Week 63 - South Africa

World's Highest Bungy!!!!

ComparetheMeerkat.com

Cheetah spotting

A tired Lemur

The birds

Simples!

Ostrich Riding

Now that's a Great White!!!

The view from the cage (less than 1 meter/yard away)


hallo, ho gon dit?
What did you expect English in South Africa? Well, it seemed everyone spoke English last time I was here, but definitely not the case. Dutch, I mean Afrikaans is the most widely spoken language in South Africa. Essentially a very old version of Dutch with an African twist.

Back to a sad topic from our previous blog - HIV/AIDS. I mentioned that a major is the lack of guidance from parents, teachers and the government. You may think that was a bold comment, but even South African President Zuma said that you can avoid catching HIV by taking a shower! The Health Minister said that by eating onions and beetroot you can avoid catching the disease - AND we wonder why Africa is plagued by this disease.

Having been to quite a few countries on this trip, I can say South Africa is one of the world's best destinations for adventure sports - just wait until you read below at what we have been up to. If you think Las Vegas has a lot of activities, a little town in South Africa can sometimes have more!

Post Apartheid: Unfortunately racism is still rife in South African society. As apartheid ended in the 1980's, blacks have trouble moving on and many whites still have pre-apartheid mentalities. Just to elaborate on how bad the situation was; mixed marriages were prohibited, interracial sex banned, and every individual was classified by race; actually this is still the case by the National Insurance or Social Security Numbers having certain numbers based on skin color. During Apartheid, based on race, South Africa had separate buses, beaches, toilets, schools and blacks were forced to live in specific areas of the country (which was only 14% of the land area for 80% of South Africa's population) and blacks were not allowed to travel without written permission. I have trouble imagining Apartheid was only a few decades ago!

Back to smiley topics - you would NOT believe what we have been up to! This past week seems to be some kind of MessageLabs Presidents club trip!

Our route: Storms River > Plettenberg Bay > Oudtshoorn > Mossel Bay > Cape Agulhas > Hermanus

Sunday - World's Tallest Bungy: Well, this is South Africa and what else could you expect. Connecting a huge 216 meter (713ft) gorge connecting the SA states of Eastern Cape and Western Cape is a bridge. Not just any bridge, this bridge hosts the world's tallest bungy! Marina was a bit sensible so for you in Russia don't worry, but I couldn't pass this up. Walking down the catwalk seeing straight down into the gorge wasn't scary; watching someone else step up and jump, not too nerve-wracking; although, once you get to the edge, knowing you HAVE to jump and looking down 216 meters - well its enough to make your feet heavy and stomach light! The jump was exhilarating, with a free-fall of what seemed to be 3 seconds! The view down the gorge led directly to the ocean so the upside down view was magical. That night we celebrated partying with a few others who jumped having a Brai (BBQ) in the rain, but on top of the world!

Monday - Cat Sanctuary: On the way to Plettenberg Bay where we stayed for two nights, we stopped off at several places. Only in South Africa do you just happen to see a picture of a Cheetah, pull off to check it out and its phenomenal. We would have driven a day for most of these activities this week, but in SA its all so close. The Tenikwa Cat Sanctuary was so fun! Firstly we saw meerkats for the first time in Africa, but the highlight was the cats. We had Servals (often called Mini Cheetahs)and Caracals (Lynx) rubbing against our legs. Servals are the second fastest land mammal in the world, after its bigger brother Che. The real highlight was Che, the cheetahs - we sat next to a six month old and then met the big brothers, two three year old males that we could stand next to and all but touch - no cages! Our next stop was MonkeyLand - a monkey sanctuary which we walked through seeing many types of monkeys including Lemurs from Madagascar. The last stop of the day was Birds of Eden; a huge aviary right out of Jurassic Park hosting some of the most amazing birds I have ever seen.

Tuesday - Deep Sea Fishing: We were fortunate enough to find our own boat and captain to take us out fishing for the morning. They really talked it up and soon we understood why. There were a few areas which we had bites the entire time our bait was in the water. There must have been a lot of small fish as often it was hard to hook anything, but on the six occasions we did, we pulled up very nice keepers. The fish were all Red Romans (similar to Red Snapper) so excellent eating. I was happy to have caught the biggest one and the fish pictured was 4kg (9lbs). They cleaned the fish for us while we had lunch and a beer and that night we enjoyed our fish on the Brai. Nothing tastes better than eating your own catch.

