Africa

Mpandangare’s first water-over-the-bonnet adventure as we made our way to wonderful Pomene peninsular at high tide, only to find it had been evacuated due to the cyclone. True to the rules of seamanship, lodge managers Neville and Wendy remained and welcomed us nonetheless with open arms. We were made to feel at home despite 35+ knots of wind and a lodge with all hatches battoned (sp?) down. 2 amazing days with them in this pristine place, despite a lot of deep water…

We don’t have an air intake snorkle so the trick is to go fast enough not to get stuck, but slow enough to create a bow-wave so the air intake (which is on the side) doesn’t flood. Robert-Jay and HMV Red Rock III eat your heart out, Mpandangare too can sail…

Descriptive writing of children coming home from school, being caught in the rain
Persuasive writing: Who bears responsible for the meerkat bite?
Shopping list in Portuguese
Clapping game in Portuguese
Descriptions and drawings of mud huts
Field trip to cave art
Field guide – identifying and describing animals
Portraits of imaginary guests at Pomene Ghost Hotel
Drawing key facts from Mandela’s life in the sand
Looking out the window of the car
Origins of Man (really….don’t be jealous)

I spent last night wide awake, thinking of cyclones as the rain poured on our tent. Then the huge sound of the bush – raucous frogs doing their thing – reminded me that nature’s bounty includes the (dangerous) snakes that feed on the reptiles. Then the thudding started. The sound of falling coconuts drowned out the frog-bait chorus. Most mothers may have a primal fear of a (metaphorical) coconut falling on their little ones – strange to be in a place where that metaphor is reality.

This morning the coconuts continued to fall, I felt like I was in a computer game. We have actually decided to leave. Game over, Africa wins but at least we escape with our lives!

Hi – three days later, the hurricane has been dancing around the indian Ocean, the tail may still hit us but will just be a bad storm not a cyclone. It suddenly feels like we are one small step ahead of nature’s force.….long may it last.

We are camping on a grassy African lawn, surrounded by palm trees, the view from our tent is of the warm Indian Ocean.

The girls spend hours playing with baby toads (I have just met Mila’s two latest, Nicky and Cass, living in a matchbox.) We identified the adult Raucous Toads in Barra, and again here at Morrungulo. These could only be…Raucous Tadpoles!

We spend the days doing, well I am not quite sure, pottering about, swimming, working a bit, washing, cooking, eating. Our ingredients are restricted to pasta, fresh tomatoes, tinned tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt, lemon-pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar (two kinds!) and our dwindling supply of precious extras bought as we were leaving South Africa (coriander paste and a lemon that has lasted about 10 meals.)

Ralph wakes up very early and sets up his desk on the beach.

When it rained we set up a hairdresser under the awning:

We feel safe, as safe as you can feel in Africa, which mainly involves being away from any cars, cities and war. Besides the Macbook Pros, assortment of cameras and video recorders and about 500 adaptors and chargers, it’s a simple life!

After a trip to the Inhambane market (amazing tomatoes!) and some comic attempts at fledgling Portuguese, we bought a mix CD unpromisingly named “Facebook” from a guy at the market and played it on the red earth road to Morrungulo. Absolutely amazing music, it reminded us of the Creole music we first heard in the Seychelles in 1999. We put up the volume and suddenly all felt bloody amazing!

My view from the front seat…

Ralph gets to look at me and Mila…

Here at Morrungulo, the sun is shining and by god the place is totally stunning. We hope to stay for a while… nothing to stop us except…the Category 5 cyclone heading straight here from Madagascar…yes really…

Barra is a disappointment. We’re starting to worry about how much building work is going on all over the Peninsula, does it bode ill for our trip up north? We have to remind each other that we are just a couple of days into the Mozambican trip and resist our impulse to analyze. It does feel grotty though, and weirdly expensive, the downside of Lonely Planet tourism. The weather has been very unsettled so we can’t go out to sea, to find whale sharks to snorkel with. Adversity can be fun, but still…

We did find an unspoilt beach and went for an inaugural shallow snorkel (no fish though).

We had been expecting Inhambane town to be something like Stone Town in Zanzibar (fading colonial splendour blah blah) but it was really run down. We felt good there and did some admin. We went shopping at the Chinese supermarket – new Chinese immigrants having taken over from the Indian general trading stores.

There is a remarkable lack of diversity of food: no chocolate! All food is extremely expensive, almost none locally produced – the water we bought was imported from Portugal and a carton of longlife milk costs $4. I asked a local what they did for milk, thinking there may be a parallel market for locals – but actually they just don’t have milk except from kept livestock (of which we saw almost none).

From the town we headed to the coastal peninsula of Barra – there were dozens of Piri Piri roadside stalls on the road up. The map of Mozambique actually notes this phenomenon (no offical mention of the hanging cow’s head though). Ralph, with all his attempts at Consolidation of Stuff, bought a MASSIVE bottle of Piri Piri sauce which we will be (happily) shlepping through the rest of Southern Africa.

Hello from Inhmabane. We’re 4 days into Mozambique and all is well. Just managed to escape from the Kruger Park before southern area was closed due to flooding (apparently people we’re getting helicoptered out and Sabie flooded river was depositing crocs in the campsites). Easy crossing at Ressano Garcia into Mozambique – slept first night Xai-Xai (sorry James – I didn’t get the photo), then two nights on the beach at Barra near Inhambane. Refueling in Inhambane now then heading up to Morrongulu for 4 or 5 nights, then refueling Massinga. Then aim to spend 4/5 nights Pomene. After that hope to head up to Goronogoza and then into Malawi. Mpandangare going like a baby, cruising through deep sand – kids still managing homework on the the long legs – and we’re all learning some Portuguese. Slow internet when available so not sure when next update will be. People here are super-friendly, the roads have been good and we’ve passed through all roadblocks unhindered so far.

Mila: (left drawing) I saw two teenagers, who were wearing no shoes but they were wearing normal clothes – the right size and not ripped – so they weren’t too poor, and they were making a house out of dried grass, straw and wood. It was a really cool pattern, because they were using different kinds of straws and different patterns, and wasn’t like the other house that were just wood and straw, it was woven.

Bea: (right drawing) We drive through Mozambique, many people are outside our car, begging for us to buy their somewhat strange foods. The beautiful huts are in such random places that you think they were just dropped out of the sky.