mozambique
in a very last minute decision, sometime in malawi, we decided to go to mozambique. we met a trio of brits who had just driven through, and they spoke highly enough of their time there to convince us it was worth the extra kilometres. it was also the first time on this trip we would get to experience something very special, and something i had started to miss - the coast. but it is a long way from the malawi border to the mozambique coast. and in between lies very little except hills, forest, a few very small villages and really, really bad roads. but as we crossed the border very late in the evening, we noticed something different about mozambique. the road became very wide, and developed a nature strip down the middle. i guess we were riding down our first african boulevard. then as we sat down for our evening meal, something else was different. it still took way too long to arrive, but, the food had flavour. as we travelled further into the country, we were amazed that, in the smallest villages and the biggest towns, all the food had flavour. in fact, the whole country has flavour. mozambique was certainly more of an adventure than any of the other countries weve been to on this trip. 200+ kilometres between towns, with very little in between to fuel our legs, about 1500 kilometres of slow dirt roads between us and tanzania, a very obvious language barrier (pablo portugese, anyone?), and the knowledge that stepping off the road in the wrong place could end very badly. we knew from the start that we couldnt rie all the way as time was getting away from us, so after crossing the country, meeting some interesting village people, our tires touch the sealed highway for the first time. here we stayed at the thriving centre of mocuba. although, not quite as thriving as it would have been during the portugese time, it was starting to pick up after the long civil war. there were a couple of nice looking hotels in town, but for some reason, neither of them wanted to accept us. sure we were a bit dirty, but that doesnt usually worry anyone, as our money is always clean. it was obvious that the hotels werent full, so we patiently and politely enquired as to the problem. i asked if we could put the tent up out the back. they agreed and we started chatting. after we became friends with the owners and they had established that we were not white south africans, a (very nice ) room miraculously became available.