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Published: November 18th 2013
Heading south again we entered Mozambique at the
Zobue border post hoping that our visa’s were in order, which they were but we had to wait whilst our Australian colleagues this time (not the Swiss) obtained theirs which seem to take an age - ‘but this is Africa’, we have heard that saying so much that we were repeating it now! You did not have to find a bank to get your monies exchanged as at most of the border crossings locals with huge wads of money were trying to make some more - not sure whether we got good rates or not but it was quite easy to change the multitude of currencies we had. We were now used to the
Pula in Botswana, the
Kwacha in Malawi, the
Zambian Kwacha which was different to the Malawi one, the
Meticais in Mozambique as well as the
Rand in South Africa changing these with the
US Dollars and
Dirhamswe had brought with us from Dubai. Doug if you read this we will have plenty of coins for your collection at the end of our trip.
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique is bordered by the Indian Ocean to
the east and
six countries, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia northwest, Zimbabwe west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. The country was colonized by Portugal in 1505 and after four centuries of Portuguese rule it gained independence in 1975. Since then it has been battered by civil war, economic mismanagement and famine. A peace deal in 1992 ended 16 years of civil war, and the country has made much progress in economic development and political stability since then. Most of the population works the land and the infrastructure nationwide still suffers from colonial neglect, war and under-investment. The capital is
Maputo and the only official language of Mozambique is Portuguese, which is spoken mostly as a second language by about half of the population.
As soon as we
crossed the border we noticed that the roads were in an appalling state with huge pot holes everywhere, the bus had to keep swaying from side to side to avoid them - some of which were extremely deep. We noticed many more people living alongside the roads and it was much more frenetic than Malawi. Locals seemed less friendly as we
drove past the villages and through the small towns. Children did not come running to greet us, although a few smiled and waved as we passed but not the constant smiling and waving we had seen in Malawi and shouting of ‘how are you’. The villages were cleaner though with much less rubbish rotting on the sides of the road. Throughout our trip we noticed that most of the smaller villages were so much cleaner than the slightly bigger towns where the outskirts would be littered with abandoned rubbish.
We had a very long journey to get to the coast which was going to take us three days and two nights. We crossed back over the Zambezi River and into the
Tete region, travelling all day on hot dusty potholed roads before we finally arrived at our first overnight stop. What a strange campsite it was, it really was a very basic guesthouse with bar/restaurant (loud music) and no camping ground or facilities. We actually put our our tents up in what was a
children’s playground, complete with climbing frame. Just behind us were some small dodgem cars and a mini train but they were
closed, thank goodness. There was no camp washroom so we were allocated two of the guest chalet rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls and given two keys. However there were no doors to the showers and before long the floor was swimming with water. As we were late arriving and Jeff and Jacob had to go off again to sort out yet more tyres we had dinner in the restaurant and the food was not too bad. Just as we were getting ready for bed though the music became louder and the lights came on behind our tent, the children’s playground had opened for business! Needless to say we did not have a good night and had to be up early in the morning to start travelling again so were not amused - it was quite a relief in the end to be travelling on again.
We continued on passing yet more villages where women were forming long queues at the few Wells near the villages and then carrying water or firewood on their heads back to their homes, many balancing babies and young children on their backs at the same
time. The thatched homes appeared more desolate and were made of wood and mud rather than brick based, although we did see a few brick kilns. In the villages we could see the women grinding grain with massive grinding stones, whilst young children sat around watching, there appeared to be many more women than men that we could see. The women were also out in the fields with only basic hand tools, tilling away huge areas of land. We later came across a few fields being farmed and even saw a couple of small tractors but this was the only machinery we saw in the whole area - not even many ox and carts to help with the ploughing.
We continued driving until mid afternoon stopping several times to try and buy some fruit without much success before arriving at our campsite. It was called Crocodile Farm and yes, there were a couple of old looking ‘crocs ‘wallowing in a small pool but not quite what one had expected! There were a number of birds though including Blue Waxbills and a large colony of yellow Masked Weavers with their nest dangling from the trees above
the crocodiles - hope the young do not fall out - not enough meat for the crocs though! Again the campsite was very basic but in a nice setting that overlooked a large river so we were happy. It also had a small swimming pool which was very welcome after our hot journey and nice to sit and chill with a cool drink in the hand. Before long though it clouded over and looked like it was going to rain but it did not come to much.