Wednesday - Ostrich Riding: Oudtshoorn claims to be the ostrich capital of the world. I'm not sure if they are, but there sure are a lot of ostrich farms. One novelty which is a bit cruel, but a must for tourists is riding ostriches. They put a bag over its head, I hopped on, held the wings (no saddle or handles) and as they pulled the bag off he went nuts running all around the area. Eventually you fall of, but we certain beat 7 seconds! Marina summed up the courage and jumped onto one herself after forcing the workers to promise to catch her. We went to the Cango caves later and walked around by ourselves after sneaking off the tour and explored a bit on our own. That night, still having ostrich on the brain, cooked up ostrich sausages and ostrich burgers.

Thursday - Ostrich Omelets: A funny thing about the guesthouses in Oudtshoorn; they all provide free ostrich egg for breakfast (as much as you want, but you need to cook it). An ostich egg, which by the way is so hard a person can stand on it - yes I did this and it didn't break, but back to the point - it holds about 18 eggs. We didn't use it all, but made ourselves monstrous omelets. We then drove to Mossel Bay and had a nice walk down the coast to burn off the ostrich.

Friday - Great White Cage Diving: Every since I saw this on television 10 years ago, I always knew I wanted to dive with Great White Sharks. South Africa is the premier destination for this. The diving is all done through a cage and they use chum and huge fish heads to attract the Great Whites. Now the time had come, we cruised to seal island and all the six tourists on board jumped into the cage with the first sighting of a Great White. Marina was the first in the cage and there we waited in 17 degree C. water (62F). After 15 minutes they came in waves and we had Great Whites in our face trying to eat that huge head of Tuna. The huge jaws filled row after row with razor sharp teeth were only 6 inches from my face. The sharks were not scary, however, we both agreed the water temp was the scariest part.

Saturday - Southern Tip of Africa: This morning we drove to the Southern most point of Africa. There we relaxed and hiked to the top of the lighthouse for a birds eye view of the area. Now we are in the quaint village of Hermanus. Normally you can see wales just from the beach, which we hope to do tomorrow, but the winds are strong so the wales are hiding.

Next, we are heading to the winelands of Stellenbosch!

For our next blog we will be letting you in on a little secret of what's happening next month - VERY VERY exciting stuff!

See you next time,

Dan and Marina

Week 62 - Lesotho and South Africa

Lion love

Did anyone see a turtle?

Sand Tiger Shark (aka Raggies) approx 3 meters (10 feet)

Crusin Africa!

A Lesotho village

Botsoela Waterfall

Peacocks mating

Kudus fighting

Juvenile elephants playing in the water

Domala!

This past week has been so full of interesting experiences that it could easily have been a month for us; not to mention, having travelled 1800km (1100 miles) in our rental car. As we are in South Africa for the next two weeks, I'll tell you a bit about Lesotho. Lesotho unfortunately does not have much to offer. Yes it is one of Africa's smallest countries and has the least to do from what we have seen, however and this is a big HOWEVER; the scenery is possibly the best in Southern Africa! Lesotho is a mountainous country staying above 1000 meters (3300 feet) allowing stunning views. We attempted to see almost every place in our guidebook for Lesotho and on most occassions, left saying you must be kidding. The towns, while dumpy, which we are fine with, do not really offer anything to a tourist. The way to enjoy Lesotho is to experience its nature!

As mentioned for Swaziland, the houses and agriculture is far more developed than in the other countries we have visited north of here. The farms we have seen in the countryside are all very small and run by a family. The families do not need to buy the land to build a house or farm, however, submit a request to the village chief who would typically approve it. They grow corn, wheat, potatoe, beatroot, cabbage, and squash. Most will use cattle to till the fields, however some will rent tractors. The chief will teach the new farmers about agricultural techniques.

As a result, the people of rural Lesotho, seem better off than most we have seen. The huts they have, will often be made of brick, sometimes have tin roofs, and also have windows. The huts in the poor villages for example in Malawi would not have these luxuries, using reeds for a roof over the mudhut. Another surprising thing about Lesotho's villages are they seemed much more clean than other places in Africa, and the Malealea villages were completely void of trash.

Our path: Durban > Clarens (SA) > Lesotho (everywhere) > Addo

Sunday - Brai Party: Durban is a great city - such a fun time and we were very happy to be back in the first world enjoying the amenities of life! We stayed just off of Florida Street, possibly the coolest area in Durban. That night, the hostel organised us a Brai - which is Afrikaans (one of South Africa's languages) for BBQ. We just needed to buy our meat, so we walked up Florida Road and bought nice steaks and had an excellent feast that night, partying with a heap of South Africans.

