15 June We left around 8am to go back through to Mozambique. We got to the border and exited Zimbabwe no worries, but when we tried to get through to the Mozambique side it proved impossible as a load of huge trucks had blocked the way through. We managed to find some of the drivers and eventually after about a wait of almost an hour being surrounded by huge trucks we were able to get through. On the Mozambique side we had to pay for news visas to last another 30 days and we were away. Today we are travelling up towards Caia and staying at a place called M’phingwe Camp which is at Catapu. The car started to give a few problems again with no power. We struggled our way on and finally made it around 4pm. After some charades; a lot of people don’t speak English we managed to check in. Portuguese is definitely a huge bonus out here. M’phingwe is a lovely little camp set in a forest, it’s a shame we only have one night as I am sure the birdlife is brilliant here and there are loads of lovely walking tracks all over the property. We phoned Kerry to see if there are any Toyota garages in Quelimane or Nampula that we can get the car checked out. We had a lovely dinner and then went to bed.
16 June Kerry phoned to say that there is a Toyota garage in Quelimane so we will call in there before carrying on north to Mocuba this morning. We arrived at Quelimane around lunch time which means that a lot of places are shut until 1.30pm. We were trying to ask the security guard at Toyota what time they would open and if they had mechanics there when he called over another guy who was walking past who could speak English to talk to us. We told this fellow that we had what we thought was an electrical problem with the car and he said that we had a friend who may be able to help us. He phoned and then jumped into the car and showed us how to get to the place. It turned out this Indian chap who was from Maputo had been up to Pemba to fix a couple of trucks and he had the computer that you hook up to the car to diagnose what is wrong. What luck, he said it would cost 5000 meticas which was fine especially to know if there were any problems and what they were. After an hour he arrived back from picking up the computer from his hotel room and hooked up the car. First off we needed to change the front brake pads, but it also kept saying throttle motor fault which sounded a lot more difficult. They proceeded to change the brake pads which were down to nothing, meanwhile they also changed the fuel filter as they say the fuel out here is terrible, very dirty. They also took off the throttle motor and gave it a good clean up and that is when we found a wire which was broken, this was duly repaired and when the computer hooked up again – no faults were found! Talk about luck and being in the right town at the right time. Since then the car has been running beautifully which is always good news. It was around 3.45pm when we left Quelimane for Mocuba and fortunately the road was pretty good all the way. We got to our guest house and after some discussion were told they were fully booked even thought we had a confirmation and knew that the booking was made on 2 May. I phoned Kerry and he was annoyed to say the least! He phoned us back and told us that he had managed to get hold of the manager who was on his way to see us. After a while Jotamo arrived and sorted out a room for us; it seems that they had sold our room so unfortunately we had to take what was available and to be perfectly honest it was pretty grotty! Mocuba is not really a place that you want to stay, but can be a useful stopover on your way north. Nevermind when you don’t have a choice you accept it and are pleased that it is for only one night. We had dinner and went to bed, but didn’t sleep so well.
17 June We woke up very early and went for breakfast which was a cup of coffee and a bread roll – very tasty! We were driving through to Nampula today, so I took the rolls for lunch. It has to be said that the bread throughout Mozambique is fantastic! I started out driving this morning and it took around 2.5 hours to do 56kms! I mentioned to Martin that it was probably one of the worse roads I had ever travelled on throughout Africa which is quite something I can tell you. There were a couple of stretches that were good tar road, but the majority was crap, pardon my French. We arrived at Bamboo Hotel around 2am and were very pleased to see that it was a 500% improvement from the Mocuba place. We had lovely hot showers and then Martin had a siesta while I read my book. There was a little vervet monkey in a cage so I got some dried fruit from the car and feed him. This place was huge and seemed to be run by Portuguese so pretty well organized. We had a lovely dinner and a brilliant night’s sleep.
