Day 8 - Another Day in Paradise

Praia Tofo, Annex of Aquatico Ocean Lodge
Another morning of lying around reading, this kind of life certainly makes you very lazy. The mornings are very hot but the afternoons are just nice.

K headed off for her dive around 1pm, everyone had to push the rubber boat into the shallows and wait for waves to carry it our further. Only on the boat did I learn that there had been a cyclone here 2 weeks earlier & this was the first week they had been able to dive - this of course meant visibility was poor to say the least! All that wind stirring up the ocean, it was like being in a washing machine of dirty debris. The morning group had swam with 15 Whale Sharks, but no such luck for us 2 were spotted but I didn't see them. Hopefully tomorrow morning we can go swimming with them.

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Day 7 - Idyllic Life

Praia Tofo, Annex of Aquatico Ocean Lodge

We woke early and ran out the door for a swim at 7.30am (the earliest either of us have ever gone for a swim!), the Indian Ocean was warm and it was a delightful start to a day of doing almost nothing.

After finishing a weeks worth of hand washing the maids appeared to tell us that was their job - so they can have the rest tomorrow! The afternoon was spent reading, sorting  photos, and arranging K's dive trip for tomorrow, after which we strolled along the beach back to town.

There was a local gathering on the beach there, with music and dancing. We stood in a circle along with everyone else and watched a local children's dance group perform, the crowd was clapping and cheering and it was lots of fun to watch. Very African dancing.

Also, another update - we've just uploaded an album of photos to Picasa Web albums, so if you want to see more, just go to this link :  Joburg and Mozambique photos

Update: We've now uploaded a couple of videos of the dancing - see below!

Day 6 - Not that bus for 7 hours no way!

Praia Tofo, Annex of Aquatico Ocean Lodge

We were meant to be picked up from our hotel at 5am for the 7 hour bus ride to Tofo, however we were forgotten. By 6am a replacement taxi had been arranged to take us to the local bus station to get on a mini bus with the locals. The bus station was what you would expect Africa to be like - bustling, noisy, dirty. We were rushed onto the bus and told to take a seat - and then we waited....

Eventually we realised it wouldn't leave until it was full  - and their idea of full wasn't the same as ours! It finally left at 7.30am, with our suitcases on the floor between the seats. The thought of spending 7 hours cramped like sardines in the horrendous seats was daunting to say the least. Initially the road was covered in sand (due to roadworks) and the journey was looking pretty bad. However the road improved over time and our ipods made the trip bearable - especially for K, who was listening to the audio book "Power of One" - suitable reading for a journey through Southern Africa!

The bus continued to pick up people along the way although you wouldn't think it was possible to squeeze anyone else in. Every person on and off the bus for 7 hours used some poor person's case as steps - it was only at the very end of the trip that M realised it was his case they were using - his case has now been "Africaned"!  There was only one toilet/food stop on the way, many people (including M) couldn't be bothered negotiating bodies and cases to get to the door so exited via the window. The toilet stop was certainly interesting as using the toilet was optional, many women just went without any privacy, and appear to have mastered the art of standing up to go!

We finally made it to the beach haven of Tofo and our delightful room on the ocean by about 3pm - for four days of relaxation.

Day 5 - Now that's a beer!

Maputo, Palmeiras Guesthouse

Spent the first part of the day arranging our transport and accommodation for the next few days - bus to Tofo booked for 5am, and a bus from Maputo to Joburg after Tofo. After that we walked around Maputo taking in the sights - cathedral, fort, beachfront and main street.

It is a hot, hilly city - therefore K ended up with a sunburnt back, not expecting that the city would have so little shade. After walking along the waterfront we found a lovely restaurant for lunch overlooking the sea. The people at the table next to us all ordered beer and were as shocked as we were when we saw how it arrived - but it's a good way to learn how to pull a beer!

Day 4 - Nude Nuns with Big Guns!

Johannesburg to Maputo, Palmeiras Guesthouse

Early start today, as we were taking the 6:45am bus from Joburg to Maputo (Mozambique).

As we should have known, the bus (which we boarded at a suburban McDonalds) was late arriving. It then headed into the Greyhound office in the middle of town (in peak hour traffic) so our luggage could be weighed, and after that it went to the central bus station to pick up more passengers. As a result, we didn't really get going until 8:30am.

We had the front seats in the top deck of a Greyhound double decker - a perfect position
to view the countryside as we travelled on our 8 hour journey. There were stops along the way
- in Nelspruit (where the driver missed the turnoff and drove about 10km before turning back), and in Malelane.

The entertainment on the bus was quite interesting - it started off with Mr Bean, then some film that starred Luke Perry, and then it got a bit surreal when a film called "Nude Nuns with Big Guns" came on ..... with all of the shooting, killing and disrobed nuns you'd expect from a film with that title (I must see if I can download it some time for a closer look .....).

We were nervous about the border crossing, as we needed to pick up a visa at the border and
weren't sure whether the bus would wait for us. However the bus attendant was very helpful, and did all she could to speed up the process - so 30 minutes and 840 Rand (about $120) later, we had our visas and resumed our journey. Based on our experience, we highly recommend you use Greyhound for next trip from Joburg to Maputo!!

