Top Menu

Navigation

Archive | Mozambique

Southern Mozambique July 2012 Highlights

By on 31. July 2012 in Mozambique

I had a very rough start. Within hours of my arrival in Chimoio I was cheated by moneychangers, had my laptop stolen in a hostel, had to abandon a horrid bus where we were squashed like sardines with stereo blasting. To top things off I was unable to get cash since ATMs very randomly accept cards in Mozambique. So if my first entries give the impression of Mozambique better being avoided - this is certainly not my message! But even travellers with less traumatic experiences often feel overwhelmed on their first day in the country, especially women travelling on their own.

Beaches of Vilankulo

Beaches of Vilankulo

The rest was a great trip that took me from Chimoio to Vilankulo, Tofo and Maputo. In this part of the country, roads are just fine and tourist facilities very developed. Speaking Spanish gave me an advantage in buses and at local markets. In hostels on the “Backpacker Trail”, English is the main language of communication. The most striking bit was the difference to Zimbabwe, with its Anglophone, well organized and orderly touch. I loved Mozambique for being different, the Africa I knew from previous trips, the colorful Africa, the crowded one, with markets, loud and full of smiles and a capital like nowhere else.

Read More

0

Bussing Maputo to Johannesburg

By on 31. July 2012 in Mozambique
Maputo - Picture by Gerti Brindlmayer

Maputo - Picture by Gerti Brindlmayer

By the time the Intercape Bus left Maputo behind, I had finished most of my food ration. Knowing the border was only one hour away, I figured I could get new supplies there for this nine-hour trip to Johannesburg.

What comfort! I had the front seat, upstairs on a double-decker bus with toilets, staff serving drinks and collecting the litter, no blasting music and a reclining seat. It was heaven! Leaving Maputo, I noticed the first traffic jam in five weeks, commuters driving into the city. Very disturbing to watch was that only single occupancy was the rule: bad habits are spreading fast.

At the border, I lost sight of my bus and quickly tagged on to a passenger from my bus, since borders can always be confusing.

Read More

0

Lobster Feast

By on 28. July 2012 in Mozambique
Maputo, fish market

Maputo fish market, shopping our lunch

The fish market is actually the only place in Maputo where you meet tourists. So I was not too surprised to detect familiar faces on a neighboring table. Matt, an American and Eric, a Swede, whom I had met in Vilankulo and Tofo. We joined forces and still could not finish everything. With the tourists come throngs of street vendors selling everything from paintings, cameras, woodcarvings, bracelets, Apple tablets… This can be a bit annoying.

Eric had lived in Maputo the previous year and kept fantasizing about this bar in the city’s train station. So off we went in a cab and walked all over the place. The bar is long gone but luckily we went there. The building itself is absolutely stunning, so very colonial.

Read More

0

From Maputo with Love

By on 27. July 2012 in Mozambique
Inhambane, art deco architecture from colonial days - photo by Jason Risley Portuguese colonial art deco- Picture by Jason Risley

Inhambane, art deco architecture from colonial days - photo by Jason Risley Portuguese colonial art deco- Picture by Jason Risley

I hardly ever fall in love with bigger cities, but with Maputo I did. Nobody remains untouched by its unparalleled mélange of typical communist apartment blocks - all efficiency, no decor - and colonial architecture. The later comes in all stages. Some neatly renovated, others charmingly run down.

Maputo is a city void of sights, where street life itself becomes the very attraction. Picture a sidewalk with long, neat rows of single shoes for sale, stalls hawking license plates and chargers that dangle from clothes hangers, also for sale. Shop windows are displaying skimpy dresses together with traditional garb for Muslim women. Another landmark are young men in yellow signal vests advertising Vodacom and Mcel: it seems everybody in Mozambique is wearing them, whether or not they are selling telephone cards.

Read More

0

Mozambique’s Backpacker Trail

By on 25. July 2012 in Mozambique
Tofo legendary Bambozi guesthouse- Picture by Gerti Brindlmayer

Tofo legendary Bambozi guesthouse- Picture by Gerti Brindlmayer

Backpackers in Tofo gather at Fatima’s Nest and also I could not escape its draw. In July it was pleasantly quiet, but during South African holidays it is buzzing, I was told. The location is unbeatable, with a terrace overlooking a long, curved beach. The ambience is extremely social, THE place to run into anybody who previously crossed your path, be it south or north. In my case it was Jason and the group of Americans / Brits / Aussies that he had joined in Chimoio, but it was also the time and place for making new acquaintances.

There was never a shortage of people ready to roll. In Tofo, there was always a place to party, whereas in Vilankulo, locals would pick you up and take you to a cool bar somewhere. As much as I wanted, I could not come up with the energy to join in. Sometimes I caught myself rolling my eyes at the preparations for those long nights out, the pre-drinking rituals and what must have been excessive amounts of alcohol downed till the early hours. Then I quickly had to remind myself that not too long ago I would refuse to call it quit without some serious dancing and partying…

Read More

0

Tofo Down Under

By on 25. July 2012 in Mozambique
Snorkeling with whale sharks, the ultimate experience - Picture by Jason Risley

Snorkeling with whale sharks, the ultimate experience - Picture by Jason Risley

Snorkelling side by side with whale sharks was the most splendid and literally breath-taking experience I ever had. I had to move those fins really fast to keep up with “mine”. So close it got that I had to move out of the way.

It is impossible to describe how I felt swimming next to this speckled, slow moving giant. Around its gigantic mouth floated a school of transparent small fish. Desperately I tried to get in front of the whale to see if those fish were disappearing soon. No matter how hard I tried, the whale shark did not allow me to watch this.

