Our crossing from Malawi to Mozambique went smoothly. It was minibuses the whole way, but they all left surprisingly promptly upon our arrival. Our only moment of discomfort was at the border when we had to decide whether or not to change our Malawi kwacha on the black market or not. More than once, we've ended up with large stacks of currency from the previous country that no one would exchange legitimately. Our guide book lists the dire consequences of getting caught trading money on the black market in Mozambique so I asked the immigration official if Tete (the city we were headed to) had facilities to change kwacha. Nope, they say. Any legal exchanges here at the border? 'Nope. You must use the black market.' OK. So we've got an official person telling us to do something our book says is highly illegal....that's got to be worth something at interrogation, right? Not wanting to be stuck with the money, we decided to risk it and went as a group (there were three of us at this point) and did a very conspicuous exchange (literally surrounded by about 20 guys with handfuls of Mozambique meticais). We managed fine, and called them on several calculator errors, managing to not get ripped off too badly.
So, enter Mozambique. They speak Portuguese here. Supposedly Portuguese speakers can understand Spanish, but not vice versa. So, right away I tried my very limited knowledge of Spanish in attempts to clarify our requests or conversations. The results have been mixed - sometimes I get instant comprehension, and sometimes I get blank stares. Everyone gets a kick out of my trying anyway. Luckily the numbers have been very similar, so that has made bargaining and shopping easier.
We stayed one night in Tete. Nothing much there except the mighty Zambezi River (flows from Victoria Falls). We quickly learned the new standards in accommodation here. You pay a lot more and get a LOT less for your money. Buses in Mozambique leave refreshingly on time (as long as you're not boarding a minibus), but they leave obnoxiously early. So at 4:00 AM the next day we were boarding our home for the next 28 hours. One hour into our ride, we were stopped, broken down at the edge of a very small village. 'Welcome to Mozambique', our travel companion, Carin tells us. It took the guy running the bus 10 minutes to fix the oil leak and two hours to flag down/track down enough replacement oil to safely start the engine again. In the meantime a tire went flat.
Waiting patiently...you can see our bus driver in the background pleading with the driver of that truck for some oil:
The rest of the ride is a bit of a blur. The seats were very uncomfortable, but as people got on and off we were able to rearrange to the best possible options. We ate entirely from food sold through the bus windows, save for one longer stop where we sat down to some local grub. The three guys running the bus (1 driving, 2 taking money and soliciting business) turned out to be real quality people. At our stop in one of the larger cities, we had all gotten off the bus to stretch and search for snacks. Apparently as Carin was re-boarding she was pick-pocketed. The bus guys saw this happen and proceeded to knock the culprit down, hold him down and hit him until he relinquished the money. Where the aggression was a bit disturbing, it was nice to see these guys looking out for us. We've heard plenty of mugging stories where people just stand by and watch...maybe shaking their heads in dismay, but not doing much else.
We got to our originally planned stop at about 10:00 PM. It was still a chapa ride to the town of Vilancula itself, and by this point, Carin had convinced us to push onto Tofo, where she had worked for six months as a dive instructor and where she was headed. She said we weren't missing much in Vilancula and we were keen on the idea of more time in one place. However, at this point, the driver was ready to sleep for a while. Our seats were quickly taken over by the locals stretching out and making beds, so we were fortunate that Carin had a tent and let us crash inside with her for a couple hours of attempted shut-eye. Up again at 3:30 AM and off. The roads in Mozambique are considerably worse, so it wasn't necessarily a smooth, flat or clean ride. However, I still think the ride in Cambodia takes the cake in terms of discomfort!
We disembarked our bus in Maxixe, then boarded a small local ferry and crossed over the bay to Inhambane. From there it was one more minibus ride up the peninsula to Tofo and our final destination of the Bamboozi lodge/backpackers. Whew!
Tofo is a very small town that sits right on the Indian Ocean. The main industry there now is tourism, but not obnoxiously so. Most of the accommodation is pretty basic and modest. We chose to stay at Bamboozi, which is about 2 km up the beach from the Tofo city center. A nice, mellow place with a very quiet stretch of beach. Accommodation is either camping or very simple huts (grass huts with pavement floors and two mattresses and a mosquito net). The first day there was just settling in and napping.
The next day, the weather was beautiful, so we went right out and did a couple of dives. One of the reasons we wanted to stay here longer was to take advantage of the superb diving that is on offer. Both were beautiful dives. Huge fish, nice coral and the biggest moray eel I've ever seen. Carin, being a dive instructor signed me off on a deep dive so that I could go out and do the most popular dive called Manta Reef. The second day there was another beautiful, sunny day and we decided to take a 'day off' from diving and just chilled out, taking long walks on the beach with plans to dive Manta Reef the next day.
Carin and I after the first dive:
Keith and crew unloading. Very nice boats and equipment...
Then the weather changed. Some freak weather pattern came in and we got hit with winds, rain, clouds, and cold for the next 4 days. It felt like we were on the Oregon Coast! The weather was too harsh for the boats to launch, and the conditions too rough for diving anyway. So we waited. And waited. Our time was spent watching lots of World Cup football in the evenings:
We would get out onto the beach or into town when the weather broke up a little bit. Otherwise it was lots of reading, cards and eating. We also took advantage of the bigger, crashing waves and rented some boogie boards.
Am I running from the wave or getting ready to ride it?
The air and wind was quite cold, but it made the water feel all the warmer. We both got quite a kick out of catching some good rides.
On a walk into the town of Tofo. This is on the road between Bamboozi and Tofo.
Just when we were starting to really go stir crazy and really wondering if the wait for Manta Reef was worth it, the weather sort of broke, and the dive was on. It was a gnarly launch....even on a calm day, getting that boat out over the breakers is a challenge. But we got out and had a very nice dive. It's about a half hour ride to the site. The visibility wasn't great, but we did see one beautiful, huge manta ray right at the end of the dive. Not to mention more moray eels and some of the biggest grouper fish I have ever seen. While we were down there, we all heard some indistinct sound that sounded like muffled voices. When we got to the top we were told that some whales came and swam right over our heads! How cool. And on the way back we saw several whales breeching not too far from our boat. Very nice. Not long after getting back to shore the weather turned to crap again. We were quite lucky to have had the opportunity to get out at all.
So that afternoon, we set out for Inhambane, stayed the night there and caught the 5:30 AM express bus to Maputo the next morning. 1 km out of town, the bus broke down. It died and would not restart. So for the same price, they put us on the next bus that came by which we were quite sure was not an express, despite their insistence that it was. Nevertheless, it was a fine ride and we got to Maputo by late afternoon.
We spent just one day in Maputo. It is the capital of the country and a pretty big city, sitting right on a bay. Very close proximity to South Africa, so a bit more modern. Not the prettiest of cities, and by this point we are pretty anxious to get to South Africa and pick up the Land Rover and be completely independent. We booked tickets on a luxury coach and yesterday rode in style from Maputo to Pretoria, South Africa (just north of Johannesburg). Riding on the roads of South Africa is quite different than Mozambique. It feels just like being at home (big freeways with passing lanes, shopping malls, rest stops) the only difference being that we are on the other side of the road. We settled into a very cozy backpackers last night with a gaggle of girls and their parents in town for the majorette drum competition. Now it is just some logistics then if all goes well, we're off on our own to discover South Africa!
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