Northern Mozambique

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We finally arrived in Mozambique and I have to say it was well worth the effort! The white beaches, faded Portuguese charm, some of the most pristine corals I've ever seen, rock formations rearing up out of nowhere before melting back into the green expanses or red earth plains made it one of the most scenically dramatic countries yet and that's saying something after the Serengeti! It was also, seemingly, one of the most advanced in terms of male and female equality we'd been to in Africa so far (not that that is saying much to be honest!). It would seem that women here are not expected to be covered from mid bicep to knee and they are allowed some social time. In the other parts of Africa we've visited thus far most of the local woman that we've seen seemed to be doing chores round the house, doing manual work or selling things in the street normally while they have one child suctioned to a breast and another tied to their back by a traditional piece of fabric leaving the child spread eagled on their backs and, more often than not, balancing something like a huge sack of charcoal on their head! All this, while most of the men seemed to either be fishing or doing a whole lot of not much or getting hammered on the cheapest local brew they could find! In Mozambique we actually saw woman socialising in the bars AND we even saw some men carrying and looking after children. Stop the press!! Okay, so it's not exactly the suffragettes but, it's a start!

Anyway, the Mozambique adventure started in a small town on the shores of lake Malawi from which we traveled to Cuamba, a tumbleweed town with a whole lot of nothing going on accept a thrice weekly train to Nampula. The journey was actually really pleasant and we even had beds, well shelves but, they were surprisingly comfy! After saying a temporary farewell to Jose, our friend from Likoma we headed for the coast for some well earned rest and diving after three days of non-stop traveling.






Traveling wasn't quite so easy in Mozambique without our Portuguese speaking friend but, we managed to arrive in Nacala on the Indian Ocean by spouting off ill-remembered Spanish and with only slight cramp! The diving here was excellent, not the big Palegics of the South but, really cool all the same and it was definitely nice to be back diving again. Not so nice was being woken up in the middle of the night by ant bites after the blighters decided to eat through the bottom of the tent and feast on us! We had to abandon tent in the middle of the night and try and sneak into a dorm room. Unfortunately we didn't know where the dorm room was and the security guard only spoke Portuguese. When we told him in our best Spanish we needed to move because 'there were small animals in our tent' he went and got his bow and arrow!! We spent the next day patching up the tent with gaffa tape and doing another dive where i managed to burn my hand on a soft coral and had to spend the rest of the day balancing an aloe vera leaf on it! Meh!




From here we took a bus up to Pemba (the buses actually seem to leave on time here, albeit at 5am and only to drive around town for two hours touting for business) where Jose rejoined our merry band and which we deemed as a suitable location, after challenging a friend of ours to a sand castle making competition, to build the castle of Jimannastan, complete with turrets, ramparts and a portcullis! It emerged after 5 hrs hard building and was flattened by the tide within about 5mins but, that's sandcastles for you!



Pemba is also the gateway to Quirimbas Archipelago and in particular Ibo Island. The island had yet more diving, pristine corals, locals wearing traditional face masks and is full of crumbling colonial elegance, not so elegant were the signs that they have along the beach requesting that you don't defecate on it! How charming?! Since the trip there had involved several hours in the back of a pick up and a couple of hours in Dhow we were quite pleased when one of the locals offered us a lift straight to Pemba on his sail boat! This was all well and good while we were sailing along within the shelter of the islands. It got rather more choppy when we got to the open sea! I thought it was great fun sitting on the front riding the boat like a roller coaster until I rather mistimed a jumper disrobing with a rogue (ish) wave. The result was that I fell off my perch backwards and only managed to avoid plunging into the deep by stopping myself on the cabin roof with my head! After that they made us wear life jackets and sit at the back. Boo!







From Ibo we said farewell to Jose once more and then headed for Ilha Mozambique which, as it's name suggests is island just off the coast of Mozambique! The journey from Pemba was somewhat lengthy and not helped by a motorcyclist who decided to plough straight into the side of our pick up truck! We promptly followed everyone else on the pick up who used their African telepathy (also used to decipher when the bus is going to leave, when the bus stops for a toilet/food break and when it is just a stop to let people off and which queues you are supposed to go in at border crossings) to navigate out of the way quickly and into another pick up while some other locals scraped the motorcyclist off the road and unceremoniously dumped him on he back of the vacated pick up, assumably to take him to the hospital.
Typical, as soon as we stop traveling with a doctor something like that happens! The alternative pick up was not direct and while waiting at the next town we saw the winner of the most over sized bike contest. It is usual in Africa to see kids riding bikes that are far too big for them having to stand astride the cross bar in order to reach the pedals. This one however was managing to pedal by putting his legs under the cross bar! Even more amusing was seeing a fully grown man coming the other way on a pink Barbie BMX! I think a swap may have been prudent!

Ilha itself was great and is too full of old crumbling Portuguese colonial churches, houses and forts some in which people have set up home and some of which continue to crumble amongst the many huts which surround the old town. We spent time here moseying around and taking in the sights as well as going on an inadvertent all day drinking session!






Ilha was our final stop in Mozambique and from here we embarked on a three day journey back to Malawi on a combination of buses and pick ups one of which was on a decidedly dodgy road and which i spent most of hanging off the side while some woman threw up into her handbag close by. Joyous! We arrived back in Malawi safe and sound where we spent a few days sorting things out and buying up the craft market before heading to Zambia....

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