Mozambique part 1: From border to ocean
Door: Nayan Heijmans
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Nayan
10 September 2016 | Mozambique, Inhambane
After entering Mozambique, we drove passed the capital Maputo. We found a shortcut on the facebook community DriveMoz. This was a sand road leading towards a road still in construction. It saved us 50+ km to and in the busy capital.
We noticed straight away that Mozambique is less well fairing than it’s neighbour South Africa. During our whole stay in Moz we noticed little to no fast-food chains and little to no supermarkets, while South Africa looks more like a European country that way. There also seemed to be more poverty, but this doesn’t mean that people are unhappy or unfriendly. People from Moz are in fact very friendly and helpful. Sadly not much of them speak English, however they are always very keen to help in Portuguese. (Which we didn’t understand, of course)
The first destination in this country was Praia de Tofo (Tofo Beach.) However this is approximately an 11 hours drive from the border at Komatipoort. Therefore we decided to stop half way at a resort, some 30km passed Xai-Xai. During the hours long drive we passed multiple police checks. None of them stopped us, until the last police check before we had to leave the main street. We were (read I was) driving faster than allowed on this main road continuously. Sorry mom, but sometimes the roads had no signs of allowed speed, and sometimes it was, 60, 80 or 100km/h. Mostly I drove 70, 90, 120, which was perfectly save to do. The main road is in perfect condition, something our southern neighbours can learn a lot from. We got pulled over at the last police check; 3km before we had to leave the main road… damn it.
The officer asked for our papers and said I was speeding. I had to follow him to his camera on tripod. On the vague 3cm by 3cm screen he showed me a picture of a white car, similar to our Beast. With below in font size 1 the date and driven speed. They had me photographed on 66, 72 and 81 km/h, where 60 was allowed. I was laughing inside; I had driven 120km/h at some points where 80 was allowed. On the other hand I hadn’t seen the 60 sign for this road. He showed me the fines from a book, all looked very official. 1000 metical for speeding up to 10km/h, 2000 metical for speeding 10-20 km/h and 4000 metical for speeding 20-30km/h. The officer wanted to fine me 4000 metical, so I said to him that I didn’t have any more money and had to find an atm. Besides this, I insisted on paying the fine at a police station (which is the law). The officer decided to write me a fine, and said to me that the police station was 200m back. Somehow the officer gave me a break (maybe because I pretended to look innocent and played the fool, or maybe just because I wanted to pay it at the police staiton) and wrote 2000 mets on the fine. He kept my driving license. We turned the car and after 200m there were more officers, sitting next to the road with a sign: Police. Apparently this was the police station. I paid the 2000mets (€25 for speeding 21km/h, such a rip-off) and got a receipt, which I showed to the officer who had my driving license. We finally continued our way towards our resort.
After the last 3km of main road we had to take a sand road. This was a 10km sand road with an occasional local and some cows. The resort was very remote; which made it even more beautiful. It seemed like we were the only two guests. After dinner and a fishbowl, we watched the sea from our patio. This was really an amazing view.
During breakfast the next day we could see whales in the distance. What a nice way to start the day! We left after breakfast for Tofo, where we arrived in the afternoon. There is only 1 tar road in Tofo, the rest of them are sand roads with lots of loose sand and big humps (I would definitely recommend a 4x4.) In Tofo we stayed for 3 nights at Mozambeats. During these days we did 4 dives with Peri-Peri divers. The first dive was in the afternoon of the day after arrival. So we decided to get some drinks on our arrival day. There was little to nothing to do, so we joined 5-6 persons in a tiny tiny tiny bar, if we can even call it a bar. We had some laughs with 2 Swiss couples; it was really fun with them.
So the next day we started our diving. All dives where so called “negative entry” dives. This means that you’re dropping off the side of the boat backwards and going straight down headfirst. The first dive I failed to do this, so I just went down normally. With the other dives this went much better. Only when descending headfirst I didn’t equalize my ears enough, so I had to go down more slowly, sometimes coming up a bit. During the second dive this also happened. While everyone else was well underway to 25m depth, I was having some trouble with my ears. So while I was trying to equalise my ears, the rest faded away in the distance. Visibility was really bad just below the surface. At one point I could only see their air bubbles coming up, so I followed those bubbles. Eventually those faded away in the distance as well. There I was, alone, with bad visibility. After I descended a couple of metres more, I first saw the bubbles again and then also the rest of the group. Of course I was never really alone, although I had looked back and couldn’t see others falling behind as well, one of the dive masters was still behind me.
