Gaels in Mozambique.

[richardbd]

The insect is an Elegant Grasshopper Jim...

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

The insect is an Elegant Grasshopper Jim...

That's a great name Richard, and indeed you are correct. They were munching on the vegetation on the side of the road. Apparently they are a pest for gardeners and farmers.

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[simondippenhall]

So yesterday I spent the day out in the Bazaruto archipelago walking and snorkelling at Two Mile Reef which was spectacular (but sorry no photos as my phone doesn’t like water ).

Spectacular dunes on the island which is a conservation park

Then off to snorkel, on a reef only a metre or two below the surface with marvellous coloured fish of all sizes.

Two of my snorkel companions getting caught up in a photo session - Simon, a Dutch guy on the left, has an old school non digital camera which is rather brave! He is travelling around Southern Africa on a Honda CRF300Rally (which he will sell in S Africa at the end of his trip, if there is any GSer interest?)

Then time for a great picnic on the beach, sheltered from the scorching sun.

All in all a great day even if no motorcycles involved….and tomorrow (ie today) there’s a big planning discussion to be had about our future direction….


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[simondippenhall]

Jim carefully took a photo of me wading out to the boat at the departure, in case he needed to explain my disappearance to Kit, my wife

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Once I'd seen Simon off, I began to energetically take it easy. The boats drifting by contributed to the relaxed mood. Here we have fishermen loading a net and another dhow passing under sail. These down-time days balance the full-on days, riding the Mozambique potholed roads.

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[jeffa]

Great, keep it up Lads, thank you

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

I did take the bike out and pop up to town and get some credit on my phone and bread and bananas for lunch. This car broken down in the middle of the street caused gridlock. Cars and trucks tried to pass and any gaps got filled with tuk-tuks, so that even a motorbike couldn't get through. This 3 km ride exhausted me and I had to return to the hammock on the veranda and monitor the receding of the tide and the changing colours of the sea.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

When Simon got back from his snorkling trip, full of energy, I felt I should shake my feathers and join him for a walk on the beach, not realising it could be the most dangerouspart of the trip.

We came across this huddle of local ladies and learned they were auctioning and allocating a catch of fish. Later, the succesful bidders took their hawl down to be washed in the sea.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Once the auction was concluded the losers in the fish auction, waited for the next catch to arrive.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

The shape of the dhow is iconic and some even have a mascot of a Little Egret. There were quite a few Egrets around the fish auction, waiting for fish scraps and then joined by a single Grey Heron.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

After a pleasant walk along the beach, we chatted to the snorkeling boat crew, before mounting the steps from the lodge. Then one of the guys raised the alarm and pointed at the steps where we were about to walk. This large snake, well over a meter, was slithering down the steps. The locals said it was dangerous and called it a cobra but in truth we don't know what it was but it raised our heart rates.

Later, in the evening we saw another snake as we returned to our cabin. I suppose I better also mention the thin green snake which crossed the road in front of us as we rode here. Hopefully this is the end of the snake stories!

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[simondippenhall]

One of the boats had this name on its side, appropriate perhaps for a country which has suffered civil war and conflict

Hard to read, I realise, but it says ‘Hate has no future’ (Odio nao tem futuro).

The boat below our verandah is less imaginative and has a big BMW painted on its side


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[simondippenhall]

Today was also a sort of mooching day alongside a detailed planning discussion (North or South) which we’ll cover later.

I had a great night’s sleep(which I needed after a previous night of little sleep due to a barking dog and excess heat) due to the use of a fan this time plus exhaustion from a day of snorkelling and swimming and hiking in the tropical sun.

After a breakfast of porridge supplemented by local bananas we chatted to a couple of fellow travellers, fleshing out our knowledge of the roads potentially ahead of us.

Then we walked into town and toured the market, shown in the following photos

The white piles are local sea salt.

After an ATM visit it was time for a lunch stop, a cold can of coke and a delicious vegetable soup for £1.10 a head. Also a great people watching spot!