Monday - Bunny Chow: Monday was our tour around Durban. After visiting the Lesotho embassy working on how to get Marina a visa, we headed to the Indian area and enjoyed a local Durban Indian speciality - called Bunny chow. I've never seen this anywhere before, including India, but its delicious - essentially Curry in a loaf of bread. I bought the half loaf thinking I was hungry. This was a HALF loaf of bread, with chicken curry dumped in it! Oh how delicious this concept was - but all too filling. I had trouble walking later, but thankfully as we walked about 20km (13 miles) that day, I felt better! Our tour took us around City Hall, to the Ushaka marine area where we saw the spider and reptile enclosure, we also walked to Durban's new stadium and had a tour even getting to walk down to the field! As we walked along the beach going to Ushaka - we saw several humpback whales surfacing in the distance! Amazing!

Tuesday - Lion Park: We rented a car for the first time on our entire trip and the first stop was the lion park, only just north of Durban and well worth the one hour drive for the sole reason; you get to sit in your car, alone, with 11 lions! They are not wild, being in an enclosure, but they are just as likely to eat you as a wild one and we were within touching distance! The lions were very playful and two even mated! A few times we had to drive off as they came close to my window which was half opened for pictures. Later we drove to Umkomas and partied with our dive master - Chucky who was the exact replica of St. Louis' Scott Nevins!

Wednesday - Raggies Cave: A top 10 dive site of the world! We left our hotel room to a hard rain and dark grey clouds - not perfect diving weather, but hey, its what is under the water that counts. Due to the current and dumb luck, the visibility was substantially better then the day before - at around 12 meters or 40 feet. We had two dives and the second was the real deal. We dove with Ragged tooth sharks (called raggies) or also known as Sand Tiger sharks. These things whilst timid and not aggressive are MEAN (looking) with a capital M E A N! Most were about 3 meters (10 feet) and the teeth are all protruding so you see these huge shark teeth as it swims right for you, only a few feet away! Such an amazing time! We even made it to the boat with all our fingers, toes, hands and feet! During the dive we also saw turtles, cat sharks, and eels.

Thursdays - Lesotho's Highlands: We started from Clarens very early and by 08:30 we were crossing successfully into Lesotho. Our aim was to drive to the east and hire a 4x4 and guide to take us to this famous mountain pass - Sani. After two hours of driving, the road became horrendous - we continued on the gravel road for some 45km (30 miles) and even after it was one continuous pothole, we thought our 1.6 litre Kia could handle it - as this was the middle of nowhere, no phone signal, no people, well no civilisation for 45+ kilometers (30 miles), my mind wandered back to the time in Iceland with Kyri, Gabi and Matt where we were stuck next to the glacier. TIA - This is Africa! So not the best idea on where to get stuck or have two flat tires! So we decided to turn back - which is and was very painful for Marina and I, but in retrospect, a smart decision. Nonetheless, we crossed several passes over 3,000 meters (10,000ft) which I'm sure were close to as magical as the Sani pass. Our first stop in Lesotho was to see rock paintings and walked around a few huts showing the ways of life in Lesotho's villages. Our next stop was to see dinosaur footprints in a very rural area. We were able to see what we looked to be T-Rex footprints in stone - however cut the visit short for safety reasons. The rest of the day we went to the places in our guidebook, each time thinking, you must be kidding me. These places were all in towns, which as we now know, is just pointless in Lesotho. Thankfully and being slightly nervous with the night coming, we made it to the Malealea Lodge in a gorgeous countryside area.

Friday - Pony Trek: You should know me very well by now after reading this blog and firmly know I would not take a PONY ride! Well, I admit - I did, and liked it! Well it was kind of a Pony ride. If you have noticed, Pony has a capital P; why you may ask. Well the most common horse in Lesotho is the Pony breed; smaller than a normal horse, but bigger than a Mongolian horse. This Friday morning Marina and I went for our horse ride heading to the Botsoela waterfall. These horses must have been the best thus far of our trip; very obedient and fast when we wanted. Such a joy compared to the insane Colombian horses we had last May. The Malealea valley area is gorgeous and the ride provided our eyes with such colorful and mountainous scenes. The recently plowed red soil added to the spectacular views. Later in the day we arranged a walking trek through a nearby gorge and learned a lot about the Sotho people from our local guide. He was very proud of his grandfather who had lived to what he thinks is 92. Whilst this number may not be accurate by 15 or 20 years (birthdays were never kept back then in much of Africa and still is not even kept today sometimes); nonetheless, this is amazing and I think also shows how the Sotho people of Lesotho or at least in this region are living well. That night locals came to our guesthouse to play music. The instruments were interesting and inventive. They made guitars from wood with a large can on the end for a percussion. The drum was a barrel with rubber on the top and the drummer used pieces of tire for the drum sticks! They were very creative and a lot of fun to watch.

