Note to self....never travel without a guide book....

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Well our time in Kampala has finally come to an end and we have said a sad goodbye to the kids and the babies. In our last week we decided to take the children from PCA to the Ndere Centre which is a cultural Ugandan dance show. The kids loved it! The show is very interactive and they were all up on stage showing off their dance moves.

The next part of our travels we have decided to backpack/flash pack along the coast of Mozambique for 1 month - we will then travel across to Swaziland and then into J'burg where we fly out 30 November to Sydney.

Our trip started in the early hours in Kampala where we caught a lovely NEW bus (Queens Coach) to Nairobi (12 hours) and it is well worth a mention how impressed we were with how well organised it was - after all this is Africa. We left on time (very surprising) and we even had a waitress on the bus who we placed a lunch order with (all included in the price). We arrived in Nairobi amazingly stress free.

The next day we had half a day in Nairobi until our flight to Pemba - Mozambique at 5pm in the afternoon. We had been told to allow plenty of time to get to the Nairobi airport and we arrived 3 hours before our flight. The gates finally opened and I checked in ok however there was no reservation details for Tracey coming up in the system. To cut a very long story short, we waited and waited as it appeared other people who were on the same flight had similar problems. Finally Tracey had her ticket and we boarded the flight with no time to spare. It took 2 hours of waiting for the problem to be sorted. It appeared that LAM had overbooked the flight as there were some very unhappy people who did not board the flight and we gathered this happens all the time. We arrived in Pemba at a very small airport hoping to be met by a person from Pemba Dive and Bush Camp where we had booked for 3 nights however they were not there. A local was kind enough to phone the camp for us and we finally got our transfer to the camp. It was an event just to arrive in Mozambique and we did start to wonder what will be next in store for us.....

As we arrived late it was amazing to wake up and look out and see crystal clear blue water. Having been in the landlocked country of Uganda for so many months I was reminded how much I missed seeing the ocean. The bush camp was so peaceful and idealic. It was situated right on water where the sand was the perfect white and the water a beautiful clear crystal blue. The weather also hit us as it was extremely humid with the days about 27/28 degrees and overnight 24/25 degrees. We were originally only going to spend 3 or 4 nights at the camp but we ended up spending a relaxing 6 nights at the Bush Camp just filling our days lazying in the sun chairs and hammocks reading our books and going for swims every hour or so to cool off.

We did make a trip to the township of Pemba which was situated about 10kms from the Bush Camp. We were hoping to pick up some food supplies. As Pemba is a tourist destination I did expect tourist shops, supermarkets etc however no such thing. There is only 1 small supermarket in town with not allot of variety of food/goods. As the town is so remote food / accommodation is a little more pricer than what we were used to in Uganda. The people of Mozambique speak Portuguese and not allot of English so we have been tested with our limitted language of Portuguese. The Portuguese took control over Mozambique back in the 1800's and it is amazing to see the influence they have had on the country. We did manage to find a very small basic cafe selling delicious sweet pastries like custard tarts and apple scrolls and we did have a sneaky pastry or three.

So our plan was to catch a bus from Pemba heading south to Illha de Mozambique (Island of Mozambique - a 5 hour drive away) which was once the capital of Mozambique. The Arab sea traders made a base from this island and we were told it is a must see. So one afternoon we were all set to go into Pemba town to buy a bus ticket (which by the way you can only buy the day before and you have to make sure you go at a time outside siesta time - another Portugese influence). We were waiting at the Bush Camp for a lift into the town when luck arrived on our doorstep. 2 people had just arrived by private hire "taxi" from Illha de Mozambique and the driver was driving back to Illha. After negotiating on a fare (which was significantly cheaper than the US$250 the other tourists had paid) we quickly packed up our things and we were off to Illha. We were happy luck was on our side - however things turned for the worst. 20 kms from the Bush Camp our driver pulled over confirming his suspensions that we had a flat tyre. 4.5 hours later we still had a flat tyre. To cut a very long story short the driver tried to change the tyre but did not have the correct tools to get the flat tyre off the car. We did have some very frustrating moments as the driver could not speak any English and we could not speak any Portugese but we did use allot of sign language! We flagged down several cars but they too did not have the correct tools to help us. In the end we walked up the road to a small village and our taxi driver sign languaged he was going to be driven to Pemba town by one of the villagers to get the correct tools and we were stay at the village until he returned. This is where we stayed put for 4.5 hours (it was now dark) with only a villager woman selling mangoes who spoke no English for company. Our driver enventually returned but not with tools..... with a puncture kit. He fixed the tyre but by this stage it was late and the 3.5 km bridge which connects the mainland to Illha closed at 9pm so we had missed the crossing so it was back to the Bush Camp again for 1 night and an early 4am start the next morning to Illha. The taxi driver was extremely apologetic but alas no discount! What we did discover was the driver had found a key to the tools in his glove compartment and he would have had access to the correct tools all along..... This time all went to plan and we made it to Illha in 5 hours so we were at our hostel by 9.30am just in time for breakfast and a decent coffee.