Our journey continued the next morning and it was really humid and hot on the bus. We managed to buy some apples and nectarines but the shops were really short of fruit and vegetables. Jeff brought some bananas off a local women who walked by balancing them on her head but they were well past their sell by date - beggars cannot be choosers though. Someone in the group asked if we could try
‘pap’ which is a traditional South African staple food and is a mash made out of maize, usually served with a sauce based on tomato and onion. We tried it but I was not
that keen - Jeff and Jacob loved it though, particularly with
boerewors, again I did not like these either much to strong but both are considered a tasty treat for any
braai (BBQ) lover here.
We were now getting hopeful that we were nearly at the end of these long travelling days as the coast of Mozambique was getting closer. It was really uncomfortable on the bus for such long journeys, but everyone rotated the seats each day which was extremely fair. When it was your ‘turn’ for the back row you were jostled up and down, particularly over the bumpy roads and sometimes even took off, which one would have done without the lap belt securely fastened. Why did it always seemed to be our turn in the back row when the roads were really rough!!!!!!!
HORROR IN MOZAMBIQUE We were a little concerned when Jeff told us that due to suspected Renamo guerrillas ambushing a passenger bus we would have to join an ‘armed convoy’ between
Muxungue and Save. The ambush had resulted in the death of the driver as well as injuring ten of
the passengers, several trucks had also been set on fire along the route we would have to travel. However there were
no other roads for us to go on so we could not avoid the area without going back to Malawi and it had just taken us three days to get here. We were really surprised with this news as we had checked the Foreign Office travel advice and there had been no restrictions for travel throughout Mozambique at the time. However fears of hit-and-run attacks by armed partisans of Renamo opposition leader had increased after the army overran his base, forcing him to flee into the bush here. The former rebel group Renamo fought a 16-year civil war against the ruling Frelimo party which ended in a 1992 peace pact that established multiparty politics. However Renamo has lost every election since then and the party, which was demanding electoral reforms, has recently stated that it was abandoning the peace agreement. This has raised concerns that the country could slip back into a wider conflict and we had arrived in the middle of this with no other way out!
So on arrival at
Muxungue we
joined the growing number of vehicles parked alongside the road, noting that we appeared to be the only tourist amongst them, most being large trucks and buses. Locals were taking the opportunity of a ‘captive audience’ to sell bread, drinks and cashew nuts as well as live chickens to anyone who wanted them. Some local boys were wandering around with small empty water bottles and asking anyone for their empty ones. We handed over our 5 ltr bottle which only had a little water left and they looked like we had given them a ‘pot of gold’. We were was supposed to set off at 1300 hours but it was 1430 hours before the convoy was ready to depart. Just before our departure the area suddenly became inundated with armed police and soldiers. They were walking along the convoy and some of them were getting into private vehicles and trucks. Everyone was now eager to start moving and away from the stagnant heat and long wait - we had been here nearly three hours.
It was quite alarming as we thought there would only be a few guards but we were being escorted by a
large number of police and troops. The convoy was guarded by heavily armed vehicles with soldiers at the front and rear as well as in between. Three armed soldiers
climbed on to the roof of our red bus and another sat with Jeff and Jacob in the front of the bus, he was very cool with dark sunglasses. Everyone thought it was quite funny at first as all you could see were the
soldiers boots dangling down outside our windows, but it soon turned quite serious as we set off with all this heavy security.
We had just passed through the small village of
Macequesse which seemed deserted when I noticed that the vehicles ahead had stopped. The soldiers were jumping down from the vehicles and dropping quickly to the ground facing the bush with their rifles ready. The soldiers on our bus surrounded our vehicle and scanned the bush as well whilst we all held our breath and watched from our seats thinking possibly it was a military exercise! Suddenly the soldiers all climbed back on and Jeff started driving again, then the gunfire started and we saw empty rounds dropping off the top
of our vehicle and the noise was deafening. Everyone dived as best they could on to the floor or crouched low in their seats and just prayed for the bullets to stop as there was nothing else one could do. Some struggled with their seat belts but we were lucky as we had undone ours in anticipation that something was going to happen. Paul being an, ‘ex-trained killer’ was first on the floor and ended up with me and someone else on top of him losing his glasses in the process - I scratched my leg on something but that was all. Once the gunfire stopped we slowly got back into our seats, breathed again and the convoy proceeded down the pot holed road with everyone now scanning the bush carefully.
