Updates and info from on the ground during our 11 week and 5 week Experiences in South Africa
Annie, Bridge and Liv left us Sunday afternoon, and following morning the ”Mozam Crew” head north to the border. We left bright and early in the chance of huge border delays. Luckily we were into Mozambique after only a couple of minutes waiting and in the capital, Maputo, just before sundown. We spent the early evening walking the streets and tucked away in a small market sipping beers. Dinner was simple and sweet, and then early bed. Tomorrow beach!
Again we attempted an early departure but we only got on the road proper after an age at the bank and a mix up with the local traffic police (more like gendarmes with their assault rifles) , nothing that couldn’t be sorted with a few Rand. The road to Tofo was long and under development. Pip was a trooper driving through the bumps and the dust.
So far on the trip we hadn’t experienced all of the ‘Africa’ imaged in Hollywood, the news and National Geographic. Yes, there were parts without the glam, tourism infrastructure and development of places like Cape Town, Coffee Bay and Plett. Losotho, Transkei and Hogsback are among those spots that had a deep rural charm because of a lack of almost little Western influence (of course evident in pinches) on the people and their cultures. Mozambique differed in that it was a whole country like this. Of course it has strong colonial roots from the Portuguese and currently trinkets from socialist revolution (our hostel was on the corner of Chairman Mao Avenue and Comrade Vladimir Lenin Road), but the country had an immediate feel of being less groomed and genuinely ‘African’. In Maputo and on the drive to Tofo a lot of jaws dropped at the landscape and villages. I felt I witnessed something new, and I was quite excited to experience interacting here, even for such a short holiday time.
Jaws dropped even further when we arrived at the backpackers. Snuggled along a ridge line with the ocean on one and sugarcane fields on the other sat our thatched roofed huts for the week. The sun rose over the sea and would settle beyond the sugarcane amongst tall coconut trees. The beach was long and curving with squeaky clean sand and never more than a dozen people stretched out. Food was all local, fresh and simple: it really either came from someone’s back garden or the sea that morning. The bar was on tab with a beer under a Pound. Pure bliss.
The days sped by on the beach, particularly after the first night boogying on the dance floor. Hugh and Georgie spent most of their time diving in the clear aqua water seeing manta ray and whale sharks. Unfortunately the surf wasn’t amazing; but that didn’t stop everyone giving it their best. The trip was largely relaxing: our biggest effort was to fetch another cocktail. Other than a few of us feeling the effects of the heat day and night, Tofo was the perfect way to relax after more than a month on the road.
Well fed and all a golden brown we headed back to Maputo for our eighth and final night in Mozam. Despite us being exhausted from all that beach time, we were all smiles: I think they were from an appreciation of vacationing in such a beautiful place and different setting, great group banter (all the boys fussing over how to change our first and only flat tire sticks out), and the realisation that such an amazing three months was really coming to an end. Mozambie was the perfect icing on an already incredible cake.
Cheers,
Josh.
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