..