Qualimane 8th June

8^th June. Qualimane.

We are having to make a 570km emergency dash tomorrow. Joan has run out of coffee. She has had to exist on half cups the last few days, our next stop, Nampula, has a Shoprite so all should be well.

It was a driving day yesterday, covering 540kms but the last 30kms was worse than all the rest; a tarred but narrow badly potholed road where the oncoming traffic refused to move over. Add a continuous line of walkers on either side and a disaster was very much in the offing. We intended travelling to Nampula today but were so exhausted, took the day off. We were the only ones at the campsite, nice and peaceful, but 20 South Africans pulled up later this afternoon in Land Cruisers and motorbikes dispelling the reverie a little. They are heading to Germany and will do it in three months 10 days I was told. A very regimented lot.

This is a very poor country, you see it as you drive along: children often with rags on their back, houses all made with thatch both on the walls and the roof, people walking along the road, to have a bike means you have a little money. Yet the compounds are always neat often their hut have flowers out the front.

We also love the Mozambique sense of rhythm: people both young or old are walking along the road then suddenly they give a little shuffle with their feet, shimmy with their hips and their arms wave to a rhythm they have suddenly thought of. They laugh a lot as well.

The sea here is a little discoloured from the waters of the mighty Zambezi River entering the sea. That happens a little south of here. We crossed it on a new bridge yesterday. It is a massive river, one of the world’s greatest.

This is a short post but thought it best as we will be travelling a fair distance the next few days.