13 SEPTEMBER 2011

NORTHERN MOZAMBIQUE – the tippy tippy top

Start the journey north towards the border we walk to the nearby I firstly have to get a chapa over the bridge then swap to bigger minibus to Namialo with another couple who are heading west and get ripped off with a huge charge for luggage – BAH. Then get dropped at Namialo to look for a bus going north to Pemba. There is one bus already at the junction so I quiz the lucky bus driver – remember my portuguese is very, very poor – but the name Pemba elicits a shaking head, the name Mocimboa and an explanation follows of which I understand very little! But I make a guess that he is going somewhere else but he can drop me at the Pemba turn off. I dash inside, settle in, check my maps to locate where he is actually headed and realise he is going all the way to Mocimboa de Praia which I had initially thought would take me three days to travel to. I was planning to try to visit the Quirimbas Archipelago further north as the islands are meant to be gorgeous but I quickly gauged them not to be unique (my new yard stick) and I decide to take what the universe give me! I’ve got a great front seat to stretch my legs out, my seat neighbour is a mine of good information and I will save two days travelling (and two mornings of early rising). YAHOO, I can’t stop smiling! When we catch up with another bus at a police checkpoint, the driver tells me its ‘Pemba’ but my new friend tells him I’m staying on board for the whole ride. She is also going over the border up to Dar so I figure I might places if I can hang onto her coattails – and she seems happy to take me under her wing. She feeds me snacks, bargains with the sellers for me in towns and is very interesting to talk to, as she has a small disability requiring use of one crutch and is draped in hijab travelling with a small entourage for what I don’t know.  An unusual woman and quite widely travelled within Africa. Then even though I understood that she was going to stay in Mocimboa, as soon as we arrive late afternoon she hustles me towards a crowded matola, I’m histled on board and next thing I’m being driven on another bad road towards Palma. I try clarifying what Fatima’s plans are today and I hope they don’t include coercing a mzungu up to the frontier, robbing her and leaving her stranded!  I do hate being hustled and hurried so I ask to try and ascertain where she is staying tonight – ‘at the frontier’. Then I am told that only Africans can cross the border at this time, not mzungus. I will have to stay in Palma and travel to Namoto tomorrow morning.to cross the border. Some discussion follows and from what I can understand I should have stayed back in Mocimboa as Palma has a bad reputation. I ask about the LP guide’s accommodation suggestion,  get directed back out of town but that will never do if I have to be up at 5am again to travel. I ask about any pensao in town and find the one and only is very acceptable,  very clean and reasonably priced. After rinsing off some of the dust from todays travel I walk the length of town trying to locate something to eat other than fried fish. I end up eating fried fish with a nice roll for dinner. Beer o’clock so I find a bar with an assortment of drunks, beggars and out of towners who are perched for the night. The owner blasts one bloke who won’t give up nagging me for a contribution and then I’m left in peace to watch the riveting (not) tv soapie with everyone else. One man posted here for work to set up fish farms chats to me for a while until his wife turn up! lol It doesn’t take much to get to sleep tonight even though I am a still a little worried about the forthcoming border crossing tomorrow. This frontier requires a river crossing in a dug out canoe and the guidebook describes it as being either dangerous or adventurous depending on your perspective.  I have been asking over the last few weeks to try and ascertain what the situation might be and the most reassuring thing I know is that there hasn’t been very much rain so all rivers are very low. The other warnings I received concerned the boatmen – they are very hard to bargain with and there is certainly a very high price quoted for mzungus. Locals like to laugh as they tell you what any price is for them, “but for you, I don’t know” they say. Another ploy is to bargain with the mzungu then get to the middle of the river and threaten to throw your belongings out of the boat unless you paid more. Oh joy, oh joy – memories of getting a boat at the Laos border into Cambodia – a real nightmare and alas nothing to look forward to. But onwards I will go and hopefully things may work out ok.

FACT: Mozambique is spread out over 800,000 sq km and has a 2500km coastline, six national parks including two offshore marine parks. Environmentally the country is trying to break new ground which is so refreshing for Africa, I think. Over 80% of the population are working at least part time in subsistence farming and HIV infection rates hover around 20%. All in all I think they maybe a little stalled but I hope that with some luck and hard work the country will continue its growth and development into the future, not the least for its youth’s sake.