Blogs from Mozambique, Africa - page 35

Next leg of the journey was Tofo to Maputo, which involved a couple of days staying with one of Kek's friends who lives a couple of hours south of Tofo in a really beautiful place called Quissico. We hitched a ride in town with all our stuff and then Neils came and picked us up in his very cool retro beetle. I wasn't sure what to expect from Neils' place, but I wasn't quite prepared for what was in store. After staying in what was basically a summer house on the beach I was quite looking forward to a bit of luxury, and it wasn't until I arrived, that I realsied I wasn't going to get it! Neils has moved to Quissico to create a rather cool backpackers/wellness/hippy commune for people to come and stay at/live ... read more

After spending days at a time travelling between destinations in NTHN Mozambique, our journey from Ihla do Mocambiqe to Pemba was refreshingly straight forward, not forgetting ofcourse the standard fight for a fair price and resulting argument over change with local vendors and conductors keen to try and pull the wool over our eyes. Even after misreading the map in our guidebook and walking the long way to Russells Campismo, about 10km long, we still managed to arrive mid afternoon. Russell was an expat Aussie from the Sunshine Coast but he wasn't around when we arrived. The only other guest was a Belgian named Gareth who had ridden his pushbike from Durban and who quickly apologised for not giving us a lift when he had passed us earlier that afternoon. One of the staff showed us ... read more

Not surprisingly, the ten of us walking through town to the bus stop in the early hours of a Vilankulo Sunday morning came across little resistance. The drunkard who stumbled crablike out of the Afro Bar shaped up more from the shock of seeing such a congregation of Estrangeiros rather than anything else, but his bravado came to a sudden end when he fell into a roadside ditch and promptly passed out. We decided that was probably the safest place for him and continued on. For Dani and I, our main concern was securing a seat on the bus as we hadn't had time after our safari to pre book. Our friends were certainly smug with the knowledge that they already had tickets and let us know that they didn't envy us facing the likely prospect ... read more

Guess what? Yup - an early start again, same routine, except Phil leaves his mobile phone in a pocket in the tent. We’re reliably informed this tent is now in a storage container and is unlikely to be unpacked until next year’s tour. Sorry to those of you who have sent us text messages and not received a reply - now you know why. Before we set off we were given vastly varying reports as to how much sand was ahead of us, ranging from 10 - 27km. We set off at the same walk, cycle, walk pace as the previous day. Progress was extremely slow and heavy on the legs. Laura’s legs are taking a bruising every time she knocks the pedal whilst pushing, she’s also stopped using her cleats and her fall rate has ... read more

Up at 04:45, bags packed onto the truck by 05:15, breakfast at 05:30. We’re only setting off at 07:30 but the baggage trucks need to leave before the first riders set off to avoid having to pass them on the road. 07:30 and we’re off, the first touch of the saddle is less than comfortable but that’s the least of our issues today. Pretty soon we hit the rocks - literally! The road ahead is a path of stones some the size of footballs and the ascent is steep. We cycle when we can, but walk most of the way, after 2 hours we’ve not gone far at all and we find ourselves bringing up the rear again. Laura has a nasty fall and bangs both her elbows on the rocks - this is her low ... read more