Chimoio, Mozambique
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
We managed to shatter our own record and covered 810km in just over 12 hours. It may not sound like much, but travelling from Senga Bay ,Malawi to Chimoio, Mozambique in one day is no small feat. Unfortunately we weren't able to stick to our golden rule of arriving before sunset, but this was due to a few delays: refuel X 2, border (one hour)- no line-up, it just takes an hour to register your car, buy insurance, and get a visa. We also got traffic tickets X 2. These were not your typical traffic violation tickets, these were special tourist tickets, quite annoying really. The first one was 8USD for failing to have two plastic reflective triangles for emergencies, we only had one. The second one was more annoying and blatantly a "tourist special", 15USD for not having reflective tape on the front and rear bumpers. This while the officers friend drove by with eight people in his small sedan with two infants sitting on the driver and front seat passengers laps. (the fine for no seatbelts is 3USD) We pointed out that we were receiving special treatment and wished him a Happy Freedom Day (a public holiday celebrating the first multi-party elections in 1994)
. These officers were not corrupt, they were isssuing receipts, but they were certainly targeting tourists with trumped up charges. Despite these delays and minor annoyances, we made good time until 3pm when the road after Tete became another stretch of Zambia style potholes. With 300km to go we only managed to cover 60km between 3pm and 4pm. Already knowing there was no way of making it before dark, we hit a stretch of sand/gravel road, luckily it was only 10km. After that it was smooth sailing on tarred roads, except for the bridges: African roads are built with minimal gravel probably because of cost. The roads gradually sink into the earth but the concrete bridges do not. These make for perfect ski jump lift-offs on either side. It's amazing to experience that second of weightlessness and silence as all the road noise diappears when you car leaves the tarmac. Thankfully Nissan 2 handled the landing quite well. All joking aside, when driving in Africa it's very important to slow down while passing through villages as we had a very close call when a small girl ran right into the road in front of us. As darkness set in we followed a truck for the final 50km into Chimoio. There were still hundreds of people walking on the side of the road, and lots of traffic. With no city map and minimal signs and streetlights, we had no idea where we were going. We stumbled upon one of the hotels we were looking for only to find out that they were full (after travelling for 5 months and never making a reservation, this was the first time we were turned away, and of all places!). It took us a while to find the other hotel which happened to be down a dark dirt alley. It was supposed to be the nicest place in town, but arriving after dark it felt more like the twilight zone. But we were glad to be there.
Next stop: Vilankulos
Comments
Where are you?
Are you still with the elephants or have you moved on to mountains and congee?
yo yo
what are your coordinates???? Hope all is well. ciao