Kellie arrived safe and sound on the 9 of July but not without problems with immigration. One many things that I will never understand is why they insist that you put a local address on the immigration form. If you are a tourist then most likely you will stay there for one night and then move on. Kellie didn’t know which place we would stay in Dar and was too honest to put in a fake name. Luckily the immigration officer was very friendly and let her use his mobile phone. Welcome to Africa. We took the Zanzibar ferry the next morning which brought us to Zanzibar (duh). Strangely Zanzibar is part of Tanzania but then it’s also its own state and once arrived we had to go through immigration (yay another stamp) and customs again. ... read more

Nkhata Bay is yet another perfect place to do absolutely nothing and has test backpackers with the best food in Africa so far. To have the best food is not that hard as most places specialize in Chicken and (very soggy) chips. Nkhata bay is as small bay on Lake Malawi with a small sleepy village. It is hard to believe that this was once the most important town in the area. The one thing that made it very attractive is a deep harbor which allowed and still does allow big ships to port. My best guess is that these days this means a visit by the Ilala ferry twice a week. The idea was to stay in Nkhata bay until Tuesday and then go straight to MBeya in Tanzania to catch a train to Dar ... read more

After a good night of sleep it was the last time to get up early to catch a bus in Mozambique. Apparently the buses in Malawi leave later. I like Malawi already. To complete the list of vehicles used in my trip the Mozambican decided to build the border 4km away from the closest Mozambican town (but strangely enough just at the outskirts of a Malawi town). to cross these last few km you have either the choice of using your own transport which we didn’t have, to walk which is no fun or to pick one of the very very persistent guys with a Chinese push bike which has a padded piece of wood attached to the back and some foot rests welded on. Lazy as I am I chose to let someone else sweat ... read more

Ihla de Mozambique played a huge role in the history of eastern Africa, the slave trade and the Portuguese dominance over Mozambique. Before the Portuguese took over the island was used by Arab traders. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for the Portuguese their weapons weren’t that great and the Portuguese took over in the early 1500. They were quick to build the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, in 1522 which is considered to be the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere. Shortly after they realize that they cannot defend the Island with a bible and build the impressive Fort of São Sebastião. Both of which are still standing. The island was up until the early 1900 the focal point of Portuguese trade (spices, slaves and gold) to and from Africa and India and later ... read more

Tofo is your typical backpacker’s beach paradise. The beach is ok and the beer cold, plentiful and cheap. Just the thing I needed after doing nothing for three weeks. Not much more to say apart from that my headache is getting better by the minute and I left the place without any permanent damage to my liver. It would have been the place to see whale sharks and manta rays but with my knee still not in great shape that wasn’t an option. A short but worthwhile stopover was Inhambane from which we intended to get a bus further up north. I already resigned to African cities being boring but Inhambane had a very pleasant feel to it which is partly explained by trash free wide tree lined streets, the near absence of cars and the ... read more