Advertisement
Published: January 31st 2012
Beach
Inhaca Island in it's essenceWell guess who has returned from a wonderful ten days on Inhaca, sure internet was present there but I choose to ignore this and forget about the digital world for a while.
Spend my first two days in Maputo at Fatima’s backpackers, cosy little place with a camping area for those like me who enjoy staying really cheap... Mostly been spending my days walking around town, seeing what’s changed and taking the chappa to the beach for some well deserved relaxation time. I’m learning. So far only got scammed once and it was simply a stupid mistake made by me not agreeing on a price of the food beforehand. Kind of hard to bargain when you’ve already eaten... Took the ferry to Inhaca in Sunday (22/1), already red skinned and acing so I passed out inside the passenger cabin for the three hours boat ride...
Inhaca, home sweet home, well not exactly but damn I love this Island. Not living at the research station this time since they charge quite heavily for people not studying. However I found my way to Lucas restaurant just some hundred meters into town where I’ve seen people camping
Strange slabs of rock
Symmetrically cut into squares halfway up the east coast of Inhaca. Looked man made before. And so it came to be that I lived in the backyard of a nice eating place. Fortunately this would be low season so not only did I get it rather cheap but also I’m alone which is nice. Been spending my days mostly relaxing and walking around saying hello to people I got to know and see what has changed. I can say a really nice upgrade has been made with the research station since last I was here. New building have been made for bathroom stuff, kitchen has been remade and refreshed and also the have installed cable TV (yes I don’t agree but people seem to enjoy it, especially the soaps) as well as internet. Still very discreet from the beach, the only thing giving away the presence of anything is the small satellite dish now present on a pole visible from the beach. Sergio was still there, and had the guts to call the nice kitchen lady fat right to her face... Well she laughed it off so I presume there were some underlying stories there. Apart from those I recognised a couple of the engineering staff and boat drivers, however unfortunately both Olga and
Hungry much?
Ghostcrab munching on my backpack... Olavo had changed working place.
Have to ad a small “irony of fate” kind of event that was rather convenient: night time reading in my tent “Silent spring” by Rachel Carson about the horrible atrocities committed in the war man vs. insects when I heard notices just outside. Walked out to investigate only to find my breakfast table being used as equipment table for the governmentally approved malaria control programme i.e. residing on the table was a large canister of toxin vs. “mosquitoes” as well as protective equipment. Whether you read the book or not (recommended even for other than natural scientists, gives insight in the human mentality and steadfastness on certain subject however stupid these might be). Anyhow went to sleep to the hissing sound of spraying around the garden where my tent was located, awoke with swollen eyes and being forced to take an allergy tablet to get i down. Murphy welcomes you to Inhaca right...?
Now onto the rest, which is mostly consistent of walking so I’ll tell you about two of the more interesting treks.
Walk #1 First walk took place on 25/1 and started at 3p.m from Lucas, walked onto Santa
Indian Ocean
Post cyclone, North end of Inhaca Maria/ Ponta Torres, arriving after five hours. The plan with this walk was that I should get to see Inhacas west coast i.e. the Indian Ocean which I never had the time to see when I was here last. Arrived at the southern edge of the Island at dusk and got to see the shifting tides with huge amounts of water rushing out through this narrow canal separating Inhaca from the mainland. Simultaneously the ocean was in an uproar trying to storm water into the canal due to the hurricane that was on the way (which I learned later when nervous mom called and said 27 people in Maputo had died...) Anyway the point is crashing waves got nowhere, they simply broke indefinitely in the same place, sweet! Like I said the point of the walk was to see the west coast and hopefully get to see some turtles laying eggs or at least notice tracks from them. Unfortunately this was never the case, the four hours spent walking up the coast was only accompanied by sporadic monsoons with surging winds, huge crashing waves (the sound is amazing!) and thousands upon thousands of ghost crabs, tried to be careful with
Lighthouse chapel
The priest living here had one hell of a view them, and to my knowledge only crushed one that decided the best way to hide from this large walking beast was to run and hide under his boot, natural selection anyone?
