Tofo = Paradise!

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Just another quick one, as Mozambique is a ridiculously expensive country I have discovered and this stupid internet cafe is costing me 3mets a minute! (Which reminds me, Mum please check your facebook about money matters! Hotmail doesnt work here again!)

We ended up only staying in Maputo for one night, it might be the capital but it's a hole! Imagine a dirty grotty dangerous city that you hate, then times it by ten. The people aren't nice, the place is dirty and there's litter EVERYWHERE and the pavement is torn to pieces, you can tell the country is recovering! It's just very war-torn and a mess and we weren't enjoying spending time there, there were lots of places the hostel suggested not to go to because of muggings and we found we just didn't want to leave the hostel unless we were in a big group.

Luckily we made good friends at the Swaziland Backpackers, who then decided to come with us to Mozambique for a bit! They met us at the Maputo backpackers. Del is the manager of the one in Swaziland, and Ben is 20-something and was travelling, and now he's setting up a volunteer programme in Swaziland for the orphanage. He was meant to go home in December but he's sticking around til he runs out of money! They said they were only coming with us for a couple of nights but then when we hated Maputo they offered to drive us to Tofo the next day in their hire-car - a much nicer prospect than getting up at 5:30am to get a 10 hour shuttle!

Tofo is SOOOOO nice. The backpackers is called Fatima's Nest and it's AWESOME! It's actually ON a sand dune so there's always sand under your feet, and all the dorms are in little beach huts. The bar is outdoors just under a thatch roof thing looking out onto the beach, and to get to the other bars and food places you just have t walk five minutes down the beach. There's SO many people satying here and everyone's so nice. Last night at the bar we just had a campfire on the beach with everyone, I loved it I wish we could do it in England! (Han and Hol I'm soooo bringing you here, you'd love it so much!). There's little markets and things about, and a really nice little place called Waterworks - 'the coffee and surf shop' and they sell exactly that! They do breakfasts and lunches and homemade cakes and coffee and stuff, and have sofas and things just on the sand with magazines and what-have-you, but they also have a surf and bookshop round the back and they do board/snrokel hire. How fun would it be to work in a place like this! It really is so nice though, everywhere you look there's palm trees and coconuts and THE BEACH! :D

I attempted surfing yesterday adn was terrible! Samy said the surf wasn't very good anyway but me and Ben were soooo bad. I didn't get to stand up but did get on a few waves...and got thrown off a few too! It was really fun but a bit scary - especially when I was out of my depth quite far (you need to be) and a massive wave came and knocked me off, and my ankle strap to my board snappped! I had to go searching for it!! It was lots of fun though, we might try again tomorrow if the surf is better :D and maybe I'll finally get to stand up!

We're also gonna do an ocean safari while we're here which means we'll get to snorkel and see whale sharks and turtles and things :D I would have loved to go diving as well as they run introductory courses here but I just don't think I'm gonna be able to afford it 😞.

I'd better finish up here now as it's eating my money away, but I'm having lots of fun and keeping safe I promise! I'm gonna be sad to leave here, apart from the prices it's like paradise!

Miss you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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