18-22 June Today we are travelling to Libe Lula which means ‘dragonfly’ and is at Nacala Bay and a place that Kerry had found whilst on his dhow trip. The things you see whilst travelling along the roads in Africa never fail to surprise me, today I saw a guy who was dressed in an all in one pajama suit including the button down patch on the bum – very funny! What gets sent over here as aid and finds its way into the markets to be sold is so inappropriate at times. We were meant to be camping for 4 nights, but when we arrived it was a pretty tight squeeze to get into the camping area and our trailer is rather huge. Martin made the decision we would upgrade to the stone cottage instead. What a stunning setting overlooking the bay; Ian & PJ are great and made us feel very welcome. It was lovely to have more that a night before moving off. It gets really tiring when you are moving on every day. We have really been doing nothing except reading and relaxing whilst we have been here. We had intended to go diving, but it has been quite breezy since we arrived and we also have turned into wimps – it is too cold! I have been down to the beach twice which involves 100 steps down, Martin has been down once. Tomorrow we will be moving on again to Ilha da Mozambique.
Well at last I am fully up to date and will try my best to get some photos for you all as well. Love & kisses to all xxx
Monday 21 June 2010
Sunday 20 June 2010
10-13 June We meet Mike McNamara on the road into Gorongoza; he was on his way home to Zimbabwe. Mike is an old friend from Victoria Falls and is now the Tourism Development Consultant for Gorongoza. As our visas had not been extended enough for us to complete our trip around Mozambique we were going to have to go into Zimbabwe for a night after we left Gorongoza to be able to get a new 30 day visa and we would stay with Mike, Mignon, Tanya & Layla for the night in Mutare. I was really looking forward to it as I hadn’t seen them since just after they got married and had never met their 2 girls. We got to the gate and got our permit to enter, it is 18kms from the gate to Chitengo Camp and should take around 30 minutes as you are only allowed to go 40kms at the most, but we were doing it very slowly so we could see any animals and birds on the way in. We saw a big herd of sable probably about 30 odd which was lovely. Also quite a few wart hogs that didn’t do the usual thing and put their tail up and run away, they actually in some cases walked towards the car – lovely! Once we reached Chitengo we had to pay park fees and then met Rob who owns Explore Gorongoza with his wife Jos and where we would be staying for the next 4 nights. Kerry stayed at Chitengo the first night and would join us the next day.
Gorongoza is an absolute gem of a park and a huge surprise to me. I have always wanted to check it out, but didn’t realize how much wildlife was around and the birding is fantastic. It is also more about walking than game drives which makes a lovely change from sitting in a vehicle the whole time. We had 3 other people staying with us that first night and it was their first safari experience. We went for a game drive the first afternoon as it was getting a little late to be doing a walk. The elephants here are very nervous and some even still have bullets in them from the war days, which in reality only happened at the most 15 years ago so you have to be extremely cautious around them. Well of course we came across a herd of 40-50 of them and Rob stayed well away to see as he put it ‘who was around’. They were mostly grazing and seemed relaxed, but to our right a small group seemed to be a little on the nervous side. Elephants have long memories and the war was fresh in their minds. In this case one of the tuskless females was very agitated and started running towards us, Rob banged on the side of the car, but she kept coming so he started up and revved the car, but you guessed it she kept coming. We had to do a U-turn through the long grass and head for the track again; (all I could think of was – God don’t let there be a dead tree, rock or hole anywhere). She was screaming at us and keep coming and gaining on us, it almost made me cry as I have never seen an ellie react in this way before and made you realize how traumatized she must have been, it was pretty scary and she had it in her mind that she was going to get us. After we got back on the track she followed at speed for quite away before giving up. Not a very nice experience for first time safari goers it has to be said, but imagine the strife, killing and poaching that had been going on and is still taking place at times – what terrible memories these herds must have. Rob was saying that you don’t very often see them during the day as they stick to the thick forests and came out onto the flood plains at night. Rob had to report the incident as some elephants it seemed there was no hope for – they continually charged vehicles every time and probably unfortunately would have to be put down. Apparently the head warden/vet knew this particular elephant and it was not her first offense. It is such a shame that we humans had caused this grief and that in turn she would probably have to be euthanized because of us!
The rest of the game drive went without a hitch and the birding is just awesome, what we noticed were the huge numbers of waterbuck and wart hog; we have never seen so many all in one place before. The flood plains were spectacular with a lot of aquatic birds and animals. This park closes every year for about 4 months during the rainy season due to not being able to use the roads and a lot of the land being under water. We had a lovely dinner with good company and went to sleep with the sound of lions roaring in the distance. The next morning we were up at around 6.30am; due to the mist in the mornings it is best to start the walks later at about 7am. We walked out from camp and were following the river to see if we could spot any crocodiles or hippos, but also as you know looking at all the little things plants, insects and birds which is what the walks are all about. We had a lovely 3 hours walking and got back to camp to have a fantastic brunch! I then had a wonderful hot shower in the outdoor shower overlooking the river – beautiful.