Illha de Mozambique is an amazing place and very hard to put into words how totally unique the place is. It reminded me of Zanzibar prior to being restored for tourists in a way with very old unoccupied buildings and small alley ways. The island is not big and measures only 3km in length and 500 meters in width. We spent 3 days walking the island and looking at the amazing buildings. There were photo opportunities every time we turned a corner. We found 2 really nice places to eat fresh seafood and salads and we frequented them often. Again it was extremely hot and we needed siestas every day. We also found a place to have a swim as unfortunately we were told you could not swim at the beach as the hotels empty their sewerage straight into water. We had met 3 South Africans at the Pemba Bush Camp and they too happened to be on the island so we met up with them often and together we took a dhow out to one of the islands for a swim. The water colour was amazing and we were lucky enough to see dolphins not far from our boat. We ended up staying 3 nights in Illha and our next destination was Nampula for one night on the way to our ultimate destination - Vilanculos.

Nampula is only 150 kms away however we had heard and read some horror stories about catching the local toyota mini-vans (chapas) from the island to the township. Our South African friends took 3 hours to get from the small township of Nacala to Illha which is only 55kms away. They took a chapa and a truck (the locals just hop on and off pickup trucks) just to get to the island and were absolutely exaughsted by the time they arrived. The reason why it takes so long is because the locals jam pack the vans and people hop off and on. So with this in mind we prepared ourselves mentally as much as we could the night before for our trip to Nampula. We left early at 4am and we walked 3 kms to the bridge/chapa station with our 20 kilo backpacks and jumped on a chapa heading for Nampula. 4 hours later we arrived in Nampula. The experience to say the least was excruciating. For one it was extremely hot/humid and we had sweat running down our entire bodies, secondly we were sitting right at the back of the chapa and a seat that would normally fit 4 had 7 people on it. The chapa should take 14 people however I counted 24 people including chickens. It was a horrendous experience I do not want to live again. Due to this experience our decision was made for us......we wpuld fly the next leg of our trip to Beira (on way to Vilanculos). It was either 16 hours by bus (the tourist TCO bus) or fly. Our decison was made....if we could get a flight the next day to Beira we would fly.

So we managed to find a hotel in Nampula that was recommended to us and checked in. No time for resting as we had to go and find LAM airlines located in the town and try and book a flight for the next day. It is probably at this point that I should mention we did not have any Lonely Planet guide book for Mozambique. As we were not planning on visiting we did not bring one with us and this has made it extremely challenging/frustrating trying to plan for flights/buses/accommodation/internet/shops etc. At this stage of our tour we did feel like we were competing in the “Amazing Race” and have appropriately named our trip just that. Firstly we had to find locals who spoke English to point us in the right direction to places then try and find the places which at times could be challenging not knowing if we were being told the correct information or not. We did eventually find LAM airlines though and again luck was on our side, and there was a flight leaving the next day (apparently there are not flights every day). We made a booking for a flight mid morning the next day and arriving in Beira (the airline does not fly direct to Vilanculos) mid-day. It did save us a 16 hour bus ride and it was totally worth it. We had icey cold airconditioning for the entire 1.5hr flight.

