{"id":13829,"date":"2019-03-28T01:09:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T14:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=13829"},"modified":"2019-03-28T01:09:49","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T14:09:49","slug":"mozambique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=13829","title":{"rendered":"Mozambique!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Our first night in Mozambique was in a remote corner of Limpopo National Park, itself tucked away into a forgotten corner of this fascinating country<\/p><\/div>\n

Mozambique has to be one of the most unlikely travel destinations.  Until recently racked by civil unrest and political turmoil, significantly underdeveloped, no tourism infrastructure, rampant corruption and inflation, a colonial power – Portugal – which abandoned them.  It sounds like a good place to come to later.  But Julie and I were keen to check out their redeveloping national parks, their long gorgeous beaches and some of their unique culture.  We crossed the border from Kruger National Park in South Africa at Giriyondo, one of Mozambique\u2019s most remote border posts, and drove straight into this new world.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The roads in Limpopo National Park were overgrown and only used by local cattle herders<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

The Limpopo National Park in Mozambique backs onto Kruger\nNational Park in South Africa but has very little of the famous wildlife of its\nneighbour.  The lawless environment this\ncountry has endured in recent decades means poaching has been a huge problem in\nthe park and as we drove the 60 kilometres to our first night\u2019s camp we saw\nonly a few impalas to break the stress of driving one of the worst tracks we\nhad seen in Africa so far.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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It didn’t really feel like we were in a national park – you definitely got the feeling the government had abandoned the park<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

Our camp the first night was overlooking the huge lake from Messingir\nDam in a remote setting at the end of a narrow and tricky four wheel drive\ntrack.  The campsite hadn\u2019t been used in\ndays (or maybe weeks!) and was a little iffy without any water or electricity\nbut hey, we were in Mozambique!<\/p>\n\n\n

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The seating arrangements in the campground were a bit casual – and uncomfortable<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

Our original plan for Mozambique was to drive to the\nfurthest point of Kruger National Park and cross over at the Pafuri border post\ndeep in the tropical forest, then travel down the Limpopo River until a point\nwhere cars can drive across the river in the dry season.  We rang the border post to see if the river\nhad dropped low enough for vehicles to cross and we were told emphatically NO!  We\u2019re flexible, a new plan, hence why we\ncrossed further south and saw a bit of the southern half of their national\npark.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Some of the homes in these small communities were at the barest and most basic level<\/p><\/div>
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We saw cattle pulling little sleds which contained the basic needs of the boys herding them – water, some food and perhaps some shelter<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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Mozambique, and our next country Malawi, is also malaria\ncountry and for the first time on our trip we began taking malaria tablets\nbefore getting into the affected areas. \nWe also bought large supplies of the local must-have mosquito repellent,\npromisingly called Peaceful Sleep, and kept applying it liberally.  Malaria is a good thing to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n

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How these people avoid malaria, let alone survive in these stark conditions, is beyond us<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

We followed overgrown sandy tracks out of the Limpopo\nNational Park and finally hit tarred roads at the frontier town of Messingir which\nwe followed south for some hours.  The\nroads were in terrible condition and there were a hundred cows on the road for\nevery car.  The people and communities we\npassed were dirt poor, living in small stick houses, dirt floors, barely a\nsubsistence survival.  Their main source\nof income was charcoal \u2013 they would collect the wood, prepare it in a kiln and\nthen load it in bags for sale along the side of the road.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Messingir was our first town in Mozambique so I queued at the bank to get some money. Julie got in trouble from the guard for taking a photo of a bank.<\/p><\/div>
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The shoe store in Messingir had a good range of shoes – some of them hanging by their shoelaces<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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A major feature of Mozambique is transport. The people don’t own cars, motorbikes or even bicycles but many different types of vehicles act as public transport – and they are always packed<\/p><\/div>
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Here’s a larger truck also acting as public transport. People pile in their goods, pay a few coins and hitch a ride down the road.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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Another feature of Mozambique was the bags of charcoal for sale on the side of the road. There was almost always some charcoal for sale visible in front of us as we drove through the countryside.<\/p><\/div>
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More public transport – besides some trucks these different vehicles carrying the locals around were the only traffic<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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Eventually we popped out on the Indian Ocean coast at the\ntown of Xai Xai and followed the country\u2019s N1 national highway, such as it is,\nto the coastal town of Chidenguele where we followed a narrow one lane sandy\ntrack and camped on the grounds of a lodge overlooking the crashing surf and\nlong sandy beaches.  Mozambique had\npacked a punch in one day, from the national park, through impoverished\ncommunities, across fertile agricultural plains and finally to the\nbeaches.  As per normal.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Strange but true – Julie dipping her toes in the Indian Ocean in an extraordinary day that took us from a remote national park, through the countryside down to the beaches.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