Kerry joined us around 11.30am and we relaxed around camp, me flitting around the trees and bushes trying to take photos of all the birds. The other three people had gone back to Chitengo so there was just the 3 of us in camp – fabulous! Jos joined us for the afternoon/evening game drive which centered on the flood plains, river and little ponds/lakes. The aquatic birdlife is stunning and we watched for ages with gin and tonic in hand hundreds of birds returning to their roosting sites up stream. Another great feature here in Gorongoza is the night drives you can see civet, genet, porcupine and owls quite regularly. The next day we had another morning walk out towards the flood plains and then back through the forest along the river, then a drive in the afternoon once again. This park is huge so Rob was trying to show us as much as possible in the short time we had. Without trying very hard I notched up around 120 birds in my 4 night stay. That night dinner had been set up behind the camp so that we were under the huge African sky, but we were interrupted just before dinner by the guard shouting from the car park ‘lions’. Rob left us at the fire to check it out and the guard was in the game vehicle as the lions had walked right past him. Rob called us and we jumped in the car to see if we could follow them; it was 2 males and they were following the road with us duly following them. It was lovely to see them not at all bothered by us and just going about their nightly business. They turned off to go out to the flood plains and we returned to camp to a wonderful dinner. Apparently they had walked right in front of Kerry’s tent and along the track that goes to the car park and then out of camp and down the road.
The following day we went for a game drive to try and see some more of the far reaches of the park and got back for brunch and once again relax until the afternoon. We then drove out to one of the places where they set up a fly camp which has loads of baobab trees around and then had a small walk in the area before having sundowners and then returning to camp. Gorongoza is a wonderful park and well worth a visit, one day we saw the vehicle from Chitengo out on a game drive, but where else can you drive around in a park and see no sign of civilization? We would love to go back again sometime and see more of the park and do more walks.
14 June We were up at 4.30am this morning as Kerry was flying out from Chimoio at 9.10am and it would take around 2 to 2.5 hours to get there. Jos had a breakfast packed for us and they drove us back through to Chitengo. The guy wasn’t on the gate as requested the night before, so we started to off load our luggage through a hole in the fence while Rob went to fetch him. We got going and finally left at 6am. It took 30 minutes through the park to the main gate and then we were on the way to Chimoio. We managed to arrive at the airport at 8.15am and Kerry got checked in all okay. I spoke to Mike to let him know that we were on the way to see them in Mutare. It took about an hour or so to the border. We cleared the Mozambique side and got to Zimbabwe. There was a little ‘hitler’ woman there and I had to ring Mike for his physical address as it was needed before we could enter. Mike met us as we were leaving the border and we followed him to his place in Mutare. It was great to catch up with him and Mignon and to meet his 2 most beautiful girls. We had a lovely lunch and then Mike took us up to the botanical gardens in the Vumba Mountains. We spent about 2 hours or so walking around the gardens; we tried to walk around the tracks in the rain forest, but they are a little over grown and nonexistent in places. In its heyday it used to be an amazing place where you could walk through the rain forest and come out onto the most beautiful English gardens. It was nice to see that there was a lot of work being done to restore things. You can still see Samango monkeys wandering round and the birds are out of this world with a few endemic ones in the area. We had a lovely night catching up and thank Mike & Mignon so much.