We stopped several times more with the soldiers getting out of the bus checking the road and bush, which in parts was very dense it would be very difficult to see anyone and we never did - thank goodness. Everyone on board just wanted the bus to keep moving as we were like
sitting ducks sat in a bright red bus with its huge
windows all around and three heavily armed soldiers on our roof. Along the roadside we saw a number of burnt out vehicles and also the bus where the driver had been killed, making us realise how lucky we were. We slowed right down to cross over a temporary bridge which had been partially destroyed and finally reached what we hoped was relative safety. We had reached the town of
Save (should be called Safe!) and the soldiers guards stood down waving to us as they all re-grouped together waiting to head back on yet another convoy - the cool guy with the dark glasses raised his hand and smiled.
What a dreadful day it was, although no-one had panicked, looking back it was really very scary, although at the time we did not feel it - it was like watching from afar. Speaking later with our fellow travellers most had been terrified and thought that they were going to be shot, a very frightening experience and one we hope never to have to repeat.
WE WERE LUCKY The next day Jeff, who I must say was brilliant,
as he kept the bus moving whilst all the gunfire was going off, said that Sunway, our tour company had sent him a message to say that they had not realised there were serious problems in the area and apologized to us all. They said that they were not aware that a day earlier another tour group had also been shot at causing their bus to break down and they had to be rescued from the area, so we were very lucky indeed that Jeff kept our bus going and we did not get another puncture. I think something needs to be done about communications between tour operators and their buses on the road where these issues of safety are concerned. Someone should be aware of the political situation in the area particularly as we were led to believe that the convoys had been operating in this area for a while! Sunway had another group following our route who were in Malawi but they were being diverted from the area and all future tours had been cancelled - so we were the last tour group through this area of Mozambique for quite a while I think. Its sad though as
the loss of tourism in this area of Mozambique will mean many people losing their livelihoods in an already poor area, still struggling from years of civil war.
We were just happy that we had escaped unscratched out of the area. - apparently
Winston Churchill also had a lucky escape through Mozambique many years ago:
Churchill arrived in South Africa as a newspaper correspondent for the Morning Post to cover the Boer War between British and Dutch settlers in 1899. Unfortunately, he was present at an ambush of an armored train and captured by enemy Boer soldiers. Churchill along with the other prisoners arrived in Pretoria at a prison but a few days later when the prison guards turned their backs, he took the opportunity to climb over the prison wall and escape. Wearing a brown flannel suit and with some money and four slabs of chocolate in his pocket, he walked leisurely through the night in the hope of finding the Delagoa Bay Railway. So began his great escape and journey to freedom. Churchill jumped onto a train and hid among soft sacks covered in coal dust, leaving the train before daybreak, he continued on his escape. With luck, he happened upon the home of John Howard, manager of the Transvaal Collieries. Upon knocking on his door, Howard’s response to Winston Churchill plea for help was ‘Thank God you have come here! It is the only house for 20 miles where you would not have been handed back over’. Churchill was fed well and later hidden in the underground stables of the mine with the Boer forces searching high and low for him without success. Later he hid behind some packing cases in the office and finally was hidden on a railway truck loaded with wool bound for
Mozambique with the train finally reaching its destination two days later. The British Consul was not immediately convinced of Churchill's identity but after two days a cable reached John Howard, it read, ‘goods arrived safely’. It was sometime later that WC went into politics and the rest is history. Back to present day - Recent reports for Mozambique state that the United Nations, former colonial ruler Portugal, the Catholic Church and foreign donor governments including the
United States have all called on
Frelimo and Renamo to negotiate their differences and avoid a return to war. Mozambique's economy is expected to grow 7%!t(MISSING)his year - one of the fastest in Africa and investors have been developing some of the world's largest untapped coal/gas reserves and a conflict would certainly derail any such growth.
BACK TO SAFETY Even though we were still in Mozambique it was such a relief to be heading South. The landscape started to change and tall Palm trees replaced the bush, it became much greener and had a distinct Caribbean feel. Hills and small escarpments dotted the horizon, which was quite strange after travelling for so long through mainly flat countryside. The palms were planted by the Arabs along the old trading routes and further on there were large coconut plantations lining the roadside. Locals were selling coconuts and mangos on the sides of these roads and there were orchards of ripe mangoes - more fruit at last......... We finally made it to the Indian Ocean and the coastal town of
Vilankulos our next stop. Everyone kept telling us that this part of
the country was very stable and had also been so during the civil war, although it had lost lots of its tourism business and even now, 21 years later was only steadily recovering.
