http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Mozambique , Southern , Tofo en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:05:31 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:05:31 UTC After spending two days in Maputo I headed up north to Tofo to do what I went to Mozambique for diving. The busride to Tofo was utterly uncomfortable. A small minibus takes you to Praia do Tofo in 7 or so hours cramped in a very small space with only two breaks during the journey. Definitely not comparable to an average long distance coach trip. But I arrived there safe and sound nevertheless http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-313527.html Tofo is your typical backpackerrsquos beach paradise. The beach is ok and the beer cold plentiful and cheap. Just the thing I needed after doing nothing for three weeks.Not much more to say apart from that my headache is getting better by the minute and I left the place without any permanent damage to my liver. It would have been the place to see whale sharks and manta rays but with my knee sti http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-296945.html Waiting in the car park that doubles up as a bus stop in Manzini Swaziland I passed an entertaining hour watching a master class in packing with the luggage destined for Mozambique slowly and seemingly quite precariously being piled higher and higher. We'd left the hostel around 6.30am catching a minibus that took us as far as the next main minibus stop and from there we'd squeezed into ano http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-272791.html Hi It's been quite some time since my last post. I've been wanting to add more pictures from Nambiia to the site but the uploading has failed everytime. So I can only hope that when I try to add my new pictures from Mozambique they'll load properly. But now I'd like to fill you in on what I've been up to.This past week I've been in Mozambique. We had a few days off school for public holidays http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-272463.html Happy Easter everybody. We are currently in the beach town of Tofo still on the southern coast of Mozambique. I appreciate all the messages people send me and emails and facebook posts etc. In other words I like the attention. We have spent 8 nights here and are leaving for the capital city of Maputo tomorrow. Tofo is a popular travel destination for South Africans and right now is spr http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-260312.html No falo portuguesCrossing into Mozambique we left behind empty shops and multimillion dollar bus tickets and returned to a country where English is not the first or even the second language. After the ease of English speaking Zambia Botswana and Zimbabwe it was a bit of a rude awakening to encounter customs officials who could not speak English. Portuguese is the mother tongue here but with her http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-239019.html eigentlich wollten wir am montag 3.12.2007 den bus von johannesburg nach maputo nehmen aber da uns diverse leute erzaehlt haben dass die busse an der grenze nicht warten um ein visum zu erhalten haben wir uns entschieden am montag in johannesburg das visum fuer jennifer zu organisieren und dann am dientag den bus zu nehmen... der letzte abend in johannesburg war lang und intensiv. wir waren in m http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-226082.html Is it a whale Is it a shark No it's a whale shark Despite its name it is neither a whale nor a shark but in fact the largest fish in the world and we FINALLY got to swim alongside oneThere are only a few places in the world where whale sharks hang out and Mozambique is one of them. We spent the majority of our time in the seaside town of Tofo Mazombique's main backpacker haunt. Our littl http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-225851.html You have to try it Driving in MozambiqueIts not just the potholes in the road also the corrupt police men whom make it difficult to get around....the only good thing is that it was a rental car wouldn039t try it with our own.After too many hours on the road we Arrived in Tofo A geat diving place and with a nice beach......The first two backpackers we could039t go because we got st http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-199341.html OK thanks for your patience. We left off at the beginning of our bus ride north to Inhambane which left 2 hours late and choked its way up the country for the next 10 hours. On the bus we actually had the conductor come and ask us for an additional 50 Metzicales 2 for our piece of luggage but seeing that he didn't ask any of the locals for the money we refused to pay and he grumbled and l http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-166979.html There is something magical about Africa and her people and after a week back in the mighty continent the people of Mozambique have rekindled the magic. It comes from the easy laughter of the locals who are always joking and laughing whatever the occasion whether they are riding on the minibus browsing at the markets or walking along the beach. Mozambique is a portugese speaking country in Sout http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-154193.html You can check out but you can never leave. thanks Eagles I was sitting around the bar in Tofo the other night chatting with some of the Dive masters and such. I mentioned that I keep seeing people arrive here and never see people leave. She said Yes this is like Hotel California. I agree. The other song lyric that comes to mind about Tofo is Stayed here all season don't know the reason http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-152188.html I left S. Africa via Swaziland about a week ago. And then I beelined up to Tofo in Mozambique. why The Diving of course. So far the diving has been great. Well the diving is actually soso but the snorkeling has been amazing. After our first time we surfaced to find about 2030 whale sharks around our boat. For the next hour or so we snorkelled with around chased and were followed by whale shar http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-150219.html Let me start by saying that Mozambique is rapidly becoming my favorite place I have ever been too. I love the Latin and African mix that exists here. This mix penetrates every aspect of life here form the food and music too the general attitude towards life that most people in Mozambique have. Despite the grinding poverty that people here face they always take time to say como esta or bom dia. Ho http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-148113.html Hola Yes onto a portugese speaking country SO whats happened since my last entry Well we did the trek...well a rather depleted number of us as Eliza and J.D were unwell and Storm also opted out. So Rob assistant leader had to stay behind at a backpackers with them while me Laura Alex Jon other Alex Abby and Dave leader went trekking in Malalotja reserve It was beautiful and not TOO mu http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-146123.html First of all sorry for the lack of pictures. I didnrsquot bring the camera out too much because I didnrsquot want it to get stolen. Okay so I spent a week in JoBerg with Lise which was great aside from the fact that I got sick. I think it was from swallowing a bit too much of the Zambezi while I was rafting. I went to the doctor and she said I was fine and pretty much just had to wait it ou http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-141961.html Never have the words of the Fresh Prince sounded so apt. So we adjusted the bass and let the iPod blast ... bizarrely enough shuffle played us The Bends by Radiohead spooky seeing as we had just arrived in a dive resort Not as weird as it playing Steve Biko by Tribe Called Quest as we landed in Jo'berg. I swear my iPod has intuition. Anyhoo I digress ...When we said we were going traveling http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-106442.html Sooo hi everyone and I apologise for my complete lack of informing you on what I've been up to for the last few weeks. I've almost forgotten how to write this thing it's been so long...After leaving Durban I headed up to Swaziland for a couple of nights which to be frank was a bit if a waste of time as it rained almost the whole time and I found the whole place a little boring.. Probably because http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-102825.html Our taxi driver warned us that the porters who were about to swamp the vehicle and fight eachother for the right to carry our bags the 20 yards or so to the bus were actually harmless and that we had nothing to worry about. He could have told us ten times but the sight of half a dozen guys running off with our packs at 5am was always going to be alarming. They lined our bags up neatly near the ti http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Tofo/blog-75908.html