WEATHER: Cooler and 23C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Finally getting to our destination
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Taking 6 hours to get through borders
BUYS OF THE DAY: A bottle of coke on the Zim border for 50c
WORD OF THE DAY: The power of positive thinking = Jimbob
CAMP SITE RANKING: Awesome for us – we upgraded 5 out of 5 stars
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEESE aka Lisa aka Tentie
We have the biggest travel day today that we have had pretty much all of our Africa trip. We had a 4.15 wake up call for a 5.30am breakfast and we were on the road by 6am. It doesn’t sound that bad so far right; well wait to hear the rest of the day before you make up your minds.
We reached the Malawi boarder at 7am. The Malawi formalities only took like 20 minutes, yay! But then we moved onto the Mozambique formalities and this is where George has pre-warned us that the process could up to 3 hours, so mentally we were all prepared for the wait. The group had to fill in a customs form and an immigration form, Manu and I already had the Mozambique visas, so we didn’t have to do one of the forms. After they were all filled in, George took the forms, our passports and the 30USD fee and then went to the office to submit them for us. So it was just a matter now of sit and wait. Well George re-appeared about 15 minutes later and he had 2 passports in his hands – uh oh. Well it happened to be mine and Manu’s, as we already had visa’s we had to wait in line in person for the customs side of things. So we hopped off the bus and waited in line with all the locals for 50 minutes to get our passports stamped. We had to keep an eye on them though, if you gave them an inch, they would push in, and we would find ourselves 5 people further back in the line. We eventually made it to the top of the queue and we found out why it was taking so long, there was only one person doing the stamping with 2 guys looking on. For heaven’s sake give them a stamp and get us all through sooner. But the visa process is a visa process and if you have attitude, well they could just make it all that much harder for you right. They really hold all the cards. So we rolled with the process and 2 hours and 20 minutes later we were on our way. WELCOME TO MOZAMBIQUE.
The countryside was quite rocky to start with, with outcrops of massive boulders just popping out of the flat plains and then it rolled into the countryside we have been used to seeing, thatched huts, people walking beside the road with their loads of sticks, water and other daily necessities. It is truly amazing firstly how the woman carry what looks like 10-15L of water on their heads, with a small baby strapped to their back and sometimes carrying something in their hands as well. I guess they start at such an early age it is just a habit that comes from that. But it is heart breaking to see small children carrying large containers of water on their heads and most times it is sticks, which I think is used for firewood, but there would be about 100 sticks over a meter long, and 8-10 year olds have these on their heads. Once again, you think of the childhoods, or lack of, these children get, but unfortunately it is a matter of existence and life for them and they know no better. Their families depend on these kids doing what they do and at the end of the day they are just fending for their families.
I wonder what they think of us as we drive through their villages, seeing us looking out of our massive big truck. Do they wonder where we come from, why do we want to visit their country? What do we do for a living? It just made me think today what they think of us and is there a pre-conceived idea of what they have of a white person? Interesting thought and one we will probably never get an answer to!
Lisa ripped out her apple cider liquor for a birthday shot shared between the truck. It’s never too early to consume alcohol, my theory is it midday somewhere in the world, At 1.40pm we crossed a pretty large bridge that crossed the Zambezi River, which flows from Victoria Falls, so it was pretty cool to note that we would be in Vic Falls a little under a week and we were crossing it now so far downstream. No photos allowed and all our passports were scrutinized quite severely before letting us even cross over the bridge – tough but I guess they have their reasons.
So after leaving Malawi at 6am, travelling 80km to the border, 400km through Mozambique, we made it to the other side of Mozambique at 3.40pm. We were quite happy with that and were really hoping that this was a good sign that we were going to crack the record of getting to camp. So we were all ‘thinking positive’ thanks to Jimbob’s perserverance over the last 9 and a half hours! So 4pm rocked around, 5pm rocked around and Jimbob then gave up on the positive vibes, I think some-one may have bopped him one if he had of pushed the point at this time. Come 5.30pm and it was time to exit the truck to stretch the legs. The sun was setting at this point and we were still sitting at the Mozambique border. Dave and I bought a bottle of coke and a bottle of Fanta for 1USD for both. We are starting to get the impression that a lot of things are going to be the going rate of 1USD from what we have seen so far. 6pm rocked around and we finally see sight of George and he has a bunch of passports in the hand, so it finally looks positive so after 2 hours and 20 minutes we were finally back on the road again for a further 20 minutes to get us finally to our camp site at 6.30pm. We stopped briefly for a fuel stop which we put in 242.02L that cost us 307.37USD. Doesn’t seem that bad when you see how big the truck is.
So arriving into our camp site after dark again is nothing new for us anymore. But as we drove into camp, Denis and Marg asked about upgrades and Leese and I just looked at each other and I said, why don’t we upgrade and it can be a birthday present from me to you! It was a chance thing and something we didn’t even discuss beforehand, but made so much sense, so we decided to pay the 60USD, which Leese paid 20 of and I the rest as a present to her and it was the first and probably the last that we will do, but since it is a pretty important occasion it wasn’t too hard to justify! As we move further south, the temperatures at night have really dropped, so arriving at camp at night, it is cooler and a wind blowing it made our decision to upgrade that much easier to accept.
So walking past all the suckers erecting their tents we were shown the way to our accommodation for the night. We have picked an expensive night to upgrade, as they are normally a whole lot cheaper, but we haven’t spent much all trip so we didn’t care. The room was super warm; we had two single beds, a TV with 2 English movie channels, an ensuite with HOT water and plenty of room to repack our backpacks. We had an hour before dinner, so I did some washing, re-packed my bag, watched a J-Lo movie on TV and had a hot shower where I was able to wash my hair and shave my legs in peace and in hot water. It was heaven and 40USD seems a small price to pay for the luxury of it all.
After dinner, Lisa got another Happy Birthday, the third for the day, as we were now in another country and a biscuit cake that we have done for the other 3 birthdays and then it was getting everything washed and packed and then off to our room of luxury for the night! In a ‘normal’ world the accommodation would be lucky to rate a 2 star, but after a tent and it being cold outside this got an easy 4 out of 5 from us. Besides all the above, I had unlimited access to a power point which I made the most of recharging all the gadgets as well. Happy Birthday Lisa. I am not sure there are too many people that have 3 countries and 2 borders to claim as to that is what they did on their 26th birthday. You are a great friend and I hope to celebrate many more birthdays with you in the future.
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