Saturday - Addo Elephant Park: We had a long long drive yesterday - the middle of Lesotho, far down a gravel road - driving to southern South Africa! Just look at Google maps! We made it to Addo Elephant park by 1:30 - maybe a land speed record! haha, just kidding mom! Addo Elephant National Park, just outside Port Elizabeth is outstanding. Armed with our own car and lots of independence, we were on our own with the animals. This park, whilst not as densely populated with big cats like the Serengeti or Kruger, was spectacular. A few of the scenes: 23 elephants by a lake, several play fighting in the water for a good hour, two young elephants charging each other, 3 lions sleeping, 2 lions on the prowl looking for dinner; a puff-adder snake crossing the road (one of the deadliest in Africa), hartebeests, zebras, kudus fighting, warthogs, and as we were leaving, worried about only having 1/8th a tank of gas, the sun bearing down on the windshield making it hard to see; a water buffalo walked from the shadow of a tree right in front of our car! I can say it was a near miss - I heard later that if you kill one with your car (I would be more worried about it killing us) you have a 450,000 Rand fine; the rate is 7 Rand to $1 so you can work it out - ouch. Thankfully we found a gas station and our guesthouse and relaxed after a long long day!

So what is next in South Africa; Storms river, Plettenberg Bay, and Knysna.

Until next time,

Dan and Marina

Week 61 Mozambique & Swaziland

The Humpbacks of Mozambique

"Our" Whale Shark!

Maputo City Hall

Me and the warthogs

A grumpy local

Como Esta!

We have covered a lot of ground in the past week and we have much to talk about.

Mozambique a country who has just emerged a few decades ago from more than 10 years of civil war and completely ravaged by the Portuguese like the excellent tenants they were, destroyed everything before leaving. Despite the odds Mozambique seems to be doing very well and not caught up in the past. During the turbulent times, Mozambique had a brief liaison with communism - which we can still see remnants of. Some of the people we have met, older of course, had studies in the Soviet Union and could speak Russian. Also, some streets in Maputo have Russian names.

A few things about the place, one cashews are a major export and easily bought on the street from vendors. Large bags approx 400gr are only $4 - not bad huh! Mozambique, like its neighboring countries, are big on recycling glass. The bottles are always returned for the deposit.

One crazy thing we have found throughout our travels in Africa is the women are by far the hardest workers in Africa! Followed by the children unfortunately.

Our path since we last spoke; Vilankulo > Tofo > Maputo > Swaziland

Sunday - Mozambique seafood: We arrived in Tofo by around 2ish and booked our diving for the time here. Tofo is a tiny little village, not even a town and is kind of a hippy hangout. The place is very chilled and has excellent seafood. We indulged every lunch and dinner in fish and calamari! The best thing to accompany the good food here is Laurentina beer - the best beer in Africa so far!

Monday - Humpback whales: We went for a dive in the morning, but that wasn't the highlight of the day, despite being a pretty decent dive. The cruise out back and forth was full of humpback whales. Also on Wednesday we saw numerous humpbacks, sometimes a mother with calf swimming by our boat. There must have been hundreds around. Later in the day I even saw one from the beach. You would have to be lucky to see them breach, which we saw twice, but mostly they would just swim along the top or come up for air. This was our first time seeing whales! If you haven't yet, you absolutely must see these magical beasts!

Tuesday - Relaxing on the beach: Tofo's beach is huge, reminding me of Venice Beach in California, more than 100 yards (meters) before you reach the water. We spent the day, soaking sun and swimming in the reasonable sized waves.

Wednesday - WHALE SHARK: Wednesday was all about diving and snorkeling! We went for two dives, but the best was yet to come after we surfaced and headed back. One of the dives, Manta Reef is a top 30 dive sight in the world and we were spectators to a huge display of marine life, although no mantas. On the two dives, we saw lobsters, giant turtles, a grouper bigger than me, huge moray eels, puffer fish, and a crocodile fish. The real treasure was the boat ride back to shore when we spotted a whale shark. If you aren't familiar with this fish; besides being the biggest fish in the world, they are very docile and do not eat people! They don't even eat fish - mostly plankton. When we spotted it, all us divers jumped out of the boat with our snorkels and swam along with it. I'm sure it could go faster, but I could easily swim to the front of it from the back. This 7 meter (24 foot) beast was as big as a bus and so graceful, unlike Nepali buses. We have been wanting to see one for many years and finally our wish had been granted! The whale shark is kind of a Mecca of divers and its something most want to see sometime in their life!