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[simondippenhall]

Bashful salt vendor

Well used Honda

Local bottle shop and the fin of the nobility

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

After 3 days in this wonderful place and a cabin with a sea view, we are restless. A few ideas about where to go next have been bubbling around for a while. Finally we came up with a plan to head north tomorrow. We've heard the road is not great with potholes but we hope to avoid most of them and negotiate the rest.

The big decision is that we are going to visit a couple of additional countries, Zimbabwe and Botswana. This is the rough plan for the next week or so...


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[The Other PaulG]

After a pleasant walk along the beach, we chatted to the snorkeling boat crew, before mounting the steps from the lodge. Then one of the guys raised the alarm and pointed at the steps where we were about to walk. This large snake, well over a meter, was slithering down the steps. The locals said it was dangerous and called it a cobra but in truth we don't know what it was but it raised our heart rates.

Later, in the evening we saw another snake as we returned to our cabin. I suppose I better also mention the thin green snake which crossed the road in front of us as we rode here. Hopefully this is the end of the snake stories!View attachment 552539

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I was not sure about this one, so I asked my friend Bernie (she was a game ranger in the Northern Transvaal for a good few years) and she in turn asked the 'snakes of southern Africa' web group. The overwhelming view was that it's a female boomslang (tree snake). The male is a vivid green and easily identified but the female is much harder to ID.

Bad news, very poisonous. Good news, its teeth are far back in its mouth so unless it nipped your finger, it would struggle to get a hold of you.

Anyway, sleep tight!

 

[simondippenhall]

After 3 days in this wonderful place and a cabin with a sea view, we are restless. A few ideas about where to go next have been bubbling around for a while. Finally we came up with a plan to head north tomorrow. We've heard the road is not great with potholes but we hope to avoid most of them and negotiate the rest.

The big decision is that we are going to visit a couple of additional countries, Zimbabwe and Botswana. This is the rough plan for the next week or so...
View attachment 552577

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Jim summarised well what was a wide ranging discussion. When we researched a few days ago, all the car drivers on DriveMoz said ‘avoid it’ and asserted there were 300kms of terrible roads. However on investigation this turned out to be more like 200kms of potholes….terrible for a car to avoid but should be doable on a bike so long as there is a narrow strip I’d tar a tyre wide for us to thread through.

Anyway fingers crossed and we’ll let you know how it works out


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[Johan]

Pity you did not go closer for a better shot, Difficult to identify. Did it have a U shaped head?

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

Pity you did not go closer for a better shot, Difficult to identify. Did it have a U shaped head?

Actually Johan, I'm glad I didn't get any closer!

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[simondippenhall]

So after a long and arduous day yesterday (a 10 hour 450km ride of which a good part was severely potholed so you are dodging lorries and chapas which are cross crossing wherever there is not a cavernous hole - all this in 30-36C heat!) we made it to Inchope and then west to Chimoi by 6pm, exhausted, where we ended up staying in a decent hotel while we rested overnight. More to follow once we draw breath as today we left Moz and entered Zimbabwe which was an interesting process in itself. We are now at a backpacker place in Mutare.

At the last gas station in Moz this crew were very friendly and up for a selfie. We entered Zim with tanks and any auxiliary containers full of gasolina as we didn’t really know why would be available.

Zim crossing was a prolonged process and at $30 each for insurance (which we both already had but Zim wouldn’t accept!) not a cheap one. However it was entertaining as the immigration officer doing our visas was far from the sharpest knife in the drawer and, whilst he had my passport in front of him, I had to dictate loudly my names and passport number as he wrote them down and help him find a blank spot in my passport to put the visa.

Not at all as slick an operation as at Vic Falls and with their credit card system out of order, an expensive drain on our USD funds . But at least we were operating in English which made it easier!

No photos of border for obvious reasons but arrived in Mutare and spent an age getting SIMs loaded with data and Jim for the bank’s last $150 to replenish our supplies.


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