Mozambique 2012; Journey up North!

Journey up North in Mozambique!

Day 1: 4th Jan, 2012; Woke up as usual in Nelspruit on the 4th morning; had planned to leave to Maputo on the 6th January. After some thinking, I decided to leave to Maputo in Mozambique that noon and go explore the city, do some stuff for a couple of days before I departed to Nampula. So I packed my bags, left to the bus station and got myself a ticket for the bus leaving at1230. The bus was delayed in Johannesburg, so arrived only at 1400. Boarded my bus and in a couple of hours we were at the libombo border post getting into Mozambique.
After a long wait standing in the queue on a hot summer day, we got all our passports stamped and continued our journey to Maputo. At 1900, my friend picked me up from the bus terminal and took me to his house; introduced me to his lovely family and we started off at the dinner table. It was clams for appetizers and a meat fondue along with pao (local bread) and piri piri sauce! After a lot of socializing, I got to bed and called it a day!


Day 2:5th Jan, 2012; After a good night's rest, I woke up fresh; all pumped up to go do my chores in the city! 0800 on the clock, we hit the road; first stop to TCO office to book my bus to Nampula.
We got there in no time luckily, but I didn't matter anyways cause all the tickets were booked until the 12th January. So I headed to the LAM office to check flights to nampula;
there were flights available, but priced approximately $550 for a one way ticket!!! I then headed back to TCO to check if they could accommodate me any earlier! When we parked there, we saw a board called Zhe Cheng Transportes; got inside the office and found only one ticket to Beira (half way to Nampula) departing that noon at 1500 and the next available bus was only on 10th. Didn't think twice about it; rushed to the forex and got my money changed to Meticais. Got back to the office and collected my ticket. We
then headed to Malawian Embassy to get myself a visa for Malawi. The guy was friendly and he agreed to give me a six months multiple entry visa in less than 3 hours; this is a miracle in Africa! I'd never expected the guy to have my passport ready by the time he had promised! At 1300, collected my passport and headed to the bus. At 1500, the bus arrived and I was surprised it see that the bus had only beds and no seats!! I managed to get myself a top bunk bed next to a window! Minutes later I dozed off to dreamland
and woke up occasionally for the pot holes in the road!
The driver stopped the bus at a gas station to fix a minor fault on the bus; this delayed us by an hour and a half! We then headed to Beira without any further delays and arrived
at Beira at 0700 on the 6th.



Day 3: 6th Jan, 2012; Got dropped off at Zhe Cheng Transportes office in Beira at 0700; found myself a taxi to the minibus (chapa) station. My friend had asked me to find a way to get to Gorongosa
(a small village on the way to Nampula, about 200km from Beira). Got into a 14 seater minibus, was quite empty when I got in. The driver said we would be leaving as soon as he filled up his bus. After 2 hours of waiting, he managed to fit in 28 people in it!!! My heart was in my mouth few minutes into the journey!; Firstly I was squeezed so hard against the wall, I couldn't even breathe well and secondly, the driver drove his minivan like a race car in need for speed game! He managed to get 300MT off me (about $11)
for a ride that was supposed to be 170MT; he said my bags were as heavy as I was! We arrived at Gorongosa at 1230 and I found my way to Mr. Hassan's shop just to find it shut for lunch! I managed to communicate to a local on the street about my situation. He took me walking into the bush and mud roads; he was asking me to follow him. I was just hoping that he would take me to Hassan's house. The kind man even carried my suitcase on his head after he saw me struggle with 3 heavy bags. After a mile long walk, we reached the house. Minutes later Hassan also arrived and we got delicious lunch! He then tried to organize me a car to get to Nampula but no one was ready to take me that far! I then stood out on the highway, few meters away from his shop trying to get myself a ride. I spoke to all the people along the pavement if they knew of anyone that was headed North! After two long hours of waiting, I saw 2 buses heading North!! I was overjoyed and so were the locals on the street! The bus stopped about 50 meters from where I was standing; sprinted all the way to the bus. Had to beg and plead the driver to take me to Nampula; after a lot of "por favor" (please in Portuguese) and a lot of locals supporting me, he agreed! Meanwhile the locals got my luggage that was in Hassan's shop about 100m from the bus! I threw my bags inside and climbed up the stairs just to see the exact same type of bus I used to hop onto in India to get to school! Ashok Leyland passenger buses used in Bangalore as public transport.
I used to complain about these buses for a 10 minute ride back home during school times. And now I will be sitting in this bus for the next 15-20 hours!! I'm going to call it a day now and get some sleep if I can!


Day 4: 0000, 7th Jan, 2012; I heard the bus stop and didn't move for a while! Mosquitos started buzzing in the bus; so decided to get off and speak to the driver. He told me that he wanted to rest until 0300 and then continue the journey. Just then a man greeted me in English and asked me where I was going! I was thrilled out of my mind to find another English speaking person! So we got to talking; he shared some of his experiences of Africa and I did too. Out of curiosity I asked him what he was doing so far up in Mozambique? He replied saying "at this time of the year,there is a lot of money here!" I didn't quite follow; gave him a few minutes and then I asked him to explain his previous statement. He then
explained to me that every year at this time he travels to this part of Mozambique in pursuit of Gold! He hand picks stones of Gold on the banks of the river downstream from the Gold identified areas! And this time of the year because of the rains in the area help his cause! Talking about all this, didn't realize it was almost 0300 and time to hop on the bus again! Just minutes after we began our journey, I managed to fall asleep; couple of hours later, I was woken up by the hopeless condition of the road!The seats and windows were rattling; bags were thrown out of the racks! The road remained bad for the next two hours of our journey! Thankfully we are back on tarred road and just about 300 km from Nampula. 1230, the bus arrived at Nampula and my friend sent me his assistant (Nasir) to fetch me! And that's how I covered around 2500 kilometers on road over 3 days.

It's almost been a week here in Nampula since I arrived and loving the experience! I've met quite a lot of people in this short while and managed to take a few walks around the town exploring it. I'm looking forward to go check out the museums here in town and also go to Ilha de Mozambique (Mozambique island) which was used as the capital of Mozambique during the colonial times by the Portugal. Thank you for your patience. I will soon update you about Northern Mozambique; until then ciao!