Mozambique and Boss runs out of cash
Trip Start
Dec 16, 2005
1
52
125
Trip End
Jun 12, 2006
Mocimboa de Praia,
Mozambique
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
We met a sound father and son from Zanzibar who would be our partners in crime for the day. The farther was 77 and I'd never have guessed. He was a very strong gentleman for his age and stood 6'2.
Together with the other passengers we took a truck for the bumpy 2 hour drive up to the border. Boss bought me some more of the tasty dried fish along the way. He had secured us the back 2 seats on the truck thinking he was doing us a favour, but of course the back of the truck in the bumpiest and it also meant we got clouds of black smoke blowing into our faces for most of the journey, due to what can only be described as a very environmentally unfriendly and dodgy exhaust system.
Boss had something dodgy going on with his visa but a quick bribe to the immigration official and the custom officials to not check his bag soon got us on the road again. The customs lady asked me for some 'Coke Cola' money to not search my bag also, but I politely refused.
It was another few miles to the border where we all piled into a small motorboat to cross the Rovuma River. It was very wide and had a strong current that meant we had about a 20 minute crossing time. The boat was very low in the water and we got stuck on a sand bank at some point. I was happy to get across safely in the end.
There were lots of birds across this river and it seemed like it would be a great spot for birders. Once over the river we had a 2km walk from the boat to the road. This was all over some very slippery mud that I had to go barefoot on. One poor guy who was with us went for a really burton right into a nice wet patch. Once we hit the road we had a bit of a stand off as the guys with the only 4WD transport around tried to extract as much as they could from us to get us to the village and immigration another few miles down a very bad road. All the Tanzanians did the bartering and eventually decided on a price. It was good having them there to help with the bargaining and they had also being a great help when changing money. They had all been disgusted with the transport costs, but when you have a monopoly there is not too much choice.
After Mozambique immigration we had another 2 hour wait before we could get our transport to Mocimboa de Praia.
The 4 hour trip on the back of a pick-up was very cool apart from the obnoxious Portuguese lady driver who for some reason annoyed me intensely. I must have being getting tired from all the travel. The road was all sand and a bit bumpy. Rice, cashew nuts, bananas and forest lines the whole route along with hoards of smiling and waving locals.
We got into town at 7pm. This was 8pm Tanzanian time due to a one hour time difference.
The Pensao Leeta, one of the only ones in town, was one of the worst I've stayed in on my whole trip. Dirty, no mosquito nets and expensive. Boss the international gems dealer had unfortunately run out of money. I gave him a bed in my room and bought him dinner. God knows how he was going to buy all his gems once he got to Maputo!
I had fish stew and one of the local beers - 2M. Not as good as Safari beer by a long shot.
There is definitely an interesting mix of people here from what I've seen so far. Everyone from Europeans, Arabics, blacks and people who look like they are a real mixed bag.