Thursday - Vladimir Lenine Street: We took a 4am bus to Maputo, Mozambique's capital, with all kinds of drama from hippies misplacing bags, but eventually arrived to the city to face horrible gridlock. What the bus driver didn't know, is it wasn't going to move. We bailed on the bus when we got close enough to walk, leaving the other tourists and locals to wait. What we saw soon was a bicycle race going down Vladimir Lenine street (yes, they spell it Lenine - haha). The race was part of the African Nations Sporting event. We spent the remainder of the day sightseeing, visiting their 110 year old colonial train station (a standing remnant of the Portuguese), the fort, and a metal house used by the governor. As far as African cities go, Maputo is a very nice one with lots of outdoor cafes.


Swaziland, one of Africa's smallest and least populous nations is an interesting one! King Mswati the 3rd now has 9 wives, previously he had 12, but 3 have since divorced him! They actually divorced him, if you can imagine that. No instances of guillotine use in case my English readers are wondering!

The country appears to be more modern than we have seen in the previous African countries. They have decent roads and nicer housing in the villages, but like the other Southern African countries, there are a multitude of social problems; schools without teachers, mismanagement, misappropriation of funds and poor healthcare. 26% of Swazi's are reported to have AIDS; however only a small amount is done to educate the population. We have seen a few billboards, but most parents, teachers and government officials are clueless on even how to protect themselves, much less than to advise young people.

One of the impressive feats of Swazi is its agriculture production. Nowhere in Southern Africa have we seen such organised crop fields; which many contain sugarcane, corn and wheat.

Friday - Hello Swaziland: We had a nice relaxed minibus trip to the boarder and to my surprise, it was quiet, clean and didn't have people wondering around. Normally you will have touts, food sellers, moneychangers, taxis, and general chaos. Strangely, there was none of this; such a great start for Swaziland. We arrived at our hostel which was in a gorgeous valley and well equiped with a pool, bar, and very comfortable lodging (spa bathtub); however, no people. We spent the day trying to organise our time in Swaziland and what we could do without a car - this is not as easy as you might think. After we had our game plan, we enjoyed a few drinks, had dinner and relaxed, chatting with the owner and resident hippy.

Saturday - Mlilwane Walking Safari: Yesterday's safari was an incredible and unique one. Swaziland isn't really well known for its game parks, but what we really enjoyed about Mlilwane was we could just walk around on our own and get as close to the animals as we wanted - well, often the animals didn't like this. We walked up within 10-15 feet (2-3 meters) from huge crocodiles; our first we have seen in Africa surprisingly. We closely approached many warthogs, zebras, gazelles, and wildebeests. Having the freedom to walk around was incredible.

What's next; we are now in Durban, South Africa and are hoping to arrange a trip to Lesotho.

See you next time,

Dan and Marina

Week 60 - Malawi & Mozambique

Top of Sapwita! (Translation in Tumbuka - Don't go there)

Enjoying Mt Mulanje Park

Mozambique's transport option #1

yes, I know we look funny!

Vilankulo's receding tide

Bon Dia!

Malawi, yes I failed to talk about it before in greater detail due to pressing time to get to our base on Mt Mulanje. So hear is your weekly earful;

Malawi is THE country in South Africa which everyone wishes they had more time for. The place is full of fun and friendly people and the place is endearing. I would personally say this is a TOP African destination! The country has "good" sights, but the real highlight is the people.

Malawi is not all perfect; this is one of the poorest African countries! However, they take pride in their country being a peaceful nation and not being caught up in wars like their neighbors.

We met several westerners working in hospitals here telling us the truth behind the curtain and let me say; you don't want to be in a Malawian hospital. The main ailments in the country are AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Just like in most of Southern Africa's countries, the AIDS rate is much higher than reported as they will often tick TB as the cause of death, but really its AIDS and they just contracted TB in the late stages. Life Expectancy in this part of Africa is shocking - 40 years! I can tell you honestly, in the past month I can count the amount of old people we have seen - ON ONE HAND! When I say old, 45+! That is very old for Africa!

