Coming back from ornithology for a moment, today I went for an 0900 appointment with the physio whose name is not Patrick as I was told but Bothwell! A great name but we were not ‘Bothwell’ as he arrived limping because he has some metal plates in his body from a car accident which ‘bother him in cold mornings’ like the 18C of this morning!
My back muscles are still rather knotted but he commented on the improvement from doing the exercises since Monday and then inflicted intense pain on my rotator cuff muscles and applied electric stimulation to my lower back muscles, plus a fair bit of heft, before releasing me to motorcycle onward- provided I did lots of exercises on the way.
So as we left the delightful Emafini Country Lodge at 11h00, in perfect blue skies, a few puzzled motorists saw the second rider standing up and doing stretches and twists of various parts of his anatomy as we wended east through Swaziland.
Conditions were perfect and now we even had our Sena intercoms linked which proves to be very helpful later.
We had read many scare stories of people getting into a pickle trying to get a visa at the Moz border so after taking some soundings we decided to ride up the the Goba border post in the Swazi highlands.
This proves a good choice, despite an officious (read/ bored) Swazi official deciding he wanted to inspect our engine and frame numbers as we LEFT the country. (There has been no interest in this going in!).
By the time we crossed to the Moz border post the temperatures were mid 30s and one of the officials commented that it was ‘muy caliente’ (we were chatting in my version of Portuñol) even for Moz.
It was a lovely quiet border post and the officials were efficient and friendly enough- we were in, got our visa applications reviewed and approved up the chain of command, photographed for the visa, and completed and paid for Temporary Import Permits for the bike, all within an hour - an excellent outcome for many an African border! There was no interest in all my hire bike papers authorising me to ride it abroad!
As we happily went our way into Moz we were struck by the change in environment as we went to a poorer country.
Here are a few snaps but as it passes 37C we were more focussed on staying cool and avoiding the potholes whilst respecting the speed limits.
Using the shade of a Swazi bus shelter for our elevenses…in my case, biltong I was finishing before the border
We were not the only occupants
A few kilometres into Moz we saw our first mosque
Jim waits whilst I (fail to) take a picture of the 37C on my temperature gauge
Sunset in Maputo outside our hotel
On the left hand of these two streets, reflecting Moz’s political heritage
Anyway, it’s great to be back in the saddle and now set to enjoy our journey through Moz. We will spend tomorrow here in the capital before heading North to Inhambane and Tofo and its beautiful coastline.
Anyway back to UK Birdspotters….
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