Blogs from Southern, Mozambique, Africa - page 18

00 :12. The sound of a dentist’s drill penetrating my temple wakes me up. Covered in sweat I sigh, it's just a dream. It’s not a dentist’s drill; there are mosquitoes in the tent. A wild hunt begins and ends in handclapping, then silence. 02 :23. Something has awoken the dogs. Loud barking ricochet in the distance as every dog in the village joins the cacophony. A dog yelps as his owner gives him a kick. Then silence. 03 :51. The roosters begin. It’s still long before sunset but these puffed-up poultry must be from a different time-zone. The volume and intensity slowly ebbs out, but never ceases. 04 :48. The muffled sound of a single woman pounding maize is soon accompanied by another one, and then another one. The gentle sound hushes me back to ... read more

You have to try it!! Driving in Mozambique!! Its not just the potholes in the road, also the corrupt police men whom make it difficult to get around....the only good thing is that it was a rental car, wouldn't try it with our own.!! After too many hours on the road we Arrived in Tofo!! A geat diving place and with a nice beach......The first two backpackers we could't go because we got stuck in the sand.....next time we'll take a 4WD!! Dive cente is too professional, had to take a refreshing course!!! cold water in the swimming pool so I was happy to finally go to the warm ocean. Dives where awesome...Saw tree huge Mantarays (one of the reasons for going diving here), leopard shark, giant turtles and plenty other stuff. Just getting to the ... read more

am actually in Maputo for the evening as we move back to the Wildlife College. It was an 17 hour drive from Machipanda to Maputo driving I believe 1400 kilometers. The research turned out really well with a lot of data to interpret upon arrival home. The use of the ground penetrating radar for observing below ground biomass has not been developed very thoroughly for practical applications. The research Abi, Dintwe, a Botswanan forester, the lead investigator Kelly Kaylor and I have been working with the Noggin 1000 to attempt to take strides forward in being able to map the carbon distribution of root structures. This is a really cool device that shows parabolas that represent the relative size of belog ground structures down to a depth of a meter or more. There were two ... read more

You know that thought that crosses your mind when you are travelling or visiting a place and while you are there you think: So and so would love it here….. these friends would enjoy it here, next time we should invite these people, etc. Well, we often had that thought while we were at Ponta Malongane on our own, so we have invited a few people over the years. But we all know the minute you invite others and carry on about how wonderful the place is, you are pre-empting disaster. In 2007 we invited some dear friends, the Morris & Birch families to join us for a week, but at the end of the trip we wondered if it was a good idea, because it rained......non stop! At least, it felt that way. It was ... read more

Another exciting day... For some reason people like to plan meetings and then cancel them at the last minute. It leaves me (and S.) sort of roaming around the Ministry for Health with not a whole lot to do, but wait until the next meeting. However, today, we had to go and pick up my tickets for Malawi. Because the whole e-ticket fad hasn't caught on here in Mozambique. So, we've been to the travel agency 5 times now, and finally today I am supposed to get my tickets (to leave tomorrow at 6am). However, it seems that I am missing one of my tickets. Did I leave it with the travel agent, like I had the others? Was it in my hotel room? No matter. The travel agent just said to walk across the street ... read more