We arrived at our accommodation and at least we did not have to put up our tents as we were staying in small chalets but again had to share two toilets and showers which was a bit much for 14 people all trying to use them at the same time. Across the road was the beach which was not the prettiest with lots of rubbish above the tide line and some very rusty old boats many disappearing into the sand.
The next day we set off on a very old local dhow, a traditional trade vessel of the area heading to the island of
Margaruque. The Island is located about 8 km from Vilankulos Harbour and is quite tiny being only 1.6 km long and 1.4 km wide but is still the third largest island in the Bazaruto archipelago. It has a permanent deep water channel with good reef snorkelling along the edge and tidal flats on
the landward side. The area boasts many species of fish including the much sought after Marlin and Sail Fish. Once on board the dhow the crew of three proceeded to light a small charcoal fire right in the middle of the boat - it was the first boat that we had ever been on that had a real fire! One of the crew heated the kettle and served us tea and coffee as we set off towards the island. As we neared there were several large sandbars and we actually got stuck on them a couple of times but the skipper managed to maneuver the boat off - Bob/Elaine does that bring back memories of our few hours landlocked in Keyhaven! As we neared the island we saw several fishermen who looked like they were standing in the middle of the ocean. The were actually taking advantage of the tides and standing on the flats fishing whilst their boats bobbed nearby - quite surreal. Once we reached the island we had to walk along some sharp rocks to find a way into the water to snorkel which was quite slippery but we eventually managed to find a good spot. The
snorkelling was OK, although a little cloudy but there was quite a strong current so we just drifted down with no effort needed at all - quite relaxing after our stressful last few days. It was a shame that the sun was not out as we got cold quite quickly so set off to walk around the island to warm up.
I was hoping to find a whole Pansy Shell, which the owner of the dhow had said were on the island but alas did not find any. We did not have enough time to visit nearby Pansy Island where the beach is covered in them which was a shame as they are very pretty and quite rare. I had found some small ones in Australia and Bronwyn who we stayed with in Melbourne had shown me a very large one that she had found on a beach in Mozambique and I was hoping to find some to photograph. They have a little story to them which I mentioned in one of my blogs from Australia but repeat it below if you did not read it:
There's a pretty little legend, That I would like to tell, Of the birth and death of Jesus, Found in this lovely shell, If you examine closely, you'll see that you find here, Four nail holes and a fifth one, Made by the Roman spear, One on each side is the Easter lily it's center is the star, That appeared unto the shepherds and led them from afar, The Christmas poinsettia, Etched on the other side, Reminds us of His birthday our happy Christmastide, Now break the center open and here you will release, The five white doves awaiting, To spread goodwill and peace, This simple little symbol, Christ has left for you and me, To help us spread His gospel, Through all eternity.
We enjoyed our walk on the island it was so peaceful and quiet. We sat under the shade and once the tide started to come in the crew carefully maneuvered the boat along the tidal flats and served us fish, freshly caught and cooked on the the boat, which was delicious. It was a perfect day but although it was warm the sun didn’t appear which was a shame as over the last
through days with all the travelling on the bus it had been shining so brightly and we had tried to avoid it. On the way back it started raining and got really chilly but the crew put the sail up and
heated popcorn on the fire for us. It was quite strange sitting on a dhow in the middle of the Indian Ocean, eating warm popcorn in the pouring rain. The popcorn kept blowing away in the wind but Weibke, Anne and Tanja managed to eat some very big portions and then a second bowl suddenly appeared and they ate more! The noise of the huge sail flapping and groaning with the wind as we headed back to the main land was extremely therapeutic.
The next day we headed to
Inhambane, travelling through cashew nut and coconut plantations and crossing the
Tropic of Capricorn on the way,
which was signposted on the road. We stopped to take some photographs and a local girl had great fun posing before we could get in to take our own shots. By the time we got back to the bus we were surrounded by locals
villagers, word gets around quickly here.
