Mozambique Part 2 (of 3)

Warning: THe following post contains many kick ass pictures and stories




On a sunny day in Mozambique, with calm winds, the weather in December is outragerously hot. I would say the hottest day there saw temps in the high 80s and this is a very heavy and Humid heat by 9:30 am, past about 11am you wanted nothing more than a nice shady tree on top of a hill, where it was breezy, or better yet a nice swim in the Indian Ocean, which was nearly always refreshing and crystal clear. But luckily for us the sun didn't shine all the time we were in Mozambique....

The morning we left, Bevan, my ttride trip leader for the past ten weeks, and someone who has bouts of insanity when choosing a time to wake up each day, wanted to leave at 4am, which is ridiculously early for no real reason. Luckily we didn't wake up until 5:30, and were on the road by 6am for the 4 hour drive up to the border. I was not too sure what to expect, i knew that Mozambique was much less developed than South Africa, and that we were going to scope out a few places for waves along the 80 kilometer strech of coast Bevan wants to walk: from Hell's Gate down to the Border, in search of waves and people. From what i gather now there was a long long brutal civil war in Mozambique which ended around 15 years ago, and you can see how things are developing slowly, but it isw mostly people who live in SA that come up and build a summerhouse, or just want to esacape from urban life and go feral in the bush.

Upon arrival at the border we left the VW combi van in a lot just on the south african side of the border, it was being guarded by a man named Skellem which means "criminal" in English, a bit Ironic considering he was watch our possesions, but not really worrying because the english names Tribal Africans take for themsleves are always a bit odd sounding. In SA ive meet people name: Justice, Innocent, and Godswill. In Mozambique we met a man named, and I'm not making this up: 007, which still makes me laugh a little as I write this.

After leaving the combi we met up with 2 people who bevan knew, South Africans who live an work in Mozam now named Rick, and Brian. BOth were really nice guys who have spent a lot of time living in the bush and touring through game reserves. RIck especially has an incredible amount of knowledge about plants and animals in Mozambique, and presumably SA, so i felt quite lucky to have them along. They were waiting for us in the parking lot we loaded our gear into a truck and a big open air, safari car, which we needed becasue the roads we were on in Mozambique were 100% sand. No paverment anywhere. it had been raining that morning as we approached the border, but the weather cleared up nicely for our drive.

We drove about 4 hours from the border, through a wildlife preserve where we hoped to see elephants but had to settle for hippos and lots of eagles (sarcasic sigh). At one point we drove on the shore of a huge lake called Lake Piti, whose shoreline was covered in reeds, and was surrounded by massive green hills, and around 6:30 pm arrived in Milibangalala, where we camped about 200 meters from the Ocean. We ate a BBQ after pitching our tents and after dinner with the rain falling again we walked a few kilometers down the beach to try and mark some sea turtle nesting areas, a job that Rick does for the WWF (not to be confused with the WWE). WE only managed to see the fresh tracks of a female going returning to the sea after laying her eggs, which was a bit of excitment.

Unfortunatly the surf was quite small the whole time we were in mozambique and I only ended up surfing in 2 places: Bella Russia Point, and Ponta Do Ouro, which was a bit dissapointing but eveything else i saw nearly made up for it.

The 2nd moring was a bit rainy, and we had a lot of distance to cover into territory that not even Rick and Brian had been, to a town called Santa Maria, where we ended up next to Hell's Gate lodge. Hells gate is the narrow pass of water, reminded me of the pass at the end of Captiva Island where the golf course ran next to the beach, except with Crystal clear water. And now i need to go to the beach and stop wasting this sunny day inside (sorry readers) Ill finish the story later tonight or tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the pictures ive added for your viewing pleasures.