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Published: July 21st 2006
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Post Police chase ticket
He was concentrating so hard on looking official for the estarngeiro sardines. It was well worth the price of admission! Our taxi driver warned us that the porters who were about to swamp the vehicle and fight eachother for the right to carry our bags the 20 yards or so to the bus were actually harmless and that we had nothing to worry about. He could have told us ten times, but the sight of half a dozen guys running off with our packs at 5am was always going to be alarming. They lined our bags up neatly near the ticket office (cardboard box on top of milk crate) and whilst we waited for the bus that was going to take us to Inhambane, watched with amusement as the guardians of our packs flared up at any of the other "pack guardians" that came too close to their protectorate. I was still very sceptical after our peixe mercado experience and decided that I alone was going to be the guardian of our packs. Trying to retrieve them from the well organised guardians was a nightmare, but with a little persistance and only a slight raising of my voice, not to mention stinking hangover beer breath, I got there. My scepticism was well desrerved as when it came time to board the
Tofo Sunrise
Dani is our chief sunrise photographer. I usually mind the tent and let the mosquitos have their fill whilst she's up and about, probably bootcamping somewhere! bus and load the bags the other backpackers were getting extorted for 100000mts a bag and told if they didn't pay up, their bags wouldn't make it to Inhambane. I put the bags on myself but stood watch until the bus left just to make sure. That was about the most interesting thing that happened for the next eight hours which is very unusual for an African bus trip. We arrived at Inhambane to the same thing and a couple of the guardians here were lucky they didn't score themselves a black eye or two from some backpackers who were still smarting over the sting in Maputo. We were herded into a mini bus for the last 20km of the journey to Tofo. Even though we'd only been in Mozambique a few days we were by now well used to the police roadblocks and checkpoints that would seemingly halt us every few km. When our driver saw this particular roadblock he slammed on his brakes and swapped seats with the other local in the frontseat. The new driver reversed into a makeshift roadside fruit stall and took off in trhe opposite direction at a million miles an hour. The third
Essential Mozambique
Now this is what we came for! local who squeezed into the back with us just for the ride chipped in with the notion that they all swap baseball caps. So the three of them swapped caps giving no thought to the nine Estrangeiros that were cooped up in the backseat like sardines and standing out like a sore thumb. Ofcourse the police were having none of it and it only took them a couple of minutes under full siren to catch and surround us, by which time not only had we switched drivers again, they'd also found another bus and were trying to transfer us on the go. We couldn't contain our laughter and the police certainly played it up for us. Whilst driver number three was getting a stern, pointed finger talking to, the original driver drove past in yet another mini bus laughing and giving his mates the thumbs up. We'll never know what the actual ticket was for or how much cash was in the wad that ending up lining the officers pocket, but it was certainly more than the total of our nine bus fares. Over the next few days there wasn't a mini bus ride between Tofo and Inhambane that didn't
Dinos Bar
Think I do a good job of looking like a publican! pass without incident. The very next ride we were helplessly caught in a mini bus drag race with twenty screaming others in our bus alone. We had a white man get off without paying sending the locals into a furore and prompting another police chase, this time on foot and we had a bus bottom out so badly that the undercarriage was literally left dragging on the ground behind us. It got to the stage where we decided we'd be better off walking. Fortunately the transport antics didn't detract from Tofo at all. Tofo was certainly everything we'd invisioned of Mozambique - an endless golden sandy beach with warm, clear water and cheap seafood. After the hype and filth of Maputo and the nerve splitting mini bus rides between Tofo and Inhambane all we did was enjoy the peaceful surrounds. We stayed at Bamboozi backpackers where we met Ben from Gellong for about the fourth or fifth time on our trip. The local bar on Tofo was Dinos and when the proprietor found out I was a Dino too, he got me behind the bar for photos and a laugh, although his courtesy didn't extend to any freebies. We made
Tofo wildlife
The frogs would have a banquet on these monsters! the point of checking out Fatimas Nest BP, sister to Fatimas in Maputo and enquired about the shuttle service they provide for groups to and from Maputo. They told us they ran every other day and were absolutely horrified when we told them how we had been turned away from the service by one of their own staff and were now happily staying next door and spending lots of money everywhere bar Fatimas Nest. I'd love to know if that guy still has a job. Possibly our most pleasant memory from this leg of our journey was a simple meal of fresco peixe con arroz y saladi that we had in a small local hut behind the Inhambane markets. It wasn't the tastiest or most filling of meals we'd had so far, but the little old lady running the joint kept enquiring if we were ok and topping up our plastic cups of water. She also provided us with a cloth, a bowl of warm water and soap to wash our hands afterwards. It cost us 100000mts - $4Aus and when we gave her a small tip and told her it was the best service we'd had in Africa we
Bloody Essendon supporters
Leaving their trash all over the place! Poor kid didn't know what I was on about. thought she was going to cry with joy. She gave us a big hug each and told us to beware of the bad policemen! We told her it wasn't the police men we were worried about, but rather the bad mini bus drivers, so she told us to beware of them too.
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