I hope you are all fit and well as we are. It is almost impossible to get onto the net here so I am slowly getting things up dated. I will try and get some photos on as well. Love and hugs to all xx
Gorongoza is an absolute gem of a park and a huge surprise to me. I have always wanted to check it out, but didn’t realize how much wildlife was around and the birding is fantastic. It is also more about walking than game drives which makes a lovely change from sitting in a vehicle the whole time. We had 3 other people staying with us that first night and it was their first safari experience. We went for a game drive the first afternoon as it was getting a little late to be doing a walk. The elephants here are very nervous and some even still have bullets in them from the war days, which in reality only happened at the most 15 years ago so you have to be extremely cautious around them. Well of course we came across a herd of 40-50 of them and Rob stayed well away to see as he put it ‘who was around’. They were mostly grazing and seemed relaxed, but to our right a small group seemed to be a little on the nervous side. Elephants have long memories and the war was fresh in their minds. In this case one of the tuskless females was very agitated and started running towards us, Rob banged on the side of the car, but she kept coming so he started up and revved the car, but you guessed it she kept coming. We had to do a U-turn through the long grass and head for the track again; (all I could think of was – God don’t let there be a dead tree, rock or hole anywhere). She was screaming at us and keep coming and gaining on us, it almost made me cry as I have never seen an ellie react in this way before and made you realize how traumatized she must have been, it was pretty scary and she had it in her mind that she was going to get us. After we got back on the track she followed at speed for quite away before giving up. Not a very nice experience for first time safari goers it has to be said, but imagine the strife, killing and poaching that had been going on and is still taking place at times – what terrible memories these herds must have. Rob was saying that you don’t very often see them during the day as they stick to the thick forests and came out onto the flood plains at night. Rob had to report the incident as some elephants it seemed there was no hope for – they continually charged vehicles every time and probably unfortunately would have to be put down. Apparently the head warden/vet knew this particular elephant and it was not her first offense. It is such a shame that we humans had caused this grief and that in turn she would probably have to be euthanized because of us!
The rest of the game drive went without a hitch and the birding is just awesome, what we noticed were the huge numbers of waterbuck and wart hog; we have never seen so many all in one place before. The flood plains were spectacular with a lot of aquatic birds and animals. This park closes every year for about 4 months during the rainy season due to not being able to use the roads and a lot of the land being under water. We had a lovely dinner with good company and went to sleep with the sound of lions roaring in the distance. The next morning we were up at around 6.30am; due to the mist in the mornings it is best to start the walks later at about 7am. We walked out from camp and were following the river to see if we could spot any crocodiles or hippos, but also as you know looking at all the little things plants, insects and birds which is what the walks are all about. We had a lovely 3 hours walking and got back to camp to have a fantastic brunch! I then had a wonderful hot shower in the outdoor shower overlooking the river – beautiful.
Kerry joined us around 11.30am and we relaxed around camp, me flitting around the trees and bushes trying to take photos of all the birds. The other three people had gone back to Chitengo so there was just the 3 of us in camp – fabulous! Jos joined us for the afternoon/evening game drive which centered on the flood plains, river and little ponds/lakes. The aquatic birdlife is stunning and we watched for ages with gin and tonic in hand hundreds of birds returning to their roosting sites up stream. Another great feature here in Gorongoza is the night drives you can see civet, genet, porcupine and owls quite regularly. The next day we had another morning walk out towards the flood plains and then back through the forest along the river, then a drive in the afternoon once again. This park is huge so Rob was trying to show us as much as possible in the short time we had. Without trying very hard I notched up around 120 birds in my 4 night stay. That night dinner had been set up behind the camp so that we were under the huge African sky, but we were interrupted just before dinner by the guard shouting from the car park ‘lions’. Rob left us at the fire to check it out and the guard was in the game vehicle as the lions had walked right past him. Rob called us and we jumped in the car to see if we could follow them; it was 2 males and they were following the road with us duly following them. It was lovely to see them not at all bothered by us and just going about their nightly business. They turned off to go out to the flood plains and we returned to camp to a wonderful dinner. Apparently they had walked right in front of Kerry’s tent and along the track that goes to the car park and then out of camp and down the road.
The following day we went for a game drive to try and see some more of the far reaches of the park and got back for brunch and once again relax until the afternoon. We then drove out to one of the places where they set up a fly camp which has loads of baobab trees around and then had a small walk in the area before having sundowners and then returning to camp. Gorongoza is a wonderful park and well worth a visit, one day we saw the vehicle from Chitengo out on a game drive, but where else can you drive around in a park and see no sign of civilization? We would love to go back again sometime and see more of the park and do more walks.
