Blogs from Southern, Mozambique, Africa - page 17

Past travels There's a patch of sand in Mozambique. An isolated patch of sand that was calling us. It was fairly remote and would take a while to get there. We hadn't explored it yet but had discussed the option for years. From past experience we knew that travelling through Mozambique and on soft sand it could take far longer than anticipated. Why not make a decent road trip out of this? The total distance to Pomene was approximately 1200 km. The distance we would travel from the border to Pomene in Mozambique itself was about 700 km. Once we left the tar road it would be about 50 kilometres to Pomene, the first section was red sand and the rest soft beach type sand. An average GPS would probably tell you it would take you ... read more

So, we've spent the best part of four days over Christmas in the Mozambican capital, Maputo. Maputo comes closer than anywhere else we've visited to the lazy Western stereotype of the African city: dusty, litter-strewn, pot-holed streets choked with black clouds of pollution from cars that should have been consigned to the scrapheap years ago; the better, older buildings quietly decaying while the newer ones, where most of the people live, are mostly ramshackle single storey affairs that look like they wouldn't survive a sharp gust of wind. As Mozambique, unlike everywhere else we've visited, is not a former British colony but rather was occupied by the Portuguese, Portuguese is very much the dominant language, and English is generally limited. We set off to see the sights of the city at 10am one morning. Once we ... read more

eigentlich wollten wir am montag 3.12.2007 den bus von johannesburg nach maputo nehmen, aber da uns diverse leute erzaehlt haben dass die busse an der grenze nicht warten um ein visum zu erhalten, haben wir uns entschieden am montag in johannesburg das visum fuer jennifer zu organisieren und dann am dientag den bus zu nehmen... der letzte abend in johannesburg war lang und intensiv. wir waren in melville im ausgang. um 5 uhr waren wir zurueck im hostal und hatten noch gerade genuegend zeit um unsere sachen zusammenzupacken und dann mit dem shuttle zum busterminal zu fahren. dort bemerkten wir dann, dass sie uns ein falsches ticket ausgestellt hatten... und wir eine stunde spaeter fahren werden. nun, anstatt 7.15 war es dann 8.15 und der bus fuhr afrikapuenktlich um 8.45 richtung maputo. kaum 90 minuten gefahren ... read more

Is it a whale? Is it a shark? No, it's a whale shark! Despite its name, it is neither a whale nor a shark, but in fact the largest fish in the world, and we FINALLY got to swim alongside one! There are only a few places in the world where whale sharks hang out, and Mozambique is one of them. We spent the majority of our time in the seaside town of Tofo, Mazombique's main backpacker haunt. Our little rickety bungalow was perched on a sand dune right above the beach, and even had a sand floor. On three mornings out of the five, we went diving. The first day we dived a site named Hogwarts. Scott and I thought that, being Africa, it really ought to be named Warthogs! We'd really been hoping to ... read more

So this entry was actually hang written the night before I am posting this, so if you still feel like my quality of writing sucks, I guess I have no excuses this time. It is hard to believe that it has been 3 weeks since I last had access to a computer and internet. This is one of the many things that was a daily part of my life back in the states that I really have not missed at all here. One this that does not fall under this category is a big, juicy, Arby´s roast beef sandwich. Although this was not exactly part of my daily life, I think that I miss this more than anything else in the states (those who really are close to me understand that they always have come second ... read more