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Published: August 5th 2006
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I decided to spend my first day in Mozambique exploring Maputo. I headed to the nearest pastry shop and had a fantastic breakfast of custard pastries and fruit juice with a Canadian girl who was sharing my dorm. Having done that I decided to catch the ferry to Catembe, a small island about half an hour's ferry ride from Maputo. It took me a good couple of hours to actually reach the ferry terminal as I walked the wrong way up the Avenue de Karl Marx. This was not a huge disaster though, as it meant that I was able to see more of the city. The ferry did not take too long and I was soon in Catembe. I strolled around the fishing village for a while before deciding to look for the Restaurant Diogo, which apparently served fantastic seafood. As my Portugese was virtually non-existent, I had a bit of trouble asking for and then understanding directions, but I made it eventually. Restaurant Diogo has a reputation for rather slow service, but it still came as a bit of a shock when my grilled prawns took 3 hours to arrive. They were absolutely delicious though so I didn't really
mind too much. By the time I had eaten our lunch it was time for me to catch the ferry back. I headed back to the backpackers for a bit of a rest and then headed out for some Shawarma at the local Lebanese restaurant. I was planning on heading straight to Vilankulo the next day but I was informed that the road was appalling and that it was advisable to break up the journey by heading to Tofo first. The manager at the hostel informed me that the best option for me would be to take the Shuttle to Tofo, which would pick me up from the hostel at 6.30am the next day. I was already realising that Mozambique is a pretty expensive place, but it still hurt when I heard that I would have to hand over 400,000 meticals for my bus fare ($16).
I was up bright and early for the shuttle, but of course it was late. Well, in fact it didn't really turn up at all. A Lebanese guy turned up at about 7am, told me not to worry and loaded my stuff into a rather beat up looking car. There were a few
other backpackers also waiting for the shuttle, so we all piled into the car. The Lebanese guy drove us around Maputo for a bit and we eventually stopped in a side street where he got out and an Asian guy took his place. As soon as he started driving everyone checked their seatbelts - the guy was a maniac. One of the other backpackers made a crack about the driver watching too much Formula 1, which resulted in his driving even faster to prove that this was in fact the case. To add to all this none of us had a clue where we were going or what was happening - this was fairly disconcerting. We eventually screeched into what looked like the bus station, and the driver proudly pointed out the shuttle. The windscreen was cracked and a couple of windows were missing. This did not bode well. We eventually left Maputo at 9.30am. The first part of the journey was not too bad especially as we had some delicious bread to munch along the way, but by the afternoon we were on the most appalling road I had ever been on. I bounced along in the mud until
all of us eventually reached Tofo at about 6pm. I had a terrible cold and it was already dark so I decided to get a room rather than camping. I shelled out 600,000 meticals ($24) for a very basic room with no bathroom. I would later find out that this was pretty average for Mozambique but at the time I was outraged. I decided to move on as soon as possible, so I headed off first thing the next morning on a minibus to Inhambane. From there I had to cross the river to Maxixe in a very tiny boat packed full of people. I was pretty relieved when I got to the other side. I then spent 4 hours waiting for the bus to Vilankulo, which just didn't arrive. In the meantime I chatted to an Indian guy who was telling me how much better everything was compared to a few years ago due to the good works of the Indian community in the area. I eventually got on a minibus to Vilankulo and bounced around for about 7 hours before eventually getting there. What a journey! It was already dark when I arrived so I ended up being
shown the way to the backpackers by a couple of local boys. There were no street lights so it was incredibly dark and I were getting a bit worried as I followed a sandy track, which seemed to lead to nowhere. My concerns increased when one of them said it was another hour's walk, but fortunately for me he just had no concept of time. I made it in about 10 minutes all in one piece.
The next morning I went on a dhow trip to one of the islands in the Bazaruto Archipelago. The guy who owned the boat had once met the Sri Lankan president in Tanzania, and just kept repeating how amazing it was to have a man from Colombo in Vilankulo. I was the first he said. I headed out to the island with a family of South Africans. The island was amazing I paddled around and generally relaxed until lunch, which was basic but delicious. Unfortunately I didn't get to snorkel as the South Africans hogged the masks but I still had a great time. This was a good thing as it put me in a very positive frame of mind for the long
journey north.
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