Our path: Mt. Mulanje > Mocuba (Mozambique) > Vilankulo

Monday - Pine to Cedar: We started our hike with Fin our friend from Sydney and had hired a porter and a guide. The day before we stocked up on our food rations and alcohol for the 3 days hiking. One initiate of the parks department was to cut down the pine forest and replant cedar trees, quite the site I can tell you - and very nice to smell! We hiked all day to get to the Chisepo hut and there we cooked our own food - soup and spaghetti and admired the stunning views of valley below.

Tuesday - Sapwita Peak (3,002 meters or 10,000ft): This was our summit day and we started early as it would be a long day. The climb I can honestly say was the hardest of our entire trip. This can't compare exactly to climbing Kili at 5,890 meters, but the sheer difficulty of climbing what seemed to be vertical rock faces, not exactly vertical, but tough and this was climbing, not trekking or hiking! We reached the top a bit before noon, and had much satisfaction as we relaxed enjoying the scenery! We descended back to the Chispeo hut and had lunch then hiking for several hours through varying landscapes eventually ending in a new cedar forest! The cabin we stayed in was void of tourists so we enjoyed the place to ourselves trying some Malawian brandy - not to bad all things considered.

Wednesday - 18 wheels a truckin: We had a laugh in the morning seeing the ravens eating the remains of our very spicy rice dinner - they had about as much trouble with it as Marina the time I took her to Sri Lanka! Haha. By 1pm we were down the mountain and on our way, having said goodbye to Fin, bound for Mozambique. I knew this would be a journey, but hadn't realised how epic it would be! We had nearly 1000km or 600 miles to go and in Mozambique, that is seriously far! Our journey this day started with a taxi, then minibus to the boarder. From there, we took a bycycle about 5km or 3 miles to the town. From there we waited for 90 minutes and as the evening was approaching we had to hitch-hike to get to the next town. This wasn't as scary as it seems as we jumped in an 18 wheeler truck or lorry joined by about 10 women carrying babies. We travelled for about 7 hours down this dirt road, yes, not even a paved road and reached our destination - Mocuba around midnight.

Thursday - Leaping on buses: We left our hotel in Mocuba at 04:30 ready to catch the 05:00 bus. Unfortunately for us, the hotel staff were idiots and there was no bus; or at least that's what we were told when we got there. So....we sat on a minibus for four hours before it left. Now this bus wasn't going the full way, just 1/3rd, but it was progress. As we arrived to Caia; we were pleasantly surprised to see a minibus ready to leave for the next 1/3rd and promptly boarded it. However, Marina was very clever to spot a big bus, 15 minutes later, before our minibus was just ready to leave so I checked and it was bound for Maputo, the one which would take us the full way!!! She ran to hold the bus and our seats on it and I leapt up on the minibus to get our bags off the roof causing the 100+ people around to stare in amazement at this crazy white man! After a bit of an effort untying the bags, I had them down and in the next bus. Dripping full of sweat I was able to relax and appreciate this saved us one day of travel! From hitch-hiking with the truck driver and this quick thinking change, we saved two days!!!!! That night we reached the junction (only 10 miles or 16km) from Vilankulo where we stayed appreciating our hard efforts and knowing we were only a quick ride from our destination in the morning.

Friday - Mercado Central: We checked into our hotel just across the street from the beach and promptly went to enjoy the sun and tropical Indian ocean! You may know or have to imagine how nice it is to relax on the beach after a taxi,minibus,bicycle,18 wheeler,minibus,bus, and truck! Such a journey - I would say it was epic and especially doing this in about 36 hours!!!! That night we went to the mercado central - much to Marina's protest as it seemed a bit dodgy and was night - but this turned out to be a gem. Many of the locals eat here and the standard practice is to pick out your fish in the market and then take them to a stall who will cook it for your, and serve rice, salad, beer, etc - the cooking charge is $2!!! We aimed to buy 2 medium sized fish, it turned out that that the 50 Met (also $2) was for the pile of fish. So we walked away with 4 medium sized fish for $2! That meal was hearty and oh so good!

Saturday - Disappearing Sea: The next day we had a very similar repeat with the market and beach. One amazing thing about Vilankulo, possibly during this time in the moon's calendar is the tide. The tide recedes miles and miles (km and km, just doesn't sound right) and it almost surely looked like we could have walked all the way to the island a few miles away, although I'm sure we would have died trying!

Whats next? We are now in Tofo which I will tell you all about, and let me add so far there is A LOT to tell!!! After this, we are off to Maputo.

Ciao,

Dan and Marina