Mozambique

Tuesday 23rd February 2016 – Today we hoped to go on an ocean safari…sometimes you can see whale sharks on this trip but they hadn’t been seen for a while. We had been told that you really needed a bright sunny day with no wind so as to maximise your chances of seeing marine life…we looked into the sky, it was overcast and rainy, not a great start. We went to check out our possibilities at the ocean safari office…they needed 4 people to cover their costs and after phoning around other companies no one else wanted a trip that day! As the local dogs played tug of war with a banana tree branch our chances of seeing ocean life in Tofo ebbed away. It is strange how differently you feel about locations you visit…it is sad to say that Mozambique is the first country in Africa that we have not felt welcomed. It feels as though we are tolerated by the locals but that tourists are really not liked here. The decision was made…we packed our bags…we were not sad to leave Tofo…we had rested up and now we wanted to leave for Vilanculos… a three and a half hour journey northwards on the Indian Ocean coast. It was one of our best journeys yet, fast and comfortable. At arrival we jumped into a tuk tuk to Baobab Beach Backpackers…it wasn’t the newest tuk tuk in town and two locals had to push to get us going. We checked into a lovely beach hut and enjoyed good food and fun banter with other travellers that night.

Wednesday 24th February 2016 – There was a power cut in the night and our wonderful ‘deep freeze’ fan had gone off. Hot and sticky we breakfasted on pancakes with local fruit and delicious honey all washed down with a cup of tea! We decided to walk along the long beach…collecting pretty cowrie shells as we went. The beach was not pure white as we had expected but there was a beautiful view over the ocean to the islands a small distance away. We ambled into town where we came across many small market stalls…no Malls here! Having a cold Coca Cola at a local bar, Aaron played a Mozambican equivalent game to draughts with one of the locals…their name for it ‘Queens’. They used a wooden board and red and white bottle tops for the playing pieces. The rules seemed a little different and as such the local man came out the victor! Later we read our books back at Baobab overlooking the ocean and feasted on Matapa with rice, a local dish made from cassava leaves, coconut milk and peanuts.

Thursday 25th February 2016 – A lovely relaxing day by the pool sunbathing. Aaron enjoyed a cave day in the cool hut with the fan as his companion. I chatted to Swedish Andrea and German John…two friendly and fun backpackers who had hooked up for some of their journey in Africa. They had been on a snorkelling trip to one of the islands and had enjoyed it. It was a bit pricey though and Aaron and I had to decide whether it was money worth spending, knowing that we would be visiting other countries where we would probably get better value for money…decisions, decisions! It turned out that no one wanted to do the trip the next day and as usual they needed minimum 4 people…same old story…the decision was made for us…we would not do an island trip in Mozambique but instead save the money and spend it in a country that we felt welcomed and liked.

Friday 26th February 2016 – Another lazy day by the pool…cool water and hot sun…a wondrous combination. As much as we wanted to move on to Malawi, there were first plans to be made. There had been some trouble in the North. The opposition party were randomly shooting at vehicles driving from Save to Muchungue, a 100km stretch of road including a bridge over the river. This was the route that we needed to take to head up to Malawi…but it wasn’t safe anymore. The army had started to take convoys through this area but shootings were continuing and it was hard to get accurate information on any casualties or wounded. Refugees had also started to leave from the far north of Mozambique and around 100 people a day were being displaced into Malawi…it was starting to get serious. Tomorrow we would endeavour to book a flight to Tete…this was the recommendation from the many people we had spoken to and seemed the safest option as Tete was very close to the border of Malawi and trouble free for the time being.