misteroverland

Time has really flown since the last post and I have to admit the silence has had nothing to do with a lack of Internet access. We have been distracted by the beautiful coastline and warm waters of the Indian Ocean. 
We arrived in Mozambique crossing into the country just SE of lake Malawi, from here we headed for Grimbo’s (my cousin) macadamia nut farm. We couldn’t have arrived at a busier time with the farm directors gathering for their AGM. We stayed a couple of days but then got out of their hair and headed for the Coast. The road to Pemba has a less than favourable write up in the guide book and having learnt our lessons on various african roads we were keen to understand the condition of it before heading off. If we were to take the long route we were looking at an additional 800k. Unfortunately while all 6 of the directors and the 2 farm managers were well travelled no one had driven this road, there were stories that it was now mostly tar and others that there was still 120kms of bad dirt track and our GPS was indicating that part of the road had been washed away. Well as it turns out the E242 is a good road mostly tar with 120kms of fairly good dirt track bar a handful of stretches which was slower going. It did make us laugh at the trepidation that we approached the road having considered some other roads we have travelled we could have done with a bit more preparation and fore warning. 

In Pemba we were able to dive and saw some huge volumes of fish as well as a number of turtles. Wimbe beach which has historically been regarded as a beautiful picture postcard beach is now ankle deep in rubbish, such a sad reality of a population growing faster than the infrastructure of the country. 
We planned on heading north into the Quirimbas archipelago to do some diving in this marine reserve though we are discovering Africa is not like Europe/USA when it comes to the low season. In Africa everything literally closes down rather than in Europe/USA where there are just fewer people around. So without a functioning dive centre on the island we decided to give it a miss this time round. 

From here we headed south to Ilha de Mozambique (Mozambique island), the oldest European settlement in Africa with strong connections to the slave trade. The architecture of the island looked like many Mediterranean towns thankfully though the food was still distinctively Mozambican , here we enjoyed matapa Siri-Siri – a stew made from cashew nuts, crab and spinach like leaves. We also had a beautiful campsite on the beach, such a shame about the all night disco that was situated just behind us. Can’t beat them, join them did come to mind in the wee hours! 

We then commenced the long journey south which was a 2 day drive to the next diving areas, again much in between was closed. In Vilankulos we managed to arrive just after the bad weather so the diving was back on. Making the 2 day blast worth it. We saw some of the biggest fish I have ever seen in my life and moray eels going on about 4m. With all these large fish come bigger fish and we saw an array of shark; nurse, white tip and bull. One of the dives was through a gap in the reef which makes a great place feeding, when we dived there we had 14 devil rays flying above our heads, really a magical experience. 

Further south we visited Pomene nature reserve which is situated on an outcrop of land resulting in Ocean one side and lagoon the other. While the dive centre was shut it was still beautiful, holding us there for another day while we explored the old hotel, swam on the private beach featuring a beautiful blow hole which was working well when we were there with the tides. We tried our luck at some fishing though coming up empty meant a lot of store cupboard dinners. Leaving the reserve coincided with spring high tide, the locals could not remember when last the mangroves had been so flooded, while Kevin and I worried about getting off the peninsular MrO seemed to take it in his stride though any deeper and we would have had water in the cab! 

And now we are in Tofo, diving once again. We have been treated to so many wonderful sightings of fish, shark and yesterday we saw our first Manta ray. While we were ascending the dive along came a dolphin just to top it all off. The return by boat is rather interesting too as they launch the boat onto the sand, basically run it aground at high speed – makes me feel like an extra in a James Bond film.  

We are hoping to extend Kevin’s visa so that we can stay another week and continue to enjoy the sun, sea and salty air. 

Much love to all – have a great weekend x