http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jabe/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Jabe en-us Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:44:12 +0000 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:44:12 +0000 After the chaos of our Tana departure the trip to Antsirabe is fairly orderly. The road is in excellent condition and it's its constant meanderings around the hills of the Central Highlands that stretch out the journey time. Of course we have a totally unnecessary food break but it's good to be reminded at times that I'm still in Africa. We pass numerous examples of terracing as well as the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antsirabe/blog-439612.html Rice paddies. Rickshaws. Names full to bursting with syllables. Old European guys with young local girls. More to the point facial features. Even if archaeological evidence didn't provide a scientific confirmation one would know that the roots of the Malagasy people lie far to the east in what is now Indonesia and Malaysia. In other words Madagascar was first settled by people from thous http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-438797.html Since being mugged last year I'm now ultrawary of places with bad reputations for crime so the thought of mooching into Johannesburg has little appeal from the off. However with it being the only sensible gateway to Madagascar I have little choice. By opting for a hostel near the airport and choosing the backpackertastic Baz Bus hoponhopoff service to get there I figure I should be able http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Gauteng/Johannesburg/blog-438131.html The appeal of a hostel inside a game reserve is too much to resist so I make my way to Sondzela Backpackers inside Mlilwane National Park. Though the sign saying For international guests only smacks of an apartheid that seems wholly unnecessary I see several warthog and an antelope on my short walk from the park gate to the accommodation which proves to be only a taster for what's to come. T http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mlilwane-Wildlife-Sanctuary/blog-437901.html With Mbabane offering nothing in the way of information or things to do I decamp to the nearby Ezulwini Valley. The valley is home to the Swazi royal family and features a mountain that apparently inspired the Sheba's Breasts in Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. A further nod to Rider Haggard is in the fact that one of the nearby restaurants is called Quatermain's.My days in Ezulwini se http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Ezulwini-Valley/blog-437903.html Crossing from Mozambique to Swaziland is textbook an efficient but dull sequence of good roads empty border checkpoints then even better roads. Though I'm dropped at Manzini and have to take another minibus to reach Mbabane Swaziland's capital it's barely midday when I arrive.Mbabane is like being back in England and I can't imagine just how it ended up being twinned with Fort Worth in Texa http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/Mbabane/blog-437898.html The conductor of my Maputobound minibus resembles Laurence Fishburne after a career change and the sound system boasts an impressive array of Billy Ocean Spagna and even RAF but I pay a high cost for these diversions via another hot lengthy cramped journey. There's no respite to the disappointment when we arrive in Maputo with the city host to a series of overpriced hotels with limited av http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Maputo/blog-433485.html The chapa out of Vilankulos takes an age to fill up during which a local guy latches onto me. Swigging from a small bottle of gin which he assures me will soon be replaced by a larger one he sprays me with spittle while describing why he is different to other Mozambicans be it in his excellent English from working for a time in South Africa or his ability to see only a person where others s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Inhambane/blog-432646.html Unfortunately whale shark season finished several months back and my interest in diving near Vilankulos wanes as soon as I hear that news. However S and I investigate an overnight dhow safari leaving the following day it offers a night of camping on one of the islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago plus snorkelling and walking with transport being in a traditional dhow with the main propulsi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Bazaruto-Archipelago/blog-432047.html The Nampula TCO rep had guessed we'd get to Vilankulos by about 5PM but her estimate is conservative by 100 a pleasant surprise. Sadly we aren't actually dropped at Vilankulos but at the junction from which it's a 25 minute chapa ride distant but the chapa more like a Sudanese boksi leaves immediately and we soon find ourselves on a street corner in the centre of Vilankulos.We've barely d http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Vilanculos/blog-432046.html The TCO bus is an anomaly in African transport like a readable passage in a Harry Potter book. Though not hitting Argentinian heights of comfort it makes the 16.75 hours to Beira pass in a traumafree fashion. The promised toilet and AC are present and correct and the secret to reaching our destination in just one day lies in infrequent stops and certainly none for fruit and veg shopping. I http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Central/Beira/blog-432045.html I reach the chapa park at an awkward time. The chapa to Ilha is already nearly full meaning the boon of an imminent departure but the vehicle is one where the front row of seats and an uncomfortable backwardsfacing bench share legroom that is only adequate for one or the other. It's to the disappointment of all that my long legs are added to this mix. A foreign couple comfortably settled on http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Northern/Island-of-Mozambique/blog-429924.html L has said he'll take me to the bus station the following morning but he gets up sufficiently late that I begin to wonder if I'll get out of Mocuba today. I'd been told that I should buy my ticket at least an hour in advance in order to ensure a seat but we leave at a time where we'll barely make it to the station to catch the bus full stop let alone get a seat on it. L realises this and inst http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Northern/Nampula/blog-428032.html There's little useful info on the web about crossing into Mozambique from Blantyre and I've met noone who's done it recently in fact the only thing I've been able to glean is that the transport in northern Mozambique is shocking though one poster had cheered me up by noting it was better than in Ethiopia. The closest border crossing to Blantyre is about 30km past Mt Mulanje I would have go http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Northern/Mocuba/blog-429926.html One thing I forget to ask at Infomulanje is how to acquire an obligatory guide and I wonder if I've made a booboo when I start chatting with a guy B on the street and agree to use his services. I've read that porters which I won't need are allocated on a rotation basis so they get cheesed off if you arrive at the trailhead with one already and I'm not sure if the same applies to guides. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Mount-Mulanje/blog-426467.html I decide that having done nothing of interest so far in Malawi I should hit Mt Mulanje on my way out to Mozambique. Mulange isn't a major mountaineering challenge its highest point is about 3000m but its appeal lies in that it's more a massif than a mountain so there are opportunities for merely hiking among its dozen or so peaks as well as climbing them.I'd first heard of Mulanje soon after http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Mulanje-Town/blog-426471.html The LilongweBlantyre run is clearly the flagship bus route in all of Africa as I pay 20 for a journey that's not even 4.5 hours more noteworthy and incongruous is that the bus has AC and a toilet. For free we get views of various inselbergs rising out of the green countryside. The landscape here really doesn't end with Lake Malawi.Blantyre is as lacking in cheap accommodation as Lilongwe http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Blantyre/blog-425232.html The morning I leave for Lilongwe it's overcast and spitting with rain the eight okta cloud cover greying out the predawn light to the point where I am reminded of wintry teenage paper rounds. The AXA bus from Mzuzu to Lilongwe bears little resemblance to that from Karonga to Mzuzu. The latter's aisles were off limits to humans and cargo while the vehicle was moving the former's aren't. I ha http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Central/Lilongwe/blog-424358.html The WLP describes Nkhata Bay as Caribbeanesque then backpedals and damns it with quite picturesque. It's certainly and thankfully not as hot as the former but I'll give it the latter. It has the potential to be overrun by tourism but with Malawi not on the tourist trail and with the nearest airport to Nkhata Bay 6 hours away by road that won't happen any time soon. However it's certain http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Northern/Nkhata-Bay/blog-422632.html The bus ride to Mzuzu is a scenic one in particular the part where we chug up some hills near the lake and see a magnificent panorama spread below us. I feel like I'm back in Ethiopia again when 1.5 hours into the journey and hence with the entire bus on the verge of starvation we stop for a meal break.I arrive in Mzuzu with no map and just two guesthouse names one of which noone has heard o http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Northern/Mzuzu/blog-420981.html