Another crap Mozambique hotel

Trip Start Dec 16, 2005
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Trip End Jun 12, 2006


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Where I stayed
Pensao Esplanade
(Maputo hotels)

Flag of Mozambique  ,
Sunday, April 2, 2006

Decided not to wait for the train and got up at 3:45am and on the road for 5am to Mocuba. The landscape was all very green and wooded with a few patches cleared here and there for agriculture. Mozambique doesn't have a huge population and many of the areas I've passed through still have plenty of forested areas. I wondered how long all this will last for!

We climbed up into the highlands for part of the journey and experienced some rain and beautiful rainbows spanning a full arc.

From Mocuba I managed to get a ride in a large sized pick-up truck along with sacks of grain. We had bicycles, sacks of coconut and about 10 other people with luggage in tow. Our destination was Milange on the Malawi border.

The road was not too bad, but a bit of a bone jolter especially from the back of the truck and a bit uncomfortable at times. As it got dark we moved up hill and the weather got colder. The few showers made sure I stayed awake.

We arrived at 8:30pm and I booked into Pensao Esplanade. Yet another terrible hotel.

I have to say outside the tourist areas the hotels in Mozambique have to be the crappiest and most expensive I've encountered on my Africa travels. After an omelet and chip dinner as was in bed snoring by 9:30.

Overall I have to say I'm extremely pleased I made this detour to Mozambique instead of heading straight for Malawi. The Portuguese influence, the Dhow rides, Ibo and Ilha de Mozambique have made this yet another mind-blowing experience. Again what I have experienced here has just been so different to what I experienced in the 4 countries previously.

I'm glad I came to the not so tourist north, the whole time I've been here I've felt the people totally genuine, quoting true prices most of the time. This, I'm told is not the case in the south, where I've also heard reports of lots of robberies.

The big challenge here has been the language. I found it very daunting at times when traveling solo and it was extremely difficult to communicate. I guess these things are all sent to challenge us though and it all worked out well in the end.
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