We took the ferry across the very thin Maputo Bay and we were immediately transferred out of the city an back into the bush – bouncing down another corrugated dusty road.

Inside the park the roads turned to soft deep which Betsy floated over with ease. As we wound our way along we were on the lookout for the elusive elephants and were eventually rewarded with a herd off in the distance crossing a swamp. The elephants here were poached almost to extinction so I think we were lucky to see any at all.

When we reached the sea we found a truly amazing beach and campsite waiting for us. The beach stretched off as far as the eye could see to our left, windswept and completely deserted. To our right in ran to a point with a huge perfect sand dune behind it. There wasn’t a soul in sight and we explored to our hearts content, playing on the sand dune.

After a brief nap(!) we headed off for some rather windblown sundowners on a hill behind us and then retired to the campfire for some dinner and an early night.

In the evening I drove out to the airport to pick up my beloved sister whose plane unfortunately arrived over an hour late. It was fantastic to see a friendly face again and a family member at that!!

The next day was spent wandering along the seafront of Maputo catching up on all the news from home which I enjoyed very much. The highlight of our rather long and not particularly interesting walk had to be seeing the very impressive Irish Embassy! It was rather big, posh and imposing, much better than both the embassy in Cairo and the consulate in Nairobi which is a one room office staffed by a (admittedly terribly friendly and helpful) Indian girl who’s never even been to the green isle.

After dinner we enjoyed a few beers on the deck overlooking the harbor and headed to bed to suffer the mosquitos and INCREDIBLE snoring from two men in our dorm all night.

Another long days uninspiring drive and we arrived in Maputo safe and sound just as the sun was setting. We found a hostel straight away and I hit the bed immediately trying to catch up for the previous nights sleep.

I spent 5 days in backpackers paradise – parties every night, pizza on every corner, quads buzzing around and more bikinis that you could every reasonably expect to poke a stick at.

Unfortunately the storm expected in Vilanculos the day before hit us in full force. My first 3 days in Tofo were a horrible mix of very high winds, driving ran and general overcast horrible Irishesque weather – exactly what you don’t want in a seaside, camping sea focused town! All activites were cancelled due to the sea being too choppy to go anywhere and people resorted to alcohol to keep themselves amused.

I enjoyed a few parties thoroughly, letting loose for the first time since Nairobi which was very much appreciated! I met a lot of fun people, all doing such a similar Southern Africa circuit that it might as well be a package holiday but they were all good people and we had a lot of fun even if the weather was a constant downer.

Every day I ate in the Bread Shack always having one of their specials, Bunny Chow. For all you uneducated people out there Bunny Chow is a hollowed out full loaf of bread filled with curry – absolutely filling and delicious, especially filled with fresh seafood curry!! (For a more extreme version, made famous by Elvis Presley himself see this link)

Eventually after 3 days of stormy weather it eventually cleared and I only then appreciated what a beautiful beach Tofo has and I was also finally able to partake in the most popular activity in Tofos portfolio – swimming with whale sharks.

Whale Shark - Photo not mine, illustrative purposes only

A gang of us headed off in a speedboat with all our snorkeling gear and in hours we’d swum with 4 separate monsters of the deep. We’d spot a dark shadow on the ocean floor, get infront of it and dive right in. The sharks were HUGE the last one being over 7m long. We could swim right up beside them without them getting annoyed and it was truly humbling to see such huge placid creatures so close. We would swim along with the shark for a few minutes until it outpaced us and drifted off away, floating along with it’s big mouth open eating plankton.

My final day in Tofo I spent exploring the area and beaches i’d never got to see before, as well as taking all the sunny photos in the blog post here!!

After 5 days in Tofo i’d had enough backpackery, South Africanised party in the sun socialising and was really ready to move on.

Another drive through the never changing Mozambiquan bush I was glad to have some company.

Tofo turned out to be very touristy like Vilanculos but seemed to manage it better, feeling less crowded and touristy. We managed to find a cheap campsite and headed into town for dinner for a friends friends birthday party. It was nice to just chillout with some people who very easy conversation and not other travellers (they were all working for NGOs near Tofo).

