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23rd August - 3rd September
Mozambique has been completely different to any of the other
countries that we have been through to date. This is partly
due to a very different colonial past and partly due to the
countries recent history. Mozambique was colonised and settled
by the Portuguese, and this is still strongly reflected in
the language and architecture of the country. Since gaining
independence from Portugal in the 1975 and the country descended
into civil war - spurred on by the various superpowers and
South Africa - until 1992. This has left Mozambique one of
the poorest countries in the world.
Mozambique - the parts that we got to anyway - is a beautiful
country with phenomenal untapped tourist potential (if old
Bob Mugabe would stop messing up tourism - and business -
in Southern Africa). Having said that, it is also a pretty
hard country to travel in, especially in the North which is
where we spent most of our time. The first issue is language,
however what is one traveling for if not to encounter other
cultures and languages. What did make it hard though is that
there is very little tourist infrastructure. We came across
very few campsites or lodges. This usually would be considered
a "good thing". Why not just camp out in the bush,
etc. Well, the complication there is landmines. There are
still unreclaimed landmines in the country. We had to bush
camp a couple of times on the side of the road. One learns
to move very lightly and very quickly in these circumstances.
Also, the fact that every road we drove along had a hut every
30 metres or so made it pretty difficult to find a camping
spot that wasn't someones front garden.
We entered Mozambique through a secondary borderpost at Milange.
The road rapidly degenerated into basically a rutted track.
We drove all day without finding any campsites or other accommodation
and ended up staying on the side of the road. A delegation
from the local village came around in the evening to say hi.
Language unfortunately proved a major obstacle, but it was
a very nice gesture. A change from the constant demands of
money, etc in Malawi.
The next day we again drove all day and made it into Ncala
- on the coast - by 9pm. It was two every exhausted travelers
that finally drove into the Bay Diving Lodge that night. We
spent 4 days at the lodge, recovering from our dash across
the country. Seafood is very cheap around Ncala so we took
the opportunity to indulged in lobsters and fresh fish.
From Ncala we drove down to Isle de Mozambique. This island
has reputedly the oldest standing building in the Southern
Hemisphere (a chapel), which dates back to 15th century. The
Portuguese built a fort on this island and held the fort against
a number of invaders (English, Dutch, etc). The island was
also a sanctuary during the civil war in the country. During
the day people would go onto the mainland and farm, etc. At
night everyone would filter back to the safety of the island.
The island is crammed with old buildings and history. Unfortunately
many of them are in a sad state of disrepair. In 10 years
time this little island is going to be crammed with tourists.
We saw about 5 tourist in our time there.
From Isle we spent two days (another night on the side of
the road) making our way down to Quelimane. We were hoping
to stop there for a few days but the only place we could find
to camp was on the road at the back of a small resturant.
The next day we pushed on to Beira, which once a holiday mecca
for the Rhodesians. Much of the day was spent on undoubtedly
the worst rode we've been on to date. The road - dirt - was
washed away in the recent floods, and has only nominally been
repaired since. We spent 7 hours traversing 120km and managed
to strip the drive member on one of the rear wheels in the
process. We had to engage 4 wheel drive and rely on front
wheel drive to get us into Beira. Along the road were war
damaged tanks and troop carriers, derailed trains and rusted
trains parked in the scattered sidings. Apparently they are
all boobytrapped still which is why no-one has moved them.
According to the locals many of the cattle trucks in the train
sidings were full of war prisoners. The trucks were apparently
abandoned along with the prisoners and none of the superstitious
locals dare go anywhere near them now.
We spent 4 days in Beira relaxing and getting Nyathi fixed
up. The spot we were staying at in Beira - Biques - was full
of expats that have been drifting around Africa for the last
x years and ended up in this little corner of the world. There
was also a fair sprinkling of Zimbabwe farmers trying to start
up new lives.
After Beira we decided to sample one of the Mozambique National
Parks - Gorongosa to be specific. We spent two nights in this
beautiful park. The countryside was magnificent but the animal
population was a bit scarce. Apparently Gorongosa saw plenty
of action during the civil war, and the animals mostly ended
up in the pots of the various armies. The main camp of the
National Park changed hands a number of times in the duration
of the war. This was evident from the pockmarked bulletholes
in the buildings still. Gorongosa was once one of Africa's
premium National Parks and probably will be again. It will
need some time and money though, to rebuild the camps and
game numbers.
The next day we decided instead of going to Zambia via Tete
we'd go into Zimbabwe via Mutare and catch-up with friends
around Harare. We were also hoping to get the Landy looked
at there. There are plenty of old Landy's in Zim and Nyathi's
engine was starting to make some very odd noises. So it was
a good-bye to Mozambique and off to the familiar roads of
Zimbabwe.
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