Africa-Entry 13
Today was the last day of filming in Tanzania. It was filled, for me and Tooni, with various final pickups and wrap shots. Paul and Lucy went diving on a spectacular wreck called the Paraportiani and it was a bit of an ordeal. Apparently they arrived on the site and found salvagers cutting her apart. Now the wreck isn’t in protected waters, so technically it is open territory, but Lucy was outraged. The wreck is from the 1960’s and was delivering grain to Egypt, when she wrecked in the precarious waters off of Pemba Island. She is in very shallow water and could be an excellent tourist attraction, but as of yet, isn’t. Lucy’s passion is marine archeology and she was incensed by the waste and short sightedness of allowing the wreck to be cut up. These people have very little except for tourism; being the largest transfer of wealth from rich to poor in history, this place has so much potential. It is a terrible tragedy when promising tourist places get destroyed for short term gain. However, that is only half of it.
When the recon dive team reached the wreck, one of the salvage divers turned to the cameraman and made the shape of a gun with his hand, ostensibly threatening him. The dive was aborted and two people from the crew were sent to negotiate. An agreement was reached and the salvagers promised not to shoot anyone as long as we didn’t film them, all good in the end, but a bit hairy for a little bit there.
After the dives were done, we headed off for Dar Es Salaam, the capitol of Tanzania. The trip should take about 20 hours so all we have to do until then is start packing up gear for the transfer down to Mozambique.
