Mozambique and Kruger National Park

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From Manzini, Swaziland, we took a Kombi to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. We held up the bus at the border because none of us had visa's, so we had to wait about 20-30 minutes to get them issued. When we got to Maputo, we walked for about 45 minutes with the full backpacks to Fatima's backpackers. I found Maputo to be much cheaper than South Africa. Across the street from where we were staying, we could get a beer from the tap for 22 Meticais which is about 60 cents US. The next day we walked to the fish market. This place had everything you could think of. I got almost a kilo of prawns for around 6 USD, then took them over to one of the many restaurants next to the fish market, and paid them about 1.50 US to cook them for me. They used garlic and some other spices, and they were by far the best prawns that I have ever had. I ended up going back to the fish market the next day with two people from Italy, and we each grabbed a crab and a lobster and had them cooked up at the same restaurant for us. They remembered me from the previous day. This time I had the cook pick out the food for us. She grabbed female crabs with eggs and made a sauce out of the eggs to go with the meal. I wish I could eat like that everyday.

We ended up staying for 5 nights total in Maputo, switching to Base Backpackers on the 4th night due to price, location, and atmosphere. On the last full day we took a ferry to a Catembe and hiked around for a few hours. I really enjoyed the city. It definitely had a South American feel to it. The national language is Portuguese, so there was a little bit of a language barrier. Sometimes I would speak Spanish and hope they understood what I was saying. The people were friendly, and I would compare the nightlife to the nightlife in Bangkok. It was completely insane. On the last day we parted ways with with Hanan, our Israeli friend. He headed North and planed to spend the rest of the month in Mozambique. One thing that I feel I should mention about this city, unfortunately, is the corruption by the police. They completely try to take advantage of tourists. They do not make much money, so they will stop people in the streets and make up rules and try to get you to pay them a 'fine' that they just pocket. For example, we had one American staying in our hostel that was living in Swaziland. He had driven there in his truck with Swazi plates. He said he was getting pulled over at least twice a day, for excuses like, 'your tail light is out' or 'you don't have Mozambique license plates'. They would make him pay 1000 Meticais (about 34 USD) every time he stopped. One night he had his rear view mirrors stolen, and he got fined for not having those as well. Other people would get stopped for taking pictures saying 'you need a license for that', which of course wasn't true. From my experience, I have determined that you do not argue with a guy with a machine gun, just pay him and move on. Needless to say, once I realized how bad they were, I avoided the police as much as possible. Overall, this was a beautiful city, but until they fix this problem, I would not recommend it to anyone for their future travel plans. Apparently the rest of the country is fine, only the capital has this problem.

After 6 very interesting days, we took a City to City bus to Nelspruit. I was happy to be back in South Africa after being away for almost two weeks. Nelspruit is one of the 10 cities that will be hosting the World Cup. We checked into the Funky Monkey Backpackers. World Cup fever has definitely arrived. I think that most of the country of Chile was staying in this hostle. A group of around 30-40 flew in and met the Chilean team as they landed in Nelspruit to greet them. One of them is 72, and said he has been to every world cup since 1964 I believe. They put up their flags, grilled food like there was no tomorrow, and partied and chanted Chile all night. It was pretty cool. Also met some people from Argentina, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Being at this backpackers has really getten me excited for the world cup. People from all over the world are coming together. It's been amazing already, and the world cup hasn't even started yet.

We came to Nelspruit to go to South Africa's famed Kruger National Park. For the past two months, I've listened to other travelers tell me how amazing this place was, so we figured we would give it a shot. If I wouldn't see a Lion here, I would have to wait until Serengeti. Safari tours were very expensive, so we spent the next day setting up a rental car and accommodations in the park ourselves. While we set up our accommodation, we signed up for a night safari as you have to either be out of the park, or in a camp site by 5pm. We knew that dusk and at night would be the best time to find a Lion, so we figured 23 USD for a 3 hour night safari would be a good investment. The next day we got up early, picked up a rental car (free upgrade) and took off for the park. Once inside, not even 10 minutes later we ran into a group of three elephants. We drove around for 5-6 hours total, and saw monkeys, wildebeest, warthogs, crocodiles, various birds, and giraffe. We then set up camp and showed up for the night safari that left right at sundown. There were two spotlights in the truck and I was in charge of the one on the left hand side. This was by far the best 23 bucks I have ever spent. First we found a Water Buffalo, which is one of the 'big 5' The famed big 5 here are Water Buffalo, Elephant, Leopard, Lion, and Rhinos. Not 10 minutes into the safari, sitting on the right side of the road, was a huge male Lion. It was on the right side of the truck. I jumped right up and ran to the other side and stared at it in awe. Everyone was taking pictures of it. It looked like the paparazzi just found another famous victim. He just sat there and started off into the distance. He didn't mind the attention or feel threatened, hes a Lion. He eventually got up and started to walk down the road, so we followed beside him. He finally looked at us and pushed back his back paw like he was going to charge us. He was marking his territory. The whole experience was very surreal. It was better than jumping off a bridge. It's crazy to have a lion in the wild a few feet away from you with nothing in between. I guess they can't really see the people, only the truck. If you hang an arm over the edge, they can focus on that, then see your eyes and might see you as prey. We followed him for a while, then took off. I wanted to keep on following it. I thought that was going to be it for the night. I was wrong.

Just down the road we saw a lioness and two cubs laying on the ground. I remember thinking I had won the lottery. The guide said they hadn't seen anything the previous two nights, and that we were very lucky. He wasn't kidding. A few yards down the road we saw ANOTHER male Lion. That was 5 in a matter of 20-30 minutes. I was convinced that nothing could come even close to that. Further down the road, we came across 6 White Rhino running in front of us, then an owl, a couple of cameleon, and a few Hyenas. I was really surprised by the size of the Hyenas. I didn't realize they were so big and were known to take down Lions if a few of them work together. Overall, it was a night I will never forget.

Today we got up early and drove around the park for 9 more hours. We saw a lot of Hippos, and tons of Water Buffalo and Elephants, a male and female Lion, and other various animals. There were a lot of people in the park that are here for the World Cup. I went to the park hoping to see one Lion and ended up seeing so much more. Tonight we are back at the Funky Monkey camping one last night. Tomorrow morning we are going to return the rental car and take a bus to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. We are spending the night with some friends there. Friday we are going to head over to Rustenburg and check in to our FIFA camp. We plan to stay there for 5 nights. We are going to try to scalp tickets the USA vs England match that is taking place near the camp. We also have our New Zealand vs Slovakia match there. After that, we will probably go back to Pretoria and make that our home base for the rest of the World Cup, jumping between there and Rustenberg and Jo'berg for various matches. The World Cup is here!

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Photos

Sunset on the Safari
There is a lion walking down the street in the picture, too bad you cant see it.

Water Buffalo
The bird is standing on a hippo.

The ugliest birds I have ever seen
I have no idea what these are. Their throats looked like they were on the outside of their bodies.

Hippos
Just chillin in the sun

Comments

[Mom]

Really cool pictures!!!!! Stay safe. Love you. Miss you.

[Mana]

Gurjeta
Small tips by policeman is a reality everywhere,even in South Africa it is called gurjeta in Portuguese.Or to quench thirst-matar sede in Portuguese.Prior to 1990 there was almost nothing available in Maputo.There used to be big ques outside the restaurants since 10A.M so that patrons could enter at 12.30 P.M.Food was limited and it used to finish soon.There was no menu,it was take it or leave it.

[Paco]

J - How have you not gotten eaten yet?

[Francesco]

Birds
They are southern ground hornbills.