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.