14 June We were up at 4.30am this morning as Kerry was flying out from Chimoio at 9.10am and it would take around 2 to 2.5 hours to get there. Jos had a breakfast packed for us and they drove us back through to Chitengo. The guy wasn’t on the gate as requested the night before, so we started to off load our luggage through a hole in the fence while Rob went to fetch him. We got going and finally left at 6am. It took 30 minutes through the park to the main gate and then we were on the way to Chimoio. We managed to arrive at the airport at 8.15am and Kerry got checked in all okay. I spoke to Mike to let him know that we were on the way to see them in Mutare. It took about an hour or so to the border. We cleared the Mozambique side and got to Zimbabwe. There was a little ‘hitler’ woman there and I had to ring Mike for his physical address as it was needed before we could enter. Mike met us as we were leaving the border and we followed him to his place in Mutare. It was great to catch up with him and Mignon and to meet his 2 most beautiful girls. We had a lovely lunch and then Mike took us up to the botanical gardens in the Vumba Mountains. We spent about 2 hours or so walking around the gardens; we tried to walk around the tracks in the rain forest, but they are a little over grown and nonexistent in places. In its heyday it used to be an amazing place where you could walk through the rain forest and come out onto the most beautiful English gardens. It was nice to see that there was a lot of work being done to restore things. You can still see Samango monkeys wandering round and the birds are out of this world with a few endemic ones in the area. We had a lovely night catching up and thank Mike & Mignon so much.
I hope you are all fit and well as we are. It is almost impossible to get onto the net here so I am slowly getting things up dated. I will try and get some photos on as well. Love and hugs to all xx
Saturday 19 June 2010
27 May Another beautiful day. Flavia N you asked about Baia Sonambula – well it was fabulous. Lovely friendly staff, good breakfasts, awesome views from the seaview rooms and extremely comfortable beds – I would definitely stay there if I was you – ENJOY! Well today our dive was at a reef called Crocodile Rock, the marine life here in Mozambique is quite extraordinary and all the dives so far have been stunning. Overall our stay in Tofo was magical and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is a very laid back and relaxed place with plenty of things to do and see. We had dinner at Casa Barry as they seem to have the most comfortable dining chairs in town.
28 May Today we are off to Pomene Lodge which I am really looking forward to. We stopped about 3kms out of Tofo at the fuel station and there is a deli there called Chillies. They have the best coffee and cakes around; we also got some lovely filled rolls for lunch. It is run by Jenny & Gill and they do a great job. The road was up and down today, we had about 50kms or so of driving along beside the road until we got to the junction for Pomene. It was then a good dirt road for about 25kms to the gate of the reserve where we had to pay entrance fees. Then we hit the sand road for about 30kms or more, but good sand road the only thing is that it seems to mostly be a single track so you just hope that you don’t meet anything coming the other way! We arrived at the lodge and were welcomed by Oadie (the dog) English Setter, Neville & Wendy and Kirsty & Steve. We were staying in one of the water chalets, so asked if we could park in the campsite so that we could plug into the power for the freezer. Martin went to turn the car around to head back down to the campsite and duly got stuck! After a lot of tooing and froing we eventually got out and managed to park back in the campsite. This place uses a generator which runs twice a day for several hours which is plenty to keep the fridge/freezer going well.
29 – 31 May We went out the next day to Zambia Reef for a dive which was great fun. There seems to be even more marine life up in this region. When we first dropped down the first thing we saw was a manta ray which was so cool, there was also a reef shark, but I didn’t see it. We also went for a night dive in the estuary which was really great we saw seahorses which was just the best. This was the first night dive that I have done and has quite an eerie feel to it; we also saw a red baby octopus, baby zebra moray, baby firefish and loads of other things. All the things that you don’t usually get to see out on the reefs. Another excursion we did was a quad bike ride which was great fun to the old hotel, village and Pomene View Resort. The old hotel is reputed to be one of the most luxurious in its heyday, but like a lot of other places has fallen derelict after the war, it seems such a huge waste as it is a stunning location and the rooms and communal areas looked fantastic, but have been left to just rot and fall apart. We had a great time at Pomene, but tomorrow it is time once again to move north.
