Vilanculos –Inhassora – Beira – Gorongosa, and onwards…..6th -13th Aug

Back on the road and wondering what’s in store.
Each day has presented us with so many different sights, sounds and experiences, most of them positive. The women are very colourful with their different patterns on their sarongs, which they use for everything…..it ties on their babies, wraps up their wares, they are used for groundsheets and are also the very latest in adorning their bodies. I love seeing them walking on the side of the road or in the markets and I have found many uses for the sarongs in the camp as well. (tablecloths, a screen for privacy in front of our door, a hanging for keeping out the sun in the kitchen.

We arrived at Inhassoro, and drove around a bit to find the one and only campsite , which had a very tired and unkempt look about it……yours truly, suddenly came over all fussy and demanded to see the ablutions before booking in…they weren’t bad at all and so we stayed there for 2 nights in order to get a spot of washing done. (Oh, how I miss my washing machine!) Once again met some great people who had just done what we were about to do and so gave us some tips on where to stay………more about that later…..

The next night saw us in the Rio Save Game Reserve at Papagaia camp (named because of the green parrots flying around there) a beautiful place with two huge baobab trees. The concessionaire of the camp is an Italian Journalist, Jon Carlos Caccio (complete with scarf and handlebar moustache). He had covered the civil war in Moz. and is still doing the odd article for the Italian newspapers. He was chuffed to hear that we had found his campsite on the ‘Tracks for Africa’ Maps on our Garmin. Lionel fixed his fridge for him and we received an invitation to dine with him that evening. A very charming host he turned out to be……if a tad heavy-handed with the gin in our obligatory G& T’s (The tonic is for the prevention of malaria and the gin is to make it more palatable!!!.) We introduced him to Colin Mathiesen’s medicinal gin-soaked sultana’s, (for the prevention of arthritis, you understand,) and he was most impressed, and became very heavy handed with that as well, insisting that we had teaspoon for teaspoon with him. We weaved our way back to our caravan that night all 50 meters of it, and just managed to miss the baobabs!!

Beira was a bit of a grubby shock to the system and once again no camping to speak of…we ended up in the three star? Tivoli hotel, which was okay and we even had a view of the sea, if you could just get your eyes away from the squalid and almost derelict, high rises that formed a corridor to the view! I was enchanted by the scores of children playing on the roof tops of buildings, some of which didn’t even have sides. They played skip-a-rope games, and there was a game for the older ones, and one for the youngsters as well. Others were playing on a tricycle or just running around. The laughter that rose up did my heart good and I realised that even in the most desperate places there is happiness and good to be found. (We only went to Beira because Lionel wanted the car’s idling to be adjusted at Nissan).

On the way to Gorongosa, we drove past a couple walking with backpacks. This was the second time that we had seen them and we just had to hear what their story was, so we stopped and waited for them to catch up. It turns out that they had been on the road for 4 months and they were walking from Cape Town to ……wait for it………………………………PARIS!!!!!!! We were gob-smacked!!! A young, French couple, they walk between 40 and 45 Kms a day and just sleep where they find a place on the side of the road. We asked whether they had felt threatened at all, and they said, only in the Transkei. Their biggest problem has been fresh water and loads of gawking spectators making it difficult to wash. We asked them if there was anything we could give them as we had lots of provisions. They only wanted drinking water!!!! And you think that we ware crazy!!!!!

We had been told (from our friends at Inhassora) about an eco campsite, (Owned by Piet Van Zyl, and run by his very enthusiastic and helpful son Sakkie.) just 3km from the entrance to the Gorongosa that works on a donation basis, as they are not yet registered – a long and arduous process) They said that the water was drinkable, the ablutions were great, and the owners were good people and that the campsite in the Gorongosa itself was a bit desperate, …………they told no lies . We loved staying there. For those that are interested….take the turnoff off the EN1 to the Gorongosa Nat Park, and then drive 8 km to a turnoff to the R. (It has a sky-blue sign and a disused little brick building on the corner) Follow the signs to Enviro-trade and enquire there. The whole family are delightful.
Gorongosa Nat. Park is in beautiful ever-changing countryside with Miombo bush making way for palm forests, thorn tree forests and fever tree forests and, just when you get sick of that you enter grassland and then beautiful plains. People come from all over the world for the birds….there are birds in this area that you get nowhere else on earth!! The animals are slowly coming back, (during the civil war most of them were poached by both Frelimo and Renamo forces!! In fact, where the campsite is situated in the Park was taken over by Frelimo for their Headquarters!!) We were lucky to see Elephants, loads of different species of magnificent buck and warthog for Africa, and lots of birds that we had never seen before. We had a wonderful day! Another plus, was that the car’s idling just came right on its own while we were touring.

We are spending tonight at James Whites Camp about 30km before Caia, which is the town at the crossing of the ENI with the Zambezi River. We thought that we could camp but the campsite has made way for charming rustic chalets and good communal ablutions. It is costing us about R200 for the night and there is a restaurant where we about have dinner so we aren’t complaining. James White owns a Sawmill here and makes furniture (a lot like Fechters in Knysna) from the local hardwood timber. His mission is to plant 3 trees for every one that he cuts down for his sawmill! This area is also a fantastic birding area.

It is getting more and more difficult to find campsites here in the north and because the ferry sunk we will be unable to cross into Tanzania via the coastal route. We are thinking that once we have been to \Ile De Mozambique and some of the beaches around there, that we will cut across to Malawi and work our way up the lake to Tanzania instead.

Internet access is also pretty rare on the ground here but will try to keep the blogs going whenever possible