Marremau

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We have arrived in Marremau a small village on the banks of the Zambezi River in Mozambique and is considered by most to be the arse end of Africa. Franya and Tom, Dan’s aunt & uncle live here. Dan’s uncle is the Head of the Transport Department for the Sugar Cane Factory here, as such is given a massive house to live in and there’s even electricity which is a treat!! We travelled down from Ilha de Mozambique which is an island linked to the mainland by a 3.5km bridge. Ilha felt like an absolute ghost town with crumbling colonial Portuguese buildings now inhabited by bats and a few locals. Northern Mozambique’s public transport, as we said, is essentially the back of trucks with 30 - 40 other people, usually several women breastfeeding and a few goats & chickens. I’d hate to be an animal in Africa! However, we’ve always gotten to where we’ve wanted to go!

Today we went on a trip up the Zambezi River on a speedboat with the Security Manager to another sugar mill that was occupied by the Portuguese but when the president in the 1970s gave the Portuguese 24 hours to get out with 20 kilos of stuff, they all left, literally overnight. Shortly after that there was a war between the two main political parties and they bombed both sugar mills on each side of the river. Therefore there’s not much remaining and what is there has an eerie feel to it. We also saw a crocodile lazing in the sun on the other side of the river, apparently several locals are eaten a month by crocodiles as they all bath in the river and get their water from the river.

Tom has a truck travelling down towards Maputo, which, we think leaves tomorrow, so we will be jumping on that for a lift down to the islands and reefs of the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park. We will then be heading south to Tofu and then into Maputo where we will catch a bus to Joberg and from there we are catching a plane to Cape Town where Dan’s sister is picking us up.

Alex & Dan xxx

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