29th May Lobsters And Sand Do Mix

29^th May Lighthouse Camping, Inhumbane.

The guide book gave this place a good write up, unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of a dive but with an amazing view. We look down onto a wild surf with an estuary off to our left. The last 6kms out to here was through deep sand with me having to use low range 4x4 to get through; this appears to be what is necessary to get to most of the nice resorts out on the coast. So far the main road north, the EN1 has been good seal but once you get off it there’s sand to navigate through, the last place was like this as well though not as deep.

Our first night in Mozambique had us turning up exhausted at Casa Lisa, that was after our disastrous trip out of Maputo. Cooking food was the last thing on our minds and gladly accepted a half chicken & rice. Bruce, an ex Kenyan, owns and runs the accommodation complex. Gaining from what he told us his was a story of disillusionment caused by events in Kenya where he had lived for 20 years. Rioting in Mombassa then the bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam had seen tourism die. He bought Casa Lisa and turned it into a good business yet can only claim two good friends in the ten years he had been there. He wants to go back to Kenya, the UK is out of the question, but you wonder what he has got to go back to. We have just finished a book written in the 70s about East Africa and what dreams and hopes people, both black and white, had then on where their lives and country were heading, you look back to see what has happened since and the corruption and despotism is still rife in many of them.

I digress. Mozambique is renowned for its sea food. The second night at Sunset Lodge we ate at their restaurant and were impressed by the meal served up: Joan had 2 lobsters, salad & chips for $9; I had a sea food platter with a whole fish, large lobster, dozen prawns & a good helping of calamari for $21. It was so beautifully cooked and presented, washed down with a Portuguese vinho blanco, a meal to remember.

At the moment we are trying to find a suitable place to spend a few days for my birthday, this is not it so will head north tomorrow.

Sunset Lodge, Mozambique

Have sorted out the modem for Mozambique. A post & a couple of photos. Gary

27^th May Sunset Lodge, Praia de Chidengule. Mozambique

The African Games are being held in Mozambique during September of this year and the local people are excited as the aquatic events are being held in a lake nearby. They had to cull all the crocodiless in the lake before the event.

We have travelled some 500kms up the country the last 36 hours and have experienced all driving conditions one could imagine: from deep sand immediately on crossing the border, rough partially formed roads then pot holed tarmac. But the section to beat it all was after leaving the capital, Maputo, due to me putting into the Garmin to seek the shorter route, not the quickest, the darling lady with the soothing voice on the machine proceeded to lead us over one of the most diabolical stretches of country we have ever encountered since the Marienfluss in Namibia. We should have realized something was wrong as on the outskirts of the city the road suddenly turned to dirt with wavy undulations which turned into mud-filled pot holes then country tracks where the grass between the tracks was over ½ metre high. The local kids were so excited to see Mzungu drive by. I think it was the first time some of them had seen a white man the way they tore off. It took us 2 hours to cover the 21kms before hitting the main road, in the mean time darkness had fallen. I must say the Nissan handled the situation amazingly. We have let it get over it today with a 230km stretch on good asphalt. During our venture we asked three different locals if we were actually on a road and in the right direction, only one could speak good English but were assured by all that, yes we were, and to keep going, shaking their heads in amazement. Today Joan found a warning in one of the guide books we had to avoid that road as it was only suitable for advanced 4x4 drivers, looks like I’ve made the grade.

This stopover will be the first where we can relax and take it easy. Up till now we have taken the bakkie out on game drives if we stop for a couple of days, and that is one of the few disadvantages of having your home on wheels, means packing up for a game drive. But tomorrow it stays put.

Two of the main road after crossing border

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24^th May. Mbomu NP

Something chomping near the van woke us this morning; Joan had heard something similar at the last park. I looked out and here were two white rhino a couple of metres from the van happily feeding on the short grass at the camp site. Unfortunately it was too dark to take a photo. The hung around for a good 15 minutes before heading off. This is an unfenced camp site where animals wander through at will.

Our short drive to the first of the hides this morning took us through a forest of giraffes, we counted 26, majestically nibbling at the high branches. The two hides we initially went to overlooked a large pan full of birdlife and many hippos and crocodiles. We counted 16 crocs on a stretch of bank a couple of hundred metres long. It was all most impressive.

Mbomu is a small park which is nice for a change. I think there were only three vehicles in the park today. Generally attendances have been down on quite a few of the parks we have been to and in both the last two we have almost had the park to ourselves

25^th.Near Mozambique border.

We will cross over tomorrow morning. It’s only 150 kms to Maputo where we have to get a couple of things but most of it is on sand. It appears the Mozambique authorities have kept it sand to give the SA city dwellers a thrill on their 4x4 vehicles.

An interesting day today; after leaving Mbomu we dropped it to Pembe Elephant Park for a few hours. We hadn’t seen an elephant on the trip so far, it’s a small park and restricted to 4x4s due to the sand. The pachyderms here are meant to of the most purest stock and also the largest on the continent. There is also a hide here that has a 24hr web cam to show the world the goings on at the pan. Not sure on the address but if any one is interested typing in Pembe Pan View might get results (this will increase your knowledge of elephants Ewen). The animals there were very impressive but still no elephants. At the next pan we saw one big one then not long after that we ran into one on the track. Not literally but almost. There’s only one thing worse than coming on a family of them on the road and that is to come upon one, but in this case three, coming towards you and there is nowhere to go except in reverse. This we did until they finally headed off towards a pan. Not knowing how many more were coming we decided to turn around and get to a picnic area another way. On our way back what was an empty pan on the side of the road when we drove by the first time now had at least 15 elephants around it and more crossing the road both sides of us as well.

The pamphlet the people give you when entering the park has a lot of info on what to look for when one is becoming aggressive, things like: swinging the front foot, coiling & uncoiling the trunk, throwing objects towards the vehicle etc etc. None of them were displaying any of these, but still, I find these behemoths quite nerve wracking to be near.

This will be the last blog until we get the dongle sorted out for Mozambique but I believe they have good cell phone coverage.

Road Block

At the Pan. Tembe NP