Wednesday, October 08, 2003

 

Back again after a long break - we headed to Maputo after Kruger so I'll start there. We got our visas for Mozambique but it would have taken ages to queue to get them stamped at the border so we crossed and headed for Maputo with no problems. The landscape was similar to South Africa, if a bit poorer. Maputo (previously called Lourenzo Marques) is a sprawling city, with a population of about two million people and a large harbour.

Under Portuguese influence, Maputo was one of Africa’s most beautiful and fashionable cities with impressive buildings and architecture and a cosmopolitan Portuguese/African atmosphere. The war in the 1970s and 1980s changed that, and when it was over the city was in disrepair. There is still evidence of the beautiful architecture of the city but if you thought Irish footpaths and roads were bad, come to Maputo and your eyes will be opened. It has also retained its cosmopolitan Portuguese/African atmosphere, and you would definintely notice the difference between South African cities and Maputo - it has its own culture and the people are proud of it.

We picked the maddest week to arrive in maputo, along with the 53 presidents of Africa for the African Union Summit, July 4th to 12th.
This had advantages, in that it was an exciting time to be there, with limos containing the likes of Kofi Annan and Gadaffi, roaring up and down the streets from morning til night (and crime was apparently much lower than usual), but disadvantages in that Karen was very busy, but she did her best to keep us amused and entertained. We went out one night with a crowd from the Irish embassy, which included the Irish minister Tom Kitt. Rubbing shoulders eh?

A lot has changed since the war and the city is slowly recreating some of its former glory, esp during the African Summit, when a huge effort was made to clean up the city. The rich and famous were hanging out at the five-star Polana Hotel, which has a grand view over the harbour. So we joined them of course and popped in for a sundowner one evening.

While Karen was working, we kept ourselves amused and took the ferry from Maputo’s fishing harbour one day, to Inhaca Island (we were the only whites on the ferry, so we got a few stares ;-) We walked along the beach for miles, passing all the local fishermen and Hamish even got asked to help out pulling in the nets, a request he politely declined. I doubt they were too surprised as they were laughing and talking among themselves as we walked by. We finally reached a beautiful hotel overlooking the bay where we dined on maputo's famous peri peri chicken and some liquid refreshments after our trek across the sands.

Mozambique is famous for its beautiful coastline and Inhambane Province is renowned as a paradise. Karen took a day off work and drove us up the coast to Bilene, which is situated on a hill overlooking the Uembje Lagoon. It was a beautiful place, with white sands and clear lagoon, sand dunes, lush vegetation. We had an interesting lunch, with Karen having some difficulty explaining the concept of vegetarianism to the waiter, but she got it through eventually. (We think and hope)

We ended up driving back to Nelspruit and flying from there to Jo'burg airport. It was easier and quicker than taking the Baz bus and we'd had enough of it anyway. So we said our goodbyes to Karen and headed off for Sydney and new adventures (which we may get round to writing about at some stage ;-).

posted by kate 10:42 AM