L has said he'll take me to the bus station the following morning but he gets up sufficiently late that I begin to wonder if I'll get out of Mocuba today. I'd been told that I should buy my ticket at least an hour in advance in order to ensure a seat, but we leave at a time where we'll barely make it to the station to catch the bus full stop, let alone get a seat on it. L realises this, and instead takes me to a pick-up spot in town where I should be able to flag down the [View Full Entry]

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Nampula is cursorily dismissed by my guidebook as “just another Southern African every town,” a description which overlooks its shabby charms and jostling markets. Leaving these, admittedly, rather modest attractions behind, the tarmac morphs into a long dusty, palm-tree bordered road, and the urban sprawl of 1960s-built high rises recedes into open, shrubby savannah. It's just after the rainy season and although shorter than usual (a drought is feared in these parts), the land still looks lusciously lime-coloured. The horizon is dominated by rocky outcrops, the most prominent rese [View Full Entry]

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There's little useful info on the web about crossing into Mozambique from Blantyre and I've met no-one who's done it recently - in fact, the only thing I've been able to glean is that the transport in northern Mozambique is shocking, though one poster had cheered me up by noting it was better than in Ethiopia. The closest border crossing to Blantyre is about 30km past Mt Mulanje - I would have gone there from Mulanje if I hadn't been so sore, short of cash, and suffering from diarrhoea after my hike there. Now (almost) healthy and with some money, it's [View Full Entry]

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In the morning Johannas and I toss our packs into the back of Gabriel’s pick-up, and with a few toots of the horn and a handful of merry waves, we bump along through the streets of Ilha. We’re undoubtedly a curious sight - at no point this week have I seen more than three or four other white tourists on the island - and there are plenty of barefoot kids in varying states of undress to chase our clouds of dust. At the bridge to the mainland a chapa idles near the checkpoint, four haggard faces peering from the rear. It’s [View Full Entry]

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Rui is wrapped in a bedsheet and sleeping under the cashew tree when I set off for the train to Nampula. He wipes the sleep from his eyes, raises half-heartedly, offers to walk me to the station. I pat his shoulder and thank him for the offer, but tell him to go back to sleep. “Estou bêm,” I assure him. The early pre-dawn blue has begun to show in the sky, and sleepy Cuamba doubtless has few surprises between here and the train station. The askari opens the gate and wags his hand and sends me off, no doubt grateful to [View Full Entry]

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A train ride in Africa seems like and is a good idea. No more sharing a seat with two other people, no more sitting down for 12 hours, no more potholes which could swallow a truck, being able to eat and drink and actually enjoy the scenery. That is if you book second class. Third class is just like being on a bus. No surprise then that second class was filled with mostly white faces. The train trip starts as the buses do too at the ungodly early hour of 5am but we were rewarded with a nice seat in a [View Full Entry]

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Ihla de Mozambique played a huge role in the history of eastern Africa, the slave trade and the Portuguese dominance over Mozambique. Before the Portuguese took over the island was used by Arab traders. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for the Portuguese their weapons weren’t that great and the Portuguese took over in the early 1500. They were quick to build the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, in 1522 which is considered to be the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere. Shortly after they realize that they cannot defend the Island with a bible and build the impres [View Full Entry]

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This blog entry could also be called two idiots on a road trip... Jens the German guy I’m traveling with at the moment and I decided that we wanted to go up north as quickly as possible. I wanted to save time in Mozambique to be able to visit Malawi and he wanted to go from north to south. All said and done we decided that we will try to cover as much distance in as short as time as possible. We did … 4 days, over 30 hours in busses and over 1500km later we arrived. This is our story [View Full Entry]

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the things that have happened! i tucked out of mtwara on sunday. saturday night my friend Osman had his wedding party in a strange square roofless courtyard of red brick, big enough to host the entire village inside. the stars and moon and some dusty clouds were the light as a team of young fellows continually fed an old CD player that was hooked up to some very big speakers in the corner. from the far end of the village and up the ridge to the old boma hotel, about two kilometers walk, the Swahili hip-hop came through clear enough. the [View Full Entry]

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i am deep south. the world has changed now from loose tree scapes and lonely long low shrub plains into the Africa you can imagine before having been, the one from movies and books. wide fields of incredible tall yellow grass in the wind with wild twisting trees poking up and lending shade to those old rusty bicycles and their rusty riders that take long breaks from the angry African sun. the road is thin and cuts to and fro and over subtle hills through the land past mud villages thatched with the very same tall yellow grass, but dried into [View Full Entry]

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