1 June We are on our way to Vilanculos today where we will be staying at Casa Rex for the first night. Once again the roads were a little up and down; once we rejoined the main road we unfortunately got stuck behind a truck doing 20kms an hour and as it was a one lane track at the side of the road there were no opportunities to pass for about 30kms or so – quite a long journey! Once you get to the good tarmac again the road was brilliant most of the way to Vilanculos which was appreciated. We arrived at beautiful Casa Rex and were welcomed by Mel & Suzannah. It is amazing how much the gardens have grown here; we stayed here 3 years ago and they had just planted a lot of new plants which have become trees now! We had a very late lunch when we arrived and then Dave from Sailaway came to see us and explain all about the dhow safari we would be doing tomorrow. He also told us about the boat trip that they had done which started in Fernao Veloso to pick up their new dhows; this was the same trip that Kerry did with him – quite an adventure and took much longer than first intended. We had a lovely dinner at Casa Rex and then packed our bags for our 2 day dhow safari before getting a good night’s rest.
2-4 June We arrived down at Sailaway at 8.30am for our dhow safari and we found that another Dutch couple would be doing the safari with us which is great; when you are together 24/7 you can run out of conversation as you are doing all the same things together. We set off for the island of Magaruque where we were to go snorkeling, walking around the island and having lunch. The dhows have a big box type thing at the back full of sand which they use as a fire place to cook the meals on, it works amazingly well and Alfredo was a fantastic chef! We decided that it was a little cold to go snorkeling so started on our journey back across to the mainland to Chigamane Camp which is north of Vilanculos on the mainland where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights. We had a fabulous dinner and sat around the fire having drinks and talking until about 9pm (oh so late) before heading off to our tents for the night. We were up around 7am for breakfast and then we were due to sail across to the southern tip of Bazaruto Island; basically between Bazaruto and Benguerra Island’s to Two Mile Reef for snorkeling. Well what a bumpy trip out to the reef, but we were rewarded with great snorkeling. It is quite crazy to be snorkeling along behind a reef whilst there are huge big breakers (waves) the other side. We then pulled up closer to the island for lunch which once again was brilliant all once again made on board over the fire. We then sailed back to Chigamane Camp for the night. Dumas (the first mate) had a couple of handlines so I was trawling one of these the whole time on the ocean and managed to catch 2 lizard fish – it must be said that they are not good eating far too many bones! The last6 morning we got up and I had forgotten to take my pills for my hernia with me so was not feeling very good at all. We sailed out to Benguerra Island for some more snorkeling and to walk around one of the sandbanks that are exposed at low tide. We had lunch on the boat and then had to motor back to Vilanculos as the wind was not so good. We had a fabulous trip and great fun. Was also lovely to get back to Casa Rex and have a lovely shower and the beautiful gardens and views – just stunning.
I had a fabulous massage before getting our transfer across to Dugong.
5-9 June Today we are off to Dugong Lodge, although it is on the mainland it is easier to get to by boat which only takes around 45mins as opposed to driving which would take about 6 hours or so. There is about 80kms of bad sand road to get there. We were picked up at about 2pm by the boat and jetted off across to the lodge. Well what a stunning setting and oh so quiet. We were looked after beautifully by all the staff and in particular Wayne & Gail. We went fishing three days for a few hours and caught (well should I say I caught); a 7kg Bonito on the second day and Martin caught a 1kg bonito as well. The first day we got nothing and the third day I got another bonito only about 1kg again, but great fun! We also we for a drive up to ‘Worlds View’ in a golf cart with Wayne through the sanctuary – it is Vilanculos Coastal Sanctuary and has had some animals introduced over the last few years. We only managed to see a grey & red duiker, plus some great birdlife and the views were stunning. I went for a walk one day and Martin took a hobie cat out for an hour or so. We also did some snorkeling at the end of the jetty which is just teaming with reef fish as well as snapper, mullet and other varieties – great fun. The dolphins came around the jetty a few times over the 4 days which was awesome as well. One of the days out fishing we took a picnic lunch with us and stopped on Bangeu Island which was cool fun. On our last night we took a sunset dhow trip which was interesting. We stopped at a fishing village and had a bit of a walk around and then set off back to the lodge – the wind was up a bit and we all got a free shower on the way back! All in all we had a lovely relaxing time and great fun.
9 June Today we are making our way back to Vilanculos to Casa Rex for the night. Kerry will meet us and join us for the trip into Gorongoza National Park. We had a lovely crossing back and had a relaxing afternoon. Martin had his hair cut today as it was getting rather woolly like a sheep! Kerry and Dave met us and had drinks; Kerry said it would be best to leave at 5.30am the next morning so we arranged a packed breakfast and lunch to go with us. We had a great dinner and then went off to bed excited about the next day.