Between the 2nd and 3rd dive we saw a whaleshark and got to snorkel with it. Only the whaleshark swam up and forth, while visibility in the water was only a couple of meters. So when I finally arrived at the spot where the whaleshark was I was very tired and I only got to see a shade of something massive in the shape of a whaleshark. I could even see some of it white spots and a couple of seconds later I saw it’s tail, a bit closer by. Sadly, this was it, for my first and still only encounter with a whaleshark.
After completing these 4 dives, my logbook already contains 40 logged dives! However still, every time I have to get to the bottom again after a long time, I have to get used to it.
During one of our Tofo Beach-days a bartender from Mozambeats, named Carlos, invited us to have a local dinner at his house. This way we could see how the locals live and eat. We gave him 1300 Mets (around €16,25), so his wife could make grilled fish with chips and a salad. Together with Carlos we bought a scarf on the market for his wife. When we drove to his house we almost got stuck in the sand. Luckily the Beast pulled us through and as we arrived we saw both a concrete house and a couple of wooden stray huts. Proudly he showed us the inside of the concrete house, it was still empty and not finished. He said that he had been building it for 7 years and it was now almost finished. They just didn’t have enough money to finish it in a normal way, but every time piece by piece they had build it a bit more.
The dinner itself was really tasty. Not his wife but his daughter had been cooking for us, since his wife was in the hospital, looking after her mother. The daughter cooked the fish inside a stray hut on an open fire pit. The chips were nicely prepared with spices. He also let us try a real local thing, it were some sort of oats however it was really dry. More something we would feed to our chickens. They put a spoon of it in their mouths, followed by fish or meat. We had brought some wine, to complete the dinner in a nice way. Before and after eating, his son came to us with a jar of water, a bucket and a towel, to wash our hands. He held the towel over his arm like a small butler, so from this we could tell that he probably invited tourist over to his house more often. Carlos appeared to be doing well for him and his family. He also has a granddaughter, who was dancing all the time, while we waited for our dinner. This was a fun thing to watch.
After the fourth dive on Friday morning, we drove to Vilanculos.
We noticed straight away that Mozambique is less well fairing than it’s neighbour South Africa. During our whole stay in Moz we noticed little to no fast-food chains and little to no supermarkets, while South Africa looks more like a European country that way. There also seemed to be more poverty, but this doesn’t mean that people are unhappy or unfriendly. People from Moz are in fact very friendly and helpful. Sadly not much of them speak English, however they are always very keen to help in Portuguese. (Which we didn’t understand, of course)
The first destination in this country was Praia de Tofo (Tofo Beach.) However this is approximately an 11 hours drive from the border at Komatipoort. Therefore we decided to stop half way at a resort, some 30km passed Xai-Xai. During the hours long drive we passed multiple police checks. None of them stopped us, until the last police check before we had to leave the main street. We were (read I was) driving faster than allowed on this main road continuously. Sorry mom, but sometimes the roads had no signs of allowed speed, and sometimes it was, 60, 80 or 100km/h. Mostly I drove 70, 90, 120, which was perfectly save to do. The main road is in perfect condition, something our southern neighbours can learn a lot from. We got pulled over at the last police check; 3km before we had to leave the main road… damn it.
The officer asked for our papers and said I was speeding. I had to follow him to his camera on tripod. On the vague 3cm by 3cm screen he showed me a picture of a white car, similar to our Beast. With below in font size 1 the date and driven speed. They had me photographed on 66, 72 and 81 km/h, where 60 was allowed. I was laughing inside; I had driven 120km/h at some points where 80 was allowed. On the other hand I hadn’t seen the 60 sign for this road. He showed me the fines from a book, all looked very official. 1000 metical for speeding up to 10km/h, 2000 metical for speeding 10-20 km/h and 4000 metical for speeding 20-30km/h. The officer wanted to fine me 4000 metical, so I said to him that I didn’t have any more money and had to find an atm. Besides this, I insisted on paying the fine at a police station (which is the law). The officer decided to write me a fine, and said to me that the police station was 200m back. Somehow the officer gave me a break (maybe because I pretended to look innocent and played the fool, or maybe just because I wanted to pay it at the police staiton) and wrote 2000 mets on the fine. He kept my driving license. We turned the car and after 200m there were more officers, sitting next to the road with a sign: Police. Apparently this was the police station. I paid the 2000mets (€25 for speeding 21km/h, such a rip-off) and got a receipt, which I showed to the officer who had my driving license. We finally continued our way towards our resort.
