Blogs from Southern, Mozambique, Africa - page 21

Sooo, hi everyone and I apologise for my complete lack of informing you on what I've been up to for the last few weeks. I've almost forgotten how to write this thing it's been so long... After leaving Durban I headed up to Swaziland for a couple of nights, which to be frank was a bit if a waste of time as it rained almost the whole time and I found the whole place a little boring.. Probably because I was missing my friends and was back on my own, but anyway, decided that rather than staying somewhere that resembled Scotland in the middle of winter I'd move on to sunnier climes, namely Mozambique! Soon after beginning my mission of a trip to get to Mozambique I started to regret it! On leaving the hostel I ... read more

On only a few occasions so far had we felt the need to increase our security measures. Port Elizabeth, Durban, Maseru and Maputo were all places that we were on higher alert, but in fairness to both Maseru and Maputo we were able to relax a little after settling in quickly to the feel of the place. Yet again through the backpacker grapevine, we'd been warned that our next stop, Vilankulo, was a hotspot for street crime, in particular bag snatching and muggings, so it was with a heightened awareness that we embarked on the next leg of our journey. We survived yet another crazy Tofo Inhambane mini bus ride and then took a small ferry from the Inhambane Peninsula back to the mainland. The captain of our "tinnie" could certainly have given his mini bus ... read more

From Swaziland we entered Mozambique with surprising ease and were glad that we had taken the time to organise our visas in advance. The three Yankees who hadn't thought to do this had to wait about 45 minutes and also had to endure the impatient stares and mutterings of the local passengers. Although we only crossed a political border the landscape and atmosphere changed immediately. It became even more tropical with mangrove swamps, palm trees and banana plantations yet at the same time remained quite rugged and barren. Scattered everywhere were shells of buildings, derelict villages and burnt out and or stripped down cars, all remnants of the very recent civil war that ravaged Mozambique for nearly 20 years. Before we knew it we were in Maputo and after giving our mini bus driver the golden ... read more

We started in Maputo with an altercation. Our pre-arranged pick-up was not there to meet us and I had no Mozambican money to make a call. When I explained the situation a taxi driver offered me the use of his mobile phone. Having made the call (about 30 seconds) I decided to repay his friendly gesture by giving him my remaining SA money - only about 60p. Suddenly this was not good enough and he insisted on getting a pounds worth - which he already knew I didn’t have. He got quite agitated and when our lift came we left with him shouting through the windows at us but still refusing the 60p. We were pleased to find that Maputo Backpackers is a large whitewashed building in a quiet area outside the city centre. Just down ... read more

June 2004 Stuck at the border – are we ever going to get into Mozambique? Before I start my blog I would like to give you a little bit of information regarding Mozambique. With the Mozambican Civil War between FRELIMO and RENAMO ending in 1992, this country was still reeling from the after effects of this long war. People were poor and starving, the tourism industry was non existent and wildlife was depleted, slaughtered to feed the starving masses or elephants were killed for their ivory. Slowly towards the end of the 20th century tourism picked up extremely quickly and people were returning to a tourist destination that was very popular before 1975. However, in 2004 the effects of the war could still be seen, although the general infrastructure of the country was doing an about ... read more