We arrived in Beira all re-freshed from our flight and stepped out of the airport into the hot/humid mid-day. We caught a taxi to the hotel we were told by people to stay at and again we were lucky that there was a room available for 1 night. Again no rest for the wicked as we had to go and buy a ticket for the TCO bus leaving at 4am the next morning to Vilanculos (5 hour bus ride). Again we had to ask locals for directions to the TCO station to purchase our tickets. 3 different people later and 5 kms from Beira we found the depo. The question was.....will there be 2 spare seats for us to leave on the bus the next day? Of course when we tried to book the computer system was down and we were told to sit and wait for the system to come up. Success - we purchased 2 tickets for the next morning leaving at 4am. (4 am seems to be the time most buses leave in Mozambique...we have now figured out why - firstly it is the coolest part of day over here and 2ndly the sun rises at 5am!). We dragged our weary selves back to Beira town (having walked over 10kms in the heat) and found a nice place for dinner. We did notice as we were eating our dinner there was a life size brass kangaroo in the restaurant (what the??). We then went back to our hotel to book a taxi to pick us up to take us to the bus station at 3.30am the next morning and again we had problems. The receptionist behind the front counter of our hotel could not speak any English. We then noticed a taxi cab parked out the front of our hotel. We waited for the taxi guy to show up and eventually we booked for him to pick us up the next morning......an exaughsting day all round.

Our bus trip to Vilanculos was fine. The seats were very comfortable and it was actually like being on an airoplane. We were dropped off at the Vilanculos turn off and then it was a ride on another chapa or back of a truck (14kms) with people jumping on and off to Vilanculos town. We found our hostel (Zombie Cumcumbre) which was a fantastic little camp/hostel with a swimming pool...bliss. We ended up staying 3 days in Vilanculos. One day we went on a snorkling trip out to an island by boat where we spent the morning snorkling and finding the most colourful fish. It was perfect and could only be topped off with chargrilled crab and salad for lunch. Vilanculos was to be my favourite destination so far.

3 days later we were on the road again on our way further south to a tiny beach place called Tofo. Again we caught the TCO bus for 3 hours to a place called Maxaine where we jumped off to catch a ferry (20 mins) to a town called Inhambane where we would pick up a chapa for a 10km trip to Tofo...sounds exaughsting and it was! We had heard so many people talk about Tofo and how they thought they would stay for 3 days but end up staying 10. As I am writing this blog I have one more day left here in Tofo and it has been very relaxing but I do prefer Vilanculos to Tofo. We have stayed here 5 nights and tomorrow morning we will be on the 4am bus to Maputo which is about 7 hours. Luckily one of the campsites here has a shuttle that runs everyday from Tofo to Maputo so we will not have to do any chapa or ferry crossing again!

We plan to have 3 nights in Maputo then on to Swaziland for 4 nights.

Enjoy the photos!

Kath xx

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Photos

Pemba Bush and Dive Camp
Beautiful sunset over looking the water at the bush camp.

Pemba Bush and Dive Camp
This is the place where we read our books on sunbeds and hammocks. The crystal blue water was on metres from us.....ahhh bliss.

Flat tyre
Tracey on the side of the road with our packs and our private hire taxi man trying to fix the punctured tyre.

Waiting......
This is where we waited for 4.5 hours for our taxi driver to return. You may be able to see the mangoes in the background for sale.

Hospital
Illha de Mozambique...one of the amazing buildings on the island. Surprisingly enough the hospital is still operating from the building but only on the other side.

Little kids
We met these 2 little kids on Illha de Mozambique and they wanted us to take their photo.

Illha de Mozambique
Carry items of gods know what on her head.

Dhow trip
This is the island where we swam off Illha de Mozambique. The water was so warm and crystal clear.

Our Dhow
Our dhow we went over to the island in.

Brass kangaroo
Very random brass kangaroo we saw at a coffee shop in Beira...what the????

Chapa ride
This is the back of the truck we travelled 14kms in to Vilanculos town. The truck was full of people by the time we left.

Waiting for the TCO bus
I am waiting on the side of the road for our TCO bus to stop and pick us up for our trip heading to Tofo.

Tofo beach
The view from our campsite looking out to Tofo beach. The beach really reminds me of the ones in QLD.