Mozambique experience started. As i came to pick up a rental car at the Johannesburg airport i was swearing like hell. Five-times i repeated in advance that i was going to Mozambique and that i want Toyota Corolla. They were not ready to provide me with documents needed for Mozambican border crossing. An hour it took them to figure out. And they found the documents for a Toyota Yaris only. Holy Grail. Relax, this is Africa.
Driving through Mozambican borders, the adventures starting. Never seen such a mess. It was getting dark and one could not see where the border line is. Then we realized we have to go to a few places before we cam pass the line. South African customs, Mozambican customs, car clearance, mosquitos floating in the air and hot humid air made waiting quite inconvenient. Relax, this is Africa. After 90 minutes we got through!!!
And we were stopped by the Mozambican police right after the border. Hoping for pricey bribes, they started broken english "do you have papers", "where is your insurance", "this is not insurance", "where is your border crossing document", "this is insurance, not border crossing", "you are not car owner. this is bad", "this is not approval to drive the car here", "ok, have a good stay!"
First petrol station. 5 skinny kids knocking on all windows. Each of them hungry. So we gave them couple of chocolate bars. But then the security guy came - "nothing for me?"... we were out of chocolate bars already.
Another police stopping us. The white south african numberplate works better than any radar. Mozambique has black plates. This guy was more experienced. Having repeated all the sentences as his colleagues an hour ago, he started digging into compulsory equipment. And we got stuck on safety triangle. Where the heck are safety triangle in rental cars? Do they hide them on purpose? ... As there were hungry kids around again, i really didn't want to take out all the trunk's contents and be safe with the triangle. "So it will be 1000 meticals (30 EUR), we will go to police station." I kept refusing, trying to reach the helpline of the car rental company but unsuccessfully. It was the cheapest rental company and apparently the 24hour call centrum was limited to daytime only. Trying to call there for 10minutes i was hoping this persistent cop will lower the fine. Yes, he did. 100 rands (10 EUR) went into his pocket.
As i had a great navigator (Bozena woke up inbetween), it took us only few mins to get to our hotel. At 11pm we finally went to discover Maputo famous jazzy nightlife!
We got into a renowned club with live jazz music. Really nice. Until we realized everybody around is tourists... Kind of a disillusion... This is not real Mozambique. But the music was really good! Later we went for a walk in the dark and dirty city centre, were happy not to have any incident with local homeless community.
Next day morning jogging - great way to discover the city. Along the sea, through busy market streets, cafes around, very cool. Afterwards visiting the lively craft market we improved our bargaining skills lowering the prices usually by 60% by playing a marriage game "i have to ask my wife, she is the treasurer. Sorry she doesn't like it. We will come back"
Finally tasted the famous Mozambican seafood - unfortunately again in one of the lonely planet preferred tourist only restaurants. But never mind. We were stopped by police again, for u-turning on a full line. These guys were extremely stubborn, willing to take us to police station. And asking us to pay 40EUR. Never. After 30minutes of negotiations it cost us only 15EUR but we were so happy. Visiting a cuban-style leftist coffee bar where all the alternative rasta artists chat. And in the evening went out again but nothing was going on!! After two hours of running around we discovered a metal party in the club we went to yesterday. Very interesting. Then we tried to walk to another club (around 12am) but after meeting few discouraging homelesses and other types we gave it up.
Sunday morning. Time to jog into poor neighborhoods. Raining like hell. And then a young black teenager in a suit and black shoes joins me for jogging. "Can i run with you? i'm late for church..." was he saying while stepping into huge puddles with his shiny shoes. People really care a lot about meeting with the God…
We drove up. As far as we get today, People telling us the coastal city of Inhambane is about 4hours of drive ... Through slums. Maputo suburbs give the worst impression ever. People who moved in the city recently living on the streets, in factory halls, sleeping on stands, so strong feeling of poverty and being sorry for them.... Later stopped by police again, this time 10km/hr faster than the limit, 10EUR. We hated our white numberplate. Then went through a "lake" - one foot deep puddle on the road, stretching for 50metres and our Toyota Yaris made it. God bless Toyotas. It was pouring with rain, visibility zero. Potholes on the road, good fun.
Stopping at a gas station, we experienced even skinnier and hungrier kids, begging for anything. It was such a lot of them. Arriving to Inhambane after 7 hours of tough drive but finally. It stopped raining and we went for a beautiful moon-enlighted walk. Inhambane looks like a small cozy coastal French city. Only the stars are much nicer in Inhambane.
Next day walking around, meeting few local people, seeing the schools (it was Monday already), all the black kids in uniforms - they look so good... Local market - filthy but lovely, people trying to sell smallest bananas ever. Driving up to Vilanculos - famous beachy spot... We got great accommodation - a hut right on the beach. Just before the sunset we run into the sea.... And then went for an evening walk and drinks,.... And the next day went on a boat to close archipelago (island), snorkelling and enjoying tropical paradise, sleeping on another windy island with lot of crabs and an almost full moon... Our guide was an extremely well-built young guy and we were both was having an eye on him (guess who more)... ;-)) that was fun.
Next day we rented a jeep and the real adventure started...we went to an completely undeveloped national park Zinave. Arrived there late, we somehow got into the rangers site, sleeping in one of their tents... Here we finally met with animals, nature and on top of that with very nice people. In search for hippos, the local rangers were taking us all around the national park, one of them wrote me a textbook-like letter full A4 saying if I want to become his pen friend… And the park manager was an extremely easy-going but well-educated guy. It was amazing that he was spending his life there, in love with the nature, having family 15 hours driving distance far….
And these park rangers with their kids (0-6 years of age) were every evening watching European / US musicvideos on a DVD. They were so keen on that… didn’t understand much of the context though. And some of the musicvideos had really displayed really explicit stuff…
Driving back to Vilanculos, we stopped in a small interior city, seeing all around again and again poor people and Coca Cola / Mozambique Cellphone ads. House painter red (coke) or yellow (mcel)… And had a local lunch, who knows what it was but it was REAL.
Friday night in Vilanculos was supposed to be loaded with parties but in a local bar it was only few drunk dancers. So we walked back to our favorite beach-chalet-hostel watching for any suspicious people (it’s not recommended to walk there when darkness falls…)
Saturday we drove back down to Inhambane, to check out the best Mozambican beach ever – Tofo! Small bays, hidden behind grass covered sand dunes, beautiful pristine beaches, medium waves that let you both swim or fight back… Dinner at a top of the sand dune overlooking a bay… And the next morning horse back riding on the beach, …
The drive back on Sunday was demanding – 15 hours, but we made it safely home even with all the laid-up unmarked vehicles on winding south African roads at the rainy night… Bozena drove really well during the toughest time.
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