10 June Martin set out clock slightly wrong and it went off at 4.30am, so there will be no problem picking Kerry up at Dave’s place at 5.30am. In fact we got there 10 minutes early and Kerry was still packing his bag – very impressed to see us not only on time, but even a bit on the early side! We then went back to Casa Rex and hitched up the trailer and were away from Vilanculos at 5.30am. Martin started driving and Kerry promptly fell asleep in the passenger seat, whilst I as usual didn’t want to miss anything was taking in the countryside from the most comfortable back seat. We stopped at 7.30am for breakfast and a wee break. It was lovely having a coffee and bacon roll although the mist was still hanging around quite thickly. Kerry took over the driving and the roads were mostly good, we stopped off for coffee and then I took over the driving then. It was great to get off the pot holed tar road and onto the good dirt road into the park.
Oh my goodness please let this go through it has been very difficult to get onto the internet throughout here. Love and hugs to all xxx
28 May Today we are off to Pomene Lodge which I am really looking forward to. We stopped about 3kms out of Tofo at the fuel station and there is a deli there called Chillies. They have the best coffee and cakes around; we also got some lovely filled rolls for lunch. It is run by Jenny & Gill and they do a great job. The road was up and down today, we had about 50kms or so of driving along beside the road until we got to the junction for Pomene. It was then a good dirt road for about 25kms to the gate of the reserve where we had to pay entrance fees. Then we hit the sand road for about 30kms or more, but good sand road the only thing is that it seems to mostly be a single track so you just hope that you don’t meet anything coming the other way! We arrived at the lodge and were welcomed by Oadie (the dog) English Setter, Neville & Wendy and Kirsty & Steve. We were staying in one of the water chalets, so asked if we could park in the campsite so that we could plug into the power for the freezer. Martin went to turn the car around to head back down to the campsite and duly got stuck! After a lot of tooing and froing we eventually got out and managed to park back in the campsite. This place uses a generator which runs twice a day for several hours which is plenty to keep the fridge/freezer going well.
29 – 31 May We went out the next day to Zambia Reef for a dive which was great fun. There seems to be even more marine life up in this region. When we first dropped down the first thing we saw was a manta ray which was so cool, there was also a reef shark, but I didn’t see it. We also went for a night dive in the estuary which was really great we saw seahorses which was just the best. This was the first night dive that I have done and has quite an eerie feel to it; we also saw a red baby octopus, baby zebra moray, baby firefish and loads of other things. All the things that you don’t usually get to see out on the reefs. Another excursion we did was a quad bike ride which was great fun to the old hotel, village and Pomene View Resort. The old hotel is reputed to be one of the most luxurious in its heyday, but like a lot of other places has fallen derelict after the war, it seems such a huge waste as it is a stunning location and the rooms and communal areas looked fantastic, but have been left to just rot and fall apart. We had a great time at Pomene, but tomorrow it is time once again to move north.
1 June We are on our way to Vilanculos today where we will be staying at Casa Rex for the first night. Once again the roads were a little up and down; once we rejoined the main road we unfortunately got stuck behind a truck doing 20kms an hour and as it was a one lane track at the side of the road there were no opportunities to pass for about 30kms or so – quite a long journey! Once you get to the good tarmac again the road was brilliant most of the way to Vilanculos which was appreciated. We arrived at beautiful Casa Rex and were welcomed by Mel & Suzannah. It is amazing how much the gardens have grown here; we stayed here 3 years ago and they had just planted a lot of new plants which have become trees now! We had a very late lunch when we arrived and then Dave from Sailaway came to see us and explain all about the dhow safari we would be doing tomorrow. He also told us about the boat trip that they had done which started in Fernao Veloso to pick up their new dhows; this was the same trip that Kerry did with him – quite an adventure and took much longer than first intended. We had a lovely dinner at Casa Rex and then packed our bags for our 2 day dhow safari before getting a good night’s rest.
