Beach bumming in Mozambique

---

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 I was missing my friends and was back on my own, but anyway, decided that rather than staying somewhere that resembled Scotland in the middle of winter I'd move on to sunnier climes, namely Mozambique!
Soon after beginning my mission of a trip to get to Mozambique I started to regret it! On leaving the hostel I was ushered on to a chappa (a very knackered mini bus which at home would seat about 8 people, if it were allowed on the road!), with about what seeemed like about 25 other people. I sat in the corner at the back and had to endure a journey of about 6 hours squashed in next to the window surrounded by rather smelly african people! Finally arrived in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique and got myself in to a taxi, which cost me the same amount as my whole chappa trip from Swaziland had done, so I wasn't too impressed!

Arrived at my hostel to find that i felt a bit like a fish out of water. All of a sudden there were no backpackers around and only a load of people that spoke Portuguese (the language in Mozambique) who i couldn't understand!! It took me a while to find my feet, but soon met another 'traveller' in my dorm from France called Jack who turned out to be quite cool. We got chatting and soon relaised we were both planning on getting out of Maputo ASAP as the beach was calling us! So next morning the two of us got up at 5 to get down to the bus station to board our luxury bus to Tofo! When I say luxury I mean that in the very loosest sense of the word!! On the bus we met Katta, a german girl who was also heading to Tofo so we got chatting and managed to divert our attention from the horrendous surroundings (the bus must have been about 30 years old and would never have been allowed on the road in any civilized country.. on average the journey to Tofo takes about 8 hours and that doesn't include the breakdowns!)
So approximately 8 hours later, having sat on the rickety bus driving along dirt tracks most of the way we arrived in Inhambane. We were then taken to Tofo on another Chappa and finally arrived at Fatima's hostel.. right on the edge of an amazing beach!! So all of a sudden the bus journey disappeared form our memories as we sat down in the evening sun and had a drink.

The plan was just to stay in Tofo for three or four days, but after spending just a couple of days there I soon realised I might have to stay longer! I met another girl called Kek who is wicked and when Jack and Katta moved Kek and I decided to stay a bit longer.
Spent the next two and a bit weeks just hanging out on the beach. I did a snorkelling safari whcih was great and I saw Whale sharks up really closely..In fact at one point I jumped in to find one of these things swimming right towards me, which was slightly alarming considering they're about the size of a bus! Fortunately they are harmless so I needn't have worried about being eaten!

When we weren't just relaxing on the beach or in the bar having a drink looking at the beach, we were surfing, swimming and just exploring the area. The seafood was amazing and I was lucky enough to be hanging out with a lovely couple called Stephano and Lauren. Stephano is Italian and wants to be a chef and have his own restaurant, so luckily for us he was quite happy to practise his culinary skills on us, cooking up amazing gourmet meals for us!

Unfortunately Jack, Lauren and Stephano departed so Kek and I were left to fend for ourselves again! Just to let you know, Mozambique life goes at a pace so slowly that you feel as though you are never going to get anything done. It's a mission to get hold of any food, and fruit, like pineapples or bananas, which are grown in abundance is about 1000 times more expensive to buy if you happen to have white skin, which is slightly irritating. You just have to get used to it otherwise it would drive you mad.. Computers are like gold dust and the only internet is a very smelly cramped chappa ride away in Inhambane (which is my excuse for being so rubbish at doing this blog!) Eventually we got fed up with the chappa's and managed to survive by hitching rides in the back of pickups, which was far more exciting and just the best way to travel by far in a place like that!!

After about 2 weeks of doing not very much in Tofo, Kek and I decided we really couldn't stay there for ever so made a plan to leave the next day. The main reason was that lots of people seemed to be getting malaria, and the thought of that didn't really appeal. The other (quite big) reason for leaving was that several people had been having problems with worm type things (which seem to appear at around the time the mangos start coming into harvest - and coincidentally exactly the time we were there) burrowing in to their toes. One morning I went in to the bar to find one of the guys hobbling around with a bandage on his toe, having had one of these horrific things crawl into his toe, and had it removed. The rest of us soon decided we ought to check our own toes and shortly afterwards, most of the people in the campsite found these things burrowing into their feet also! Fortunately the a local guy was an expert on these things and he checked my feet and found them to be worm free, which was a huge relief. One german guy thought he noticed something slightly weird with his feet and when the guy checked them out, he found 37!!! Luckily, this local guy knew how to get them out, so with something like a toothpick, he dug into this guys toes and one at a time got them all out. The whole ordeal took about 2 hours and the poor man was in agony.. it was bad enough just watching them being taken out!

So, we decided to leave pretty swiftly, and the next morning I went to get Kek with my bags all packed, only to find her slumped over the table. Turned out she'd got malaria!! So after a couple more days in the worm/malaria infested zone, I did my best to try and nurse Kek back to health and then we got oursleves out of there!! Me, being pretty glad that somehow I'd managed to escape the worms and malaria. Or so I thought.........!!!!

So I think that's about it for Tofo..I have got lots of photos to show you of everything, and have just realised that I don't even have my USB cable so I apologise but can't show you any right now but will hopefully be able to do it soon!!

---