We rejoined the N1 national highway and headed further north\nthrough increasingly tropical rolling hills, the trees a mix of coconut palms,\nAfrican leadwood and thorn trees, a few good old Aussie gum trees and the\noccasional local crops of corn, bananas and cassava, all lovingly maintained by\na hand hoe and a strong back.  The\ntemperature crossed 30C\/85F by 8am and the people walking along the side of the\nroad were feeling it.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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The roadside markets were always colourful and fun to see<\/p><\/div>\n

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Another roadside scene<\/p><\/div>\n

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We couldn’t figure out what these roadside stalls were selling so we stopped and asked this handsome guy.\u00a0 It’s chili sauce, all bottled and labeled locally.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

But Julie and I marvelled at these people, sometimes living\nin stick or tin huts, walking to work all immaculately dressed, especially the\nwomen in their bright colours and perfectly manicured hair, sometimes with a\nyoung child strapped to their back, the children off to school in their neat\nschool uniforms, as if they lived in Palo Alto or Bondi.  And the women, but never the men, would often\nbe carrying huge loads on their head, something to sell, something they\u2019ve\nbought, whatever the case may be.  These\npeople live a tough life compared to us but do it with as much style and poise\nas possible.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mozambique featured very modest homes, no electricity, water from the local well, a few scraggly crops to sustain them – very tough<\/p><\/div>
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The people of Mozambique are poor but the women are beautiful – well groomed, great hair, always carrying a baby on their back and\/or something on their head.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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And if the women need a new bra they come to the used bra shop<\/p><\/div>
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There is some privately owned transport – we saw a few carts being pulled by cows or donkeys<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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We stopped at a roadside market to explore the stalls and talk to the locals – they were very warm and friendly, if not a little confused on why we were there<\/p><\/div>
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Another market scene<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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These women tried to get Julie to buy some maize and rice<\/p><\/div>\n

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Another overloaded vehicle taking people from the market to their communities<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

The large regional town of Inhambane was once a major\nPortuguese colonial centre and many buildings clearly date from those\npre-1980\u2019s days.  We explored the town,\nwalked out on their long jetty, wandered through their markets and streets,\ngetting a feel for it.  And what we saw\nwe liked, the place had rundown charm, peeling colour and rusty relics from its\nvibrant historical past.  I even heard\nJulie say, \u201cI want to live here\u201d but we didn\u2019t test the theory.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The town of Inhambane had a very long jetty for its boats – and we could see why when we arrived at low tide<\/p><\/div>
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The Portuguese were here for a few centuries and left their mark in some of the buildings of this quaint colonial town<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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These school boys in Inhambane were keen to practice their English and ham it up for us<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

After a bit of wifi to check in with the outside world and\nreprovisioning of fridge and pantry we headed back to the N1 and in the town of\nMaxixe camped on the ocean\u2019s shores, metres from the water and loving the\ncooling ocean breezes.  So far we\u2019ve\nfound the people of Mozambique speak more English than we expected \u2013 which is\ngood because our Portuguese is crap \u2013 and are exceptionally friendly and\nwarm.  Their history over the last 40\nyears has been tumultuous to say the least, and the northern parts of the\ncountry are still not safe to travel in, but our experience so far has been\nfantastic.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Our campsite in Maxixe on the shores of the ocean – a great way to finish a fabulous day<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

Now it was time to head north across the central remote and jungle stretches of Mozambique.  We couldn\u2019t wait to see what was up ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn – in Portuguese<\/p><\/div>
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Everyone has a washing day and for these women it is in the local waterway while the kids splash about<\/p><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mozambique has to be one of the most unlikely travel destinations.  Until recently racked by civil unrest and political turmoil, significantly underdeveloped, no tourism infrastructure, rampant corruption and inflation, a colonial power – Portugal – which abandoned them.  It sounds like a good place to come to later.  But Julie and I were keen to check out their redeveloping national parks, their long gorgeous beaches and some of their unique …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mozambique"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DSC_0123-1-e1553454672921.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13829"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13874,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13829\/revisions\/13874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}