Read More

0

Ilha de Bazurato

By on 25. July 2012 in Mozambique
Bazaruto Archipeligo- Picture by Jason Risley

Bazaruto Archipeligo- Picture by Jason Risley

A gigantic sand dune in the turquoise blue sea, that’s Ilha de Bazaruto, the largest and most spectacular one of the three islands that make up Archipelago Bazaruto.

If I did the trip again, I would sail out there in a dhow and use its engine to come back. Being on this island is the real experience. From the top of the sand dune the view is spectacular, with differently colored blue waters intercepted by sand bars. You can even make out the other end of the twenty-kilometer long island. Hard to believe, but about 2.000 people live out there. Since money can buy you everything, two very up-market lodges found their way onto Bazaruto. All islands are part of a national park and some locals are employed as rangers, who unfortunately seem untroubled by the trash that some people leave.

Read More

0

Tofo & Inhambane – Terra des Boa Gente

By on 24. July 2012 in Mozambique
Vilankulos, local girls posing for the camera, Picture by Jason Risley

Vilankulos, local girls posing for the camera, Picture by Jason Risley

Vasco da Gama called this peninsula the “Land of the good people”. So it’s just natural that Mozambique’s Declaration of Independence was signed here, in the tiny fishing village of Tofo, and that tourists came to love this place. Tofo is certainly not a fishing village anymore, but dominated by lodges, guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, dive centers and bars, call it tourism. The beaches are endless.

Tofo’s exotic flair was gradually announced when I travelled down south from Vilankulo. Palm trees were taking over, and the occasional sugar cane field lurked from the distance. Small villages with shops featuring colourful goods lined the road, selling everything from furniture, plastic buckets, clothes, food and whatever it needs to repair bikes and farming machinery.

What could top this but a pleasant ferry trip across the bay to Inhambane? The oldest settlement on the east coast of Mozambique has seen it all. Already in the 11th century, Muslim and Persian traders sailed their dhows around its waters. More recent and thus highly visible is the influence of the Portuguese ruling over Mozambique until 1975. The charming colonial buildings make Inhambane a pleasant place to stroll around and a nice excursion from Tofo, only 20 kilometers away. What should be a short trip in a chapa isn’t. The excessively crowded minibuses stop every other minute to squash more passengers inside or unload them and their heavy bags full of maize or coconuts.

After travelling for five weeks, this is where I stayed the longest and if I was to go there again, I would check out Barra and Tofinho, more quiet places up and down the never ending coastline of white, white sand.

Picture by Jason Risley.

 

0

Vilankulo – Mozambique’s Color-Spewing “Wattenmeer”

By on 24. July 2012 in Mozambique
Vilankulos, during low tide the water retreats leaving sand bars and small pool of water in spetctacular colours - Picture by Jason Risley

Vilankulos, during low tide the water retreats leaving sand bars and small pool of water in spetctacular colours - Picture by Jason Risley

You think you have seen all the beaches in the world and nothing can surprise you? Try Vilankulo! During high tide they look like many others, but low tide creates a magic spectacle. The ocean retreats, seems to disappear: sand as far as you can see! Not without leaving little streams or puddles in all different colors, from light blue to turquoise, a kaleidoscope of breathtaking colors. The scenery, the shapes of the little waterworks transforms constantly with the changing tide. German tourists proudly compared this spectacle to the “Wattenmeer” in northern Germany, minus the play of colors, of course.

Read More

0

Traveling Mozambique can be tough

By on 23. July 2012 in Mozambique

 

Notorious chapa designed for 16 passengers, never carrying less than 26 - Picture by Gerti Brindlmayer

Notorious chapa designed for 16 passengers, never carrying less than 26 - Picture by Gerti Brindlmayer

My second attempt to ride the night bus down south started promising. A few days before, I had suffered an attack of claustrophobia after we sat packed like sardines for 1½ hour in the station. Now I was sitting up front (which helped) and the bus left ten minutes after I got on. Needless to say, packed and cramped to the limit.

Again, the worst were the extra seats in the aisle, which made me feel so imprisoned. But being closer to the exit calmed my mind and made it bearable. Only for a few seconds: the very second we pulled out from the station the driver turned the stereo up to what must have been maximum volume. It was earsplitting, deafening. I complained in Spanish and got a mouthful back in Portuguese, what sounded like “you are the only one who minds”. A guy came to my rescue, to no avail. I felt like crying, I stuffed earplugs in my hurting ears, but it only dampened the noise. Why people put up with this, I do not know.

Only one lady protested when the driver and his assistant made people move 30 minutes into the trip just because they had swapped seats. Try to picture this in such cramped conditions and some passengers being really chubby. With my two bags under my feet, my neighbor’s legs around at my side, I was locked in.

I prayed for daylight to find some distraction by looking out of the window. Darkness finally faded, into nothing. Heavy mist hung over the land. It had swallowed everything around us, including the road. This did not keep the driver from racing right into it. At the turnoff to Vilankulo, I made a very spontaneous decision: I jumped off the bus, despite my plan to stay on until Tofo. The earlier you got off the more money you lose, since the ticket for this direct bus to Maputo is 50 USD, no matter where you get off. Too bad, Vilankulo is only about a third of the trip. A tough decision, but it turned to be the right one.

For short distances, chapas (minibuses) are the way to go. To describe them as crowded would be an understatement: designed for 16 passengers, 26 are not unusual. This is how I travelled the six hours from Vilankulo to Tofo, but I was lucky again: I got to sit next to the driver, despite his initial attempt to make me move to the back. “The police does not want women to sit up front”, he tried. I did not budge and enjoyed the easy ride without blasting music and a lot of laughter among the other passengers.

 

Picture by Gerti Brindlmayer.

0