On arrival in Maputo, M's trusty GPS told us we had about 1km to get to our hotel - and against K's better judgement, M managed to persuade K that we could walk from the bus stop to the hotel with all of our luggage! It started well, with a downhill stretch, but as we got further along, the slope headed upwards, and the heat and humidity, as well as the footpaths that wouldn't be considered safe back home, started taking its toll, and this money saving attempt was looking like a very bad idea! Then out of nowhere a kind local stopped and offered us a lift - which we accepted of course!

5 minutes and 500 metres later, we were at the cute Palmeiras Guesthouse. A short rest to get settled and cool down, and then we braved the streets of Maputo and headed off to find dinner. We spent the meal watching the tactics of a local beggar with a sling and a crutch. He would approach cars at the lights for money, and then when the lights changed he would discard the crutch, take his arm out of the sling, and light up a cigarette, until the next group of cars stopped.

On the way back to the hotel we spent most of the time trying to avoid the police - on the advice of many travel guides! This is the first country we've been to where you are told to stay clear of the police as they will hold tourists on any trumped up charge to extort money - including "fining" you for not having your passport on you.

Day 3 - Don't drink and walk on the road, you may be killed

Today was the bike tour of Soweto. Yes, we've heard all of the horror stories - K says she got great delight from people's reactions when she told them we were going there. And of course there was nothing to worry about!

Riding a tandem was harder than we expected - and Soweto was hillier than we expected - so we didn't have an easy time of it, but it was good to get out and do some exercise anyway after all of that traveling.

After test-driving the tandem we headed off, first stop was a tin shed to share some umqombothi (a home brewed maize based beer) with some of the locals. K declined, but M had a sip out of the calabash before passing in on. As it turns out it's also available in cartons - with appropriate warnings on the side about the dangers of the demon drink!

Next stop was a memorial dedicated to the schoolchildren killed in the riots of 1976. We were there longer than expected, as the tandem had a puncture, and we had to wait for a new bike. K picked up a bracelet while we waited - first souvenir of the trip!

Then it was on to the street where both Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu had lived - the section of Soweto we were in there was nicknamed "Beverly Hills". Back to the start after that, and then on to the Apartheid Museum for the afternoon.

The museum was interesting - a good insight into South Africa's violent history. However, the locals from Soweto we'd spoken to throughout the day were very positive about SA's future, and it was also interesting to learn how the soccer World Cup had brought people together.

Once again the day closed with a nice dinner at one of the restaurants in Melville - and yes Dave, you were right - the steaks in South Africa are cheap!

Day 2 - It rains just as much here as it does back home

So we've made it to Johannesburg! A short train and taxi ride from the airport and we were at our home for the next couple of days, the Melville Palm. The good thing is that we're the only ones here .... so it's like having have a fully equipped 5 bedroom home to ourselves, with free wireless internet, and nice bars, restaurants and shopping just around the corner.

We arrived here about 8am, so we had a short nap before we had lunch and caught a taxi to the local Greyhound office to get our tickets for Maputo. Though if we'd known we had to pick them up in person we wouldn't have booked them online in the first place!

After that a walk around the sights of Melville - I thought I'd escaped antique shops but it wasn't to be ..... but as we have no room in our luggage to cart expensive collectibles all around the world, my wallet was safe!

We arrived back at the Palm just before it started pouring - a bit like the weather back home - warm but humid and overcast, then rain in the afternoon. The thunder was so loud Kathryn initially thought it was a gunshot - obviously influenced by all of the South Africa horror stories people kept telling us about before we left!!

The rest of the evening was spent sitting outdoors at one of the cute restaurants, eating and drinking .... aaaahh this is the life!!

Day 1 - Off on our Excellent Multinational Adventure

Kuala Lumpur

As Kathryn is currently asleep, it means I can write whatever I want in the blog and she won't discover it for some time. I've therefore made an executive decision and decided to fashion my blog post titles on the style recently adopted by the Egyptian Military - which means this post is to be known as "Communique Number 1". This won't last long ..... I suspect I have a about 24 hours or so before I'm forced to be slightly more creative with my titles.

At this early stage there's not much to report - we're waiting for our flight from KL to Jo'burg (about 2 hours to go now), after a strangely stress free day or so - the last 7 weeks of continuous downsizing - from farm to cottage to hotel room to suitcases - has worked in our favour, if we had done it in one step I shudder to think what condition we'd be in right now.

My inability to sleep on planes or in airports means I'm looking for something to do while K snoozes on the lounge in the "Satay Club" at KLIA - which is why I'm updating the blog even though we've barely started the trip. Before she passed out though, she did inform me that the weather in Jo'Burg will be about 22 degrees for the next couple of days, and Maputo after that will be in the 30's - a much more productive use of time and free wireless internet than this piece of drivel.

Hopefully there'll be something more exciting to report in the next post - consider this one just my way of blowing out the old blogging cobwebs. I've started a new map (maybe you've noticed?), and now I'll spend some time figuring out how to get ads onto the blog (which Google calls "monetizing") - though at about 0.01 cents per click, I'm not sure whether the potential annoyance factor will offset the riches that await .......