After some more fantastic seafood we headed out for some beers and partying, a very pleasant night altogether.

I went for a long walk in the morning and arrived back to the hostel just in time to meet one of the hitch hikers i’d met a couple of days before. He was cooking up a feast of sea food, crabs, scallops and coconut rice (with the coconut milk directly out of a freshly cut coconut!). All the seafood bought from fishermens boats as they arrived on the beach.

After that feast I was in no mood for any activities and instead spent the afternoon lazing in a hammock reading my book. That evening a few of us made another feast, this time fresh calamari steaks in a tomato and onion sauce – DELICIOUS!!

The scenery and road was exactly the same as every other tar road i’d been on since Pemba (rather boring at this stage!) but I plugged away and drove all 684km to Vilanculos before dark.

Driving into town I was immediately struck by how South African it was. There South African reg cars on the road than Mozambiquan – all fully kitted out for bush camping but looking pristinely clean and new at the same town. The town was very busy and built up just for tourists, everything had a very different air to it – less Mozambiquan and more typically South African.

I headed for a very recommended backpackers and set up shop at the busy bar, making new friends.

The lodge was owned by an exiled Zimbabwean farmer who had bought the forest and set up his sawmill a number of years ago. He was trying to demonstrate that it is possible to manage an old forest sustainably without clear cutting everything in sight. He is only taking out, on average, 2.5 trees per hectare and replacing these with exactly the same species. He was a terribly interesting and enthusiastic chappy altogether.

I spent the day walking around the forest inbetween rain showers admiring the old trees and spotting some very shy duikers. In the evening I had some lovely dinner at the lodge and read my book in front of the massive campfire.

I spent the day wafting along the tarmac road through rather unspectacular bush towards Caia and the fantastic new bridge over the mighty Zambezi river.

The only break in a rather unspectaular long day on the road was picking up a couple of hitch hikers, Max and his friend. Two Germans on their way south from Ilha were good company for the hour or so that they were with me.

I stopped for the night in a rather nice (but cheap!) lodge just south west of Caia and the river.

Buoyed by confidence from my previous days river crossing I decided to not only go for a walk on the beach but a bit of a drive too! I followed another set of tire tracks and was soon wafting along the soft sand of the beach, past all the fishermen and onto a beautiful, wide, pristine beach.

After my swim I headed back back with the intention of leaving town until an old Landrover pulled up beside me and a friendly looking muzugu with an American accent asked me if I was looking for something and then offered in in for tea. That’s how I ended up a missionaries house discussing the pros and cons of the Baptist Church for over three hours. He actually speaks to Jesus, out loud, on a regular basis and has learnt to never obey his lord – scary stuff but also interesting as he was a very articulate and intelligent guy.

It was another fascinating conversation with another deeply religious person to add to my list on this trip, tea with numerous Muslims in the Middle East, beer with Catholic priests in Kenya, fanta with Ethiopian Rastas, gin and tonics with exiled Arabian Muslims and more fanta with pagan Mozambiquans.

After appearing very disappointed that he hadn’t managed to convert me he suggested somewhere that I could spend the night.

A very interesting South African man and his wife had rennovated an old fort and set it up as a B&B, mainly to give his an excuse to live by the sea and indulge his passion for fishing.

In his previous lives he had been (in this order!) a high school dropout, soldier, mercenary in Angola, millionaire business owner and now, after the crash of his business a B&B owner/cookery book writer/fisherman.

I spent the afternoon walking through the locals farms, sitting on the roof of the fort trying to talk to Jesus (he didn’t answer, i’m obviously not worthy!) and reading my book.

When my South African hosts invited me to dinner I didn’t say no – a very fat fisherman who writes cookery books, you don’t say no to that!!

The three of us ate a truly awesome dinner while having a very varied conversation ranging from Angolan history to how crazy some Baptist Cristians are. What an interesting people day!!