Inhambane is steeped in history as one of the
oldest settlements on the East Coast of Mozambique with its roots in the Arab slave trade and where ivory, gold and spices were traded. It is a sleepy historic town known for its rusting colonial architecture and we stopped at the 200 year old cathedral of our
Lady of Conception to take a walk
. The cathedral is located in the old quarter of the city where a rusty ladder leads to the top of the spire which apparently offers panoramic views of the city and harbour. It was closed on the day of our visit so we did not get to see and it did not look like it had been opened for a while. We continued on for another few miles to
Tofo Point where we were staying at Casa Barry Lodge on the beach. At last we had some luxury accommodation for two nights, small reed casitas with our own en-suite and really spacious. The property borders the high-water mark and there were pretty views of the entire bay from the restaurant and bar area.
A few steps down from the bar and you were on a soft white sandy beach and a few steps more and you were swimming in the warm Mozambique water.
During out few days here some of the group went diving looking for Whalesharks and Manta Rays but we just chilled by the beach. Others went on a snorkelling safari but as we had recently swam with Whalesharks in the Maldives so we gave it a miss. We would have liked to have seen a Manta Ray though but the ocean here is quite deep and the mantas cannot usually be seen by snorkelling alone. Unluckily the divers did not get to see them either, even though they managed to fit in three dives but they said they had seen sharks, smaller rays and colourful fish and were happy with their dives. The group that went snorkelling did not get too see much either and five on the boat were really seasick including Edwin as it was quite rough once you got out in the open ocean, so again we are glad we ‘stayed at home’. Edwin I think you should keep to dry land
on your future travels!
The next day we headed south down the coast to the town of
Bilene, situated on the shores of the Uembje lagoon. Along the way small stands were set up by the roadside and locals were selling their own brand of Peri Peri sauce which is popular in this area. We passed through the town of Xia Xia and stopped to fill up the tank, I was approached by an elderly lady with a large white tub (like the ones we kept our belongings in when we were canoeing). She smiled at me showing me the only tooth she had before slowly opening the lid, inside were four tortoises which she tried to get me to buy - I did refuse......... memories of Costa Rica came flooding back when we bought a little wild bird in a cage from two children - never again - if you read that blog you will understand why.
Uembje lagoon is 8km wide and 27km long with clear water and white sandy beaches and we were hoping to have time for a dip. However we had yet
another puncture along the way,
cannot remember if this was the 4th or the 5th! At least when we stop though we have time for the delightful
bush toilet visit - although this time we had stopped by a village so had to find a suitable private spot...... Quite soon local children had arrived to watch the change of tyre process whilst they looked after some of their goats. The children broke off branches from the trees to feed the goats who were quite selective, preferring the cashew nut branches and refusing the others. Our Swiss travelling companion, Bodo really liked the goats as well and helped feed them too..........
We arrived at our next campsite and only had time to walk to the lagoon, it was much to late for a dip. The lagoon had a couple of small colourful
wooden plank boats bobbing on the clear water with another one completing submerged that had been there for a very long time. A young girl was washing clothes whilst her baby sat and watched from the side but we did not see anyone else it was so quiet. The campsite was also quiet and we were the only
visitors. On request the owner opened the bar for an hour so that we could buy some drinks which we brought back to the camp to have with our dinner. The campsite was very basic indeed and we camped on hard sand all very close together in what was like an animal corral with only a couple of unisex showers and toilets between us all - how we missed yesterday’s ‘luxury’ accommodation. Paul and I took a shower together as there were so many mosquitoes that one had to stand guard whilst the other washed.....
We set off early the next morning at six and before long crossed over a massive dam which was being constructed close to the border crossing. So we are
finally to leave Mozambique and I think all the group are happy to do so following our unforgettable time here. We checked the UK Foreign Office travel advice for the country which had been updated on 1st November, (the day we travelled along the convoy road), saying ‘
only necessary travel in this area’ which was a bit too late for us, but hopefully would prevent other people having the
same dreadful experience. This area of Mozambique is a beautiful paradise and we hope that the political troubles are sorted out soon and tourist can easily access all of the country once again. Now we are going to head through the
Giriyondo Gate Border Crossing and back into South Africa through the Transfrontier Limpopo Park into
Kruger National Park - see you there.
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The Travel Camel
Shane Dallas
Armed Escort
Gosh, what a story - though you went through a very stressful experience to collect such a tale. I've been in several armed escorts, but never were there shots fired in anger. Hope you are all feeling fine now. Just a question, how many hours was the journey with the armed convoy?