aceofbuckets

The transport arrived 20 minutes early. It was a big truck - one you would put animals on, I climbed over the wheel and into the back. My big bag got moved to the front and I sat on the floor on a piece of plastic (the truck base was wet). I noticed almost immediately that my knees showed (as did the men)when I sat on the floor, so I put my bag on my lap and tried to cover as much as possible. I spent the 4 hour trip to Metangula trying to learn some Portuguese. No-one on the transport could speak English. I listened to them speak Portuguese just to try get used to the language. I couldn't pick up much. This was definitely going to be a challenge. What truly amazed me, was ... read more

After a quick breakfast (I didn't bring much food and turns out there isn't much to buy on the island), I decided I would go for a walk around the island, take in the scenery and maybe find the tiny store they can a shop. I walked along the coast, getting stares from the locals, taking pictures and just breathing in the beautiful lake, the massive baobab trees and the small local fishing boats. I followed the coast and ended up sitting on some rocks right by the shore, just listening to the waves on the rocks and staring over the lake into the distance. I got up again and started heading around the side. I headed back along the path just thinking and taking in as much as possible. The next village I reached I ... read more

Day 6 This morning - I sat on my balcony that over looks the lake (unbelievably beautiful view), played on my laptop and read my book. It was a good morning. In the afternoon the backpackers was offering a boat race (in the local dugout canoes) and the prize was free pizza - 3 people in a team and it was a relay. The guys decided they would enter (Tim, Matt and Joost), while Tessa and I opted out. My ear wasn't great and I wasn't all that keen on getting it wet. Turns out no other team entered so we decided to do a girls verses guys boat race. I was convinced the guys would win but wanted to give a good go at it. Carol (the doctor friend of Tessa and Joost) was ... read more

Day 1 Rasta Kelvin's Restaurant After we had checked into Mayoka Village (the same place Don and I had stayed almost a month before), we decided to go for lunch at Rasta Kelvin's up the road. What I had forgotten however is that you need to pre-order food because it takes so unbelievably long to cook - 2-3 hours minimum. We must have arrived at about 12 and only got to eat at 4:30 - but it was a very chilled way to spend the afternoon. Later on Grant and Edward arrived, so our little family was back together again. Even though we had eaten we went with Grant and Edward to dinner in town. We went to a local restaurant called H&M (Harry and Maria - husband and wife). Matt, a South African guy ... read more

Day 2 Snorkelling We negotiated with some of the local guys on the beach to hire a boat for 9 of us to take us to the little Momba island to go snorkelling (MK780 each) and then another MK400 per person for food which was a lot of rice, tomatoes and braai-grilled fish - it was really good. The snorkelling was so different to anything I have seen before - lots and lots of tiny fish - blues, yellow, black. It was so nice to be in the water and with fins and mask. After snorkelling they took us around to look at the Kingfishers. The locals throw fish into the water and call the birds - they then swoop down and catch the fish out the water - its incredible to watch. Party on the ... read more