Blogs from Tofo, Southern, Mozambique, Africa - page 3

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 ... read more

What an innocent day this particular Sunday was going to be. I was to lie down on the beach of Tofo until mid-afternoon. From there I would go to Inhambane around 20 minutes away to get some money out and go back home - There are no ATM’s in Tofo so the only way to get money out, is to go out of town - The first part of the day went as planned - At 3pm I left to get some money out… I would return 4 hours later. Sometimes you just have to laugh when a simple task like getting money out of an ATM in Africa can be a problem. MasterCard/Cirrus/Maestro cards are just awful cards to have in Africa. Very few banks accept it and since my VISA and Plus cards were ... read more

The joys of Africa Yes it's been a while between drinks, but I'm finally in Botswana and have a semi reliable internet connection. Something I haven't really had much of since I left South Africa. The overnight bus from Johannesburg to Maputo was fairly good, all things considered. We arrived at the Mozambique border around 3am and had to walk between check points while a million people were trying to exchange money at a bad rate, or sell us sim card's for about 33cents each, or steal foreign passports. I passed on these and got across the border without any hassles. After a day in the capital, a bunch of us caught a bus to Tofo, on the coast. This was not such a comfortable bus ride but after 8 hours of dust and bumps and ... read more

Disclaimer: I take full responsibility for this rather long and rambling account of our latest adventure. I hold free of liability and responsibility, the US Peace Corps, the American Government and any of its affiliates, clandestine and public with liberty and justice for all. Read on at your own risk. Ahhh, vacations! I once reveled in dreams of exotic beaches, sun, books, and deep relaxation, but this vacation, this was not to be just a vacation, but a vacation to the beaches of Mozambique, even the name sounds romantic and relaxing. Mozambique, it just rolls so smoothly from the lips. I used to relax just hearing the name, but no more. This is one of those vacation stories that I will find amusing to tell about in maybe a decade, should I live so long after ... read more

Day 58 - Tofo - 25/9/09 Woke up a very sleepy Michelle at about 0430 to make sure she would be ready to catch the minibus. I, like always was up earlier then needed, I packed the final little bit into my rucksack and waited in the reception area for the shuttle bus to arrive. The driver came into the reception and beckoned everybody onto the minibus; we all pilled in and set off. We stopped off at the bus stop, I actually use the term bus station very loosely; actually it should be described as a car park with 100's of buses all parked up looking for passengers. We took our seats, leaving our bags on the ground outside, we sat there never seeing our bags being loaded and as a result spending the whole ... read more