Blogs from Mozambique, Africa - page 36

Up at 04:30, we can hear the whooping of Hyena’s in the distance, hope they’re not waiting for us! Breakfast at 05:00 and bags packed onto the support trucks by 05:15. At 06:00 we’re on our way to the Giriyondo Border Post. At this point we must explain that the Tour de Kruger is a bit of a misnomer as we did not do any cycling in the Kruger National Park itself, this is because permission could not be obtained from the authorities due to the risks involved with there being such high levels of wildlife. Most of our cycling was done in the Great Limpopo National Park of Mozambique, which has almost no wildlife due to the high levels of human habitation and all the problems associated with balancing human habitation and nature conservation. We ... 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

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 ... read more

Our journey northward continues, and what an adventure it has been! In many ways I find it difficult to decide where I should even start. Our plan was to head onward from Pemba and travel 150km north to a very small coastal village called Quissanga and then from there sail to Ibo Island. This journey I expected to not take very long at all, why on earth I even thought that is beyond me. Originally we had a kind Spaniard who Ryan befriended offer us a ride since he works on Ibo Island, however one thing led to another and that fell apart because he was awaiting supplies in Pemba, but tried to make it up to us by offering us a place to stay on the island for free once we got there. Once we ... read more