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Published: August 23rd 2006
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I started the long journey north, with a 9 hour bus journey to Beira. I had to leave Vilankulo at 4 in the morning, which was pretty painful. Little did I know that this was to become a regular thing. The bus journey was fairly uncomfortable but I made it to Beira by mid afternoon. Due to the fact that the Mozambican government had decided to change it's currency that weekend, none of the ATM's were working and as it was a Sunday the Bureaux de Change were also closed. I was therefore penniless. Mozambique was proving to be a lot more expensive than I had thought and the money I had picked up a few days ago had already run out. I therefore spent the afternoon cruising around Beira in a taxi. I also did dodgy blackmarket deals. The next morning I had another early start. I left for the Zambezi river crossing at 5am and reached there at about lunchtime. As the ferry across the river was not due to depart until 2pm I was able to eat some delicious river fish in one of the little 'restaurants' by the side of the river. When I got on the
ferry I was accosted by a crazy guy who insisted that I was French and kept yelling at me in French. I tried to get away from him but the ferry was so crowded that I couldn't actually move so I just had to put up with him till I reached the other side. From there I had to catch another bus to a town called Quelimane. It was dark when I arrived there so I took a taxi to the nearest guesthouse. This was full, so I stayed in an unnamed place a few doors down. My next bus was due to leave at 3.30am so I asked the taxi driver to come and pick me up in the morning. He assured me that he would be there, but the next morning there was no sign of him. This meant that I had to run through the town at 3am in the morning with no idea of where the bus station was. When I eventually arrived at the bus station I found that the bus was running late and I needn't have bothered rushing at all. The journey to Nampula was the worst so far. There were children everywhere
and they cried continuously. Despite the scorching heat everyone refused to open the windows - and got angry when I tried too. The only time the windows were opened was when there was a good chance that I would be covered from head to toe in dust. When I finally got to Nampula I ended up having to stay in a place that cost $24 but did not have running water. I spent the evening hunting for batteries as mine had once again run out and was overjoyed when I was able to buy two packets of Energizer ones. The packaging looked untampered with and I was sure that they were the real thing but when I put them in the camera they didn't work. I had just spent a small fortune on dud batteries. I headed to Ilha de Mocambique the next morning and I have to say it was the highlight of my trip to Mozambique. I stayed in a lovely guest house called Casa Branca for the first night, but unfortunately I had to stay somewhere else for the second night as they were fully booked. Two schoolboys insisted on showing me around despite my protests. I
didn't really want guides but I felt sorry for them and they didn't ask me for anything. Despite the fact that they were 14 and 16 they were only in Grade 7 at school. I was shocked but I soon found out that this was fairly common. Ilha de Mocambique is beautiful and I had a fantastic time just strolling along the tree lined avenues, admiring the beautiful buildings. Sadly many of them were crumbling but it looked like there was some restoration work going on. My 2 guides were very funny - they wouldn't believe that I was married! I was in stitches. The hunt for batteries continued and I must have asked every shopkeeper on the island if they had duracell batteries. This did wonders for my Portugese but didn't result in the purchase of batteries. I eventually got a couple from the guesthouse owner. I was genuinely sad when I left Ilha de Mocambique as it had been a fantastic place to spend a few days - especially after the nightmare bus journeys I had endured to get there. I was however very excited about visiting the Querimba Archipelago just a few bus journeys away.
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