After the last 3km of main road we had to take a sand road. This was a 10km sand road with an occasional local and some cows. The resort was very remote; which made it even more beautiful. It seemed like we were the only two guests. After dinner and a fishbowl, we watched the sea from our patio. This was really an amazing view.
During breakfast the next day we could see whales in the distance. What a nice way to start the day! We left after breakfast for Tofo, where we arrived in the afternoon. There is only 1 tar road in Tofo, the rest of them are sand roads with lots of loose sand and big humps (I would definitely recommend a 4x4.) In Tofo we stayed for 3 nights at Mozambeats. During these days we did 4 dives with Peri-Peri divers. The first dive was in the afternoon of the day after arrival. So we decided to get some drinks on our arrival day. There was little to nothing to do, so we joined 5-6 persons in a tiny tiny tiny bar, if we can even call it a bar. We had some laughs with 2 Swiss couples; it was really fun with them.
So the next day we started our diving. All dives where so called “negative entry” dives. This means that you’re dropping off the side of the boat backwards and going straight down headfirst. The first dive I failed to do this, so I just went down normally. With the other dives this went much better. Only when descending headfirst I didn’t equalize my ears enough, so I had to go down more slowly, sometimes coming up a bit. During the second dive this also happened. While everyone else was well underway to 25m depth, I was having some trouble with my ears. So while I was trying to equalise my ears, the rest faded away in the distance. Visibility was really bad just below the surface. At one point I could only see their air bubbles coming up, so I followed those bubbles. Eventually those faded away in the distance as well. There I was, alone, with bad visibility. After I descended a couple of metres more, I first saw the bubbles again and then also the rest of the group. Of course I was never really alone, although I had looked back and couldn’t see others falling behind as well, one of the dive masters was still behind me.
Between the 2nd and 3rd dive we saw a whaleshark and got to snorkel with it. Only the whaleshark swam up and forth, while visibility in the water was only a couple of meters. So when I finally arrived at the spot where the whaleshark was I was very tired and I only got to see a shade of something massive in the shape of a whaleshark. I could even see some of it white spots and a couple of seconds later I saw it’s tail, a bit closer by. Sadly, this was it, for my first and still only encounter with a whaleshark.
After completing these 4 dives, my logbook already contains 40 logged dives! However still, every time I have to get to the bottom again after a long time, I have to get used to it.
During one of our Tofo Beach-days a bartender from Mozambeats, named Carlos, invited us to have a local dinner at his house. This way we could see how the locals live and eat. We gave him 1300 Mets (around €16,25), so his wife could make grilled fish with chips and a salad. Together with Carlos we bought a scarf on the market for his wife. When we drove to his house we almost got stuck in the sand. Luckily the Beast pulled us through and as we arrived we saw both a concrete house and a couple of wooden stray huts. Proudly he showed us the inside of the concrete house, it was still empty and not finished. He said that he had been building it for 7 years and it was now almost finished. They just didn’t have enough money to finish it in a normal way, but every time piece by piece they had build it a bit more.
The dinner itself was really tasty. Not his wife but his daughter had been cooking for us, since his wife was in the hospital, looking after her mother. The daughter cooked the fish inside a stray hut on an open fire pit. The chips were nicely prepared with spices. He also let us try a real local thing, it were some sort of oats however it was really dry. More something we would feed to our chickens. They put a spoon of it in their mouths, followed by fish or meat. We had brought some wine, to complete the dinner in a nice way. Before and after eating, his son came to us with a jar of water, a bucket and a towel, to wash our hands. He held the towel over his arm like a small butler, so from this we could tell that he probably invited tourist over to his house more often. Carlos appeared to be doing well for him and his family. He also has a granddaughter, who was dancing all the time, while we waited for our dinner. This was a fun thing to watch.
After the fourth dive on Friday morning, we drove to Vilanculos.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
