Pemba, Mozambique – 12 000 kms, 1 puncture, 8 Sep 07
Bom Dia de Mozambique!
For the really attentive ones you might think, “but they weren’t supposed to go there…” and you’d be right. But no, we’re not lost and Pippa’s navigation skills are not so far off that she took us to the wrong country, we just decided that this country sounded too magnificent with it’s stunning coastline and portugese heritage to miss – and we haven’t been disappointed! Up until now we usually stopped for 1 or 2 nights in a place but in Mozambique every time we pull over somewhere we end up staying for at least 3 nights. First it was the Ilha de Mozambique with the ruins of grandiose buildings and wide boulevards deserted since the Portuguese left in the 70’s, now crumbling against the stunning backdrop of the turquoise Indian ocean and Swahili culture of the current inhabitants. The tiny island used to be Mozambique’s capital and has a long history of trade from Arabia, piracy and shipwrecks that was fascinating. We visited the marine museum with it’s display of intact Ming dynasty china that was recently found by a group of divers just off the coast. We’re weren’t quite as lucky but we did pick up some glass beads imported long ago by Indian traders and lost in a shipwreck… Further up the coast we happened to be cooking some prawns by the side of the road (as you do in a country with no such thing as a rest area!) when traveller’s fortune struck and the owners of the future Nuarro Lodge drove past. After a brief chat, they invited us to stay on their private beach for a few days. The lodge is just beginning construction so for those days it was just us, Big Mama and their caravan on a beautiful beach with fantastic snorkelling and further out, humpback whales playing on the royal blue horizon. It was very reminiscent of our camps in Australia and a lovely break! Currently we’re in Pemba at another stunning campsite with white beach, mangrove forests, giant hollow baobabs and fantastic bird life. We’re staying here for a few more days – partly because it’s beautiful, but also probably because of the 6 lawyers from SA who are up here on a fly fishing trip and are keeping us supplied in brandy and port around the campfire…, and because of a certain International event that somebody wanted to be sure to see on TV on Friday night… (and about which we’re not talking!!!)
Big Mama is going well but unfortunately she’s caught the eye of someone else and we have a small addition to our team – a four legged, pink tailed addition that seems to think that the air vents would be a nice place to set up nest!! We’ve spent a few terrible nights listening to unlocatable chomping going on in the car and woken to find chewed up foam and mouse poo inside the car and gnawed chicken bones sitting comfortably on top of the engine!! However, we have a trap, and poison, and we’ve befriended a cat so I think our sleepless nights may now be over – fingers crossed!
We’re heading up the coast over the next week, visiting another Swahili island then crossing into Tanzania and heading to Dar Es Salaam for the visit of our sponsored child. The trip is getting better and better but there are occasions when we dream of a real bed or maybe a washing machine, or even just hot and cold water coming from a tap! Mozambique is incredibly poor and the infrastructure is nonexistent (like we haven’t sent a loo since we got here!!) but it’s a magnificent place to visit and we’re having a lot of fun speaking Spanish with a Portuguese accent and getting by without a guidebook just on advice from locals in this unplanned addition to the trip.
Hopefully our photos will transmit some of the feeling of this incongruous but beautiful place as well as of Malawi which was our favourite country of all (so far!). The countryside was absolutely stunning from the golden beaches next to the lake, to the mountainous plateau of Zomba and the flowers, berries and birdlife there, to the incredible enormous rock formation of Mount Mulanje, we loved every single day.