Anyway got to the north end earlier than expected and since I never had been there I expected to find the lighthouse I knew was there, but never did. Found some goats and scarred them off and slept for three hours. For future reference, even when sleeping outside in the tropics, bring a jumper since it will be a lot colder than you expect! Dawn broke and I got to see the full force of the Indian Ocean come crashing into little Inhaca. Got a little ticked that I could not see the lighthouse anywhere and decided that it must be located higher to allow for better visibility. Took a “shortcut” straight from the cliffs into the forest in search of the alleged building and after finally spotting it from the top of a tree I found it. Only to realise that it was not located a little higher, it was placed on a rather steep hill. After a slightly taxing trek through thick forest with spines and
Beached Wale
Or what's left of it, nice ocean in the background though spiders, including two more trees to orientate where the f***k that building had gone off to... I found my way, passing a Masala tree that had dropped a lot of fruit in the storm. Munching on sweet-sour Masala at 0730 a.m., I walked around the lighthouse area, in my next life I want to be a light housekeeper if only for the view. To round up this story I looked in the direction of where home was realizing that it was rather far, lots of mangroves and marchland between me and there so I guestimated at least one and a half hour of walking. Four hours later at 1130 a.m. I got home and crashed in my beautiful tent for a three hour nap.
Walk #2 Next walk, bear with me, I have done some stupid thing during this week that need telling, takes us via the “land way” to Portuguese Island. Started off from Lucas 0630a.m and got through a rather uneventful walk northeast. Got onto the sandbanks and realized the tide was in an enormous hurry to get out, not a chance I’d make that swim without being sucked out into the open ocean. Little disappointed
Inhaca roadsystem
4WD is definite minimum requirement for cars I decided to walk along the bank and see what I could find, not really hopeful to find another good crossing. But al be damned I found one that provided a little longer swim but much less current, so off we go. 15 minutes of swimming later I got onto the sandbank and started walking. Left my rucksack and water supply by a sand mound with some vegetation on top and started running in order to make it there and back before the tide returned. Long run under a scorching sun, passed half a turtle, some whalebones and what I can only guess was the rotting remains of a semi large whale. Anyhow after crossing a couple of streams (one with a scary current the grabbed me 20 meters from the bank, had to swim like an animal while watching the shore rush past...) and running over enormous and enormously beautiful sand flats I got to Portuguese Island, collected a twig from a dead tree as trophy and started the long run/walk/swim back. Crossed closer to the mainland and walked barefoot across a segrassbed, thinking in the last 100 or so meters of walking among urchins and sharp pelican clams
Company on the road
Body the size of an large fist walking around in broad daylight... that “let’s make the last 100 meters without cutting your feet up”. And as Murphy played part in my stay on Inhaca before, so he did again... no more running for a couple of days. Slow long walk home, satisfied after creating my own little adventure on this otherwise calm and peaceful Island arriving at 1530.
I also tried getting to know the local rhythm with the Inhaca version of bar-run. So it started off as so many of my other “adventures” as a walk along the beach to meet up with the phd-course from Sweden currently inhabiting the marine biology station. I arrived just in time to be offered to join them for dinner, which I gladly did. Knew at least four of the attending doctorates as well as the two teachers; however neither Susanne nor Adriano had yet arrived... O and should mention that I meet one of my little field assistants, Enrique, from my master thesis time on Inhaca. By chance he walked by me on the beach and god lord he went from being two apples high to almost my height in two and a half year. Anyway got some dinner and an offer to stay for the lecture, declined and excused myself with the goal to drink beer since this was Saturday and the big party night on the island. Started at Savannah bar at approximately 1930, the bar contained four patrons, three pissed and one passed out on the floor. God start I thought and went to the next and got informed that they didn’t have any beer left. Well got a coke and was off to my next stop which due to a small miss navigation happened 1,5 hours later after walking a long detour. A cider at the Simon pub tightly followed by a 2M beer at another local pub along the way home where I meet up with Manuel. However this was the end of my night since when I got back to my place the pub was closed, so I went to sleep happy after a good day of enjoying life.
The conclusion, or something like it... The content of a quiet life on a peaceful island, if adventure don’t find you, look it up yourself!
One last pointer before flying to Tanzania tomorrow.
I could live like this! Not only because of the climate and wonderful people, but as a biologist I think especially of the wonderful animals crawling around everywhere. Last Thursday (26/1) I sat down to eat some lunch outside my tent, taking of my sandals. When feeling ready to walk out, putting on my sandals again, I got pinched in the foot by a small crab that had got lost from the mangrove swamp 10 meters away and found that my shoe was much more suited for him to hide in than for me to put my foot in... Later the same day when I was ready to “hit the town” a.k.a. get some dinner across the main road a.k.a sand street, I was confronted midway by another crab who fled when I came walking down the walkway with claws flung high. It should be added that this time the fellow was large as an average edible crab (Cancer) in Sweden. See now why I love this place?
Till next time friends, and sorry about the dates and sometimes over detailed story but these notes are as much for you as it is for me to remember!
Ciao
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0484s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Staffan
non-member comment
Awesome!
You seem to enjoy yourself! Good to know that you look up adventure rather than let it find you. Keep calm and carry on :)