2-4 June We arrived down at Sailaway at 8.30am for our dhow safari and we found that another Dutch couple would be doing the safari with us which is great; when you are together 24/7 you can run out of conversation as you are doing all the same things together. We set off for the island of Magaruque where we were to go snorkeling, walking around the island and having lunch. The dhows have a big box type thing at the back full of sand which they use as a fire place to cook the meals on, it works amazingly well and Alfredo was a fantastic chef! We decided that it was a little cold to go snorkeling so started on our journey back across to the mainland to Chigamane Camp which is north of Vilanculos on the mainland where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights. We had a fabulous dinner and sat around the fire having drinks and talking until about 9pm (oh so late) before heading off to our tents for the night. We were up around 7am for breakfast and then we were due to sail across to the southern tip of Bazaruto Island; basically between Bazaruto and Benguerra Island’s to Two Mile Reef for snorkeling. Well what a bumpy trip out to the reef, but we were rewarded with great snorkeling. It is quite crazy to be snorkeling along behind a reef whilst there are huge big breakers (waves) the other side. We then pulled up closer to the island for lunch which once again was brilliant all once again made on board over the fire. We then sailed back to Chigamane Camp for the night. Dumas (the first mate) had a couple of handlines so I was trawling one of these the whole time on the ocean and managed to catch 2 lizard fish – it must be said that they are not good eating far too many bones! The last6 morning we got up and I had forgotten to take my pills for my hernia with me so was not feeling very good at all. We sailed out to Benguerra Island for some more snorkeling and to walk around one of the sandbanks that are exposed at low tide. We had lunch on the boat and then had to motor back to Vilanculos as the wind was not so good. We had a fabulous trip and great fun. Was also lovely to get back to Casa Rex and have a lovely shower and the beautiful gardens and views – just stunning.
I had a fabulous massage before getting our transfer across to Dugong.
5-9 June Today we are off to Dugong Lodge, although it is on the mainland it is easier to get to by boat which only takes around 45mins as opposed to driving which would take about 6 hours or so. There is about 80kms of bad sand road to get there. We were picked up at about 2pm by the boat and jetted off across to the lodge. Well what a stunning setting and oh so quiet. We were looked after beautifully by all the staff and in particular Wayne & Gail. We went fishing three days for a few hours and caught (well should I say I caught); a 7kg Bonito on the second day and Martin caught a 1kg bonito as well. The first day we got nothing and the third day I got another bonito only about 1kg again, but great fun! We also we for a drive up to ‘Worlds View’ in a golf cart with Wayne through the sanctuary – it is Vilanculos Coastal Sanctuary and has had some animals introduced over the last few years. We only managed to see a grey & red duiker, plus some great birdlife and the views were stunning. I went for a walk one day and Martin took a hobie cat out for an hour or so. We also did some snorkeling at the end of the jetty which is just teaming with reef fish as well as snapper, mullet and other varieties – great fun. The dolphins came around the jetty a few times over the 4 days which was awesome as well. One of the days out fishing we took a picnic lunch with us and stopped on Bangeu Island which was cool fun. On our last night we took a sunset dhow trip which was interesting. We stopped at a fishing village and had a bit of a walk around and then set off back to the lodge – the wind was up a bit and we all got a free shower on the way back! All in all we had a lovely relaxing time and great fun.
9 June Today we are making our way back to Vilanculos to Casa Rex for the night. Kerry will meet us and join us for the trip into Gorongoza National Park. We had a lovely crossing back and had a relaxing afternoon. Martin had his hair cut today as it was getting rather woolly like a sheep! Kerry and Dave met us and had drinks; Kerry said it would be best to leave at 5.30am the next morning so we arranged a packed breakfast and lunch to go with us. We had a great dinner and then went off to bed excited about the next day.
10 June Martin set out clock slightly wrong and it went off at 4.30am, so there will be no problem picking Kerry up at Dave’s place at 5.30am. In fact we got there 10 minutes early and Kerry was still packing his bag – very impressed to see us not only on time, but even a bit on the early side! We then went back to Casa Rex and hitched up the trailer and were away from Vilanculos at 5.30am. Martin started driving and Kerry promptly fell asleep in the passenger seat, whilst I as usual didn’t want to miss anything was taking in the countryside from the most comfortable back seat. We stopped at 7.30am for breakfast and a wee break. It was lovely having a coffee and bacon roll although the mist was still hanging around quite thickly. Kerry took over the driving and the roads were mostly good, we stopped off for coffee and then I took over the driving then. It was great to get off the pot holed tar road and onto the good dirt road into the park.
Oh my goodness please let this go through it has been very difficult to get onto the internet throughout here. Love and hugs to all xxx
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