Up until 1975 Lourenço Marques was the largest city in Mozambique. Almost overnight it disappeared from the maps of the region. Its disappearance wasn’t the result of war or pestilence, but that of a name change. As Maputo, the city remains the largest in the country, the capital, and home… Continue reading
Dhow to Kilwa Kisiwani In Mocimboa the sky was cloudless, the sun burning at 9am. Perhaps a reminder I’m slowly creeping back towards the equator. The knock for transport to the frontiera comes at 2.20am. I wasn’t really sleeping anyway. As one of the first to board I’m given a… Continue reading
In the morning half-wakefulness the gubb gubb gubb of the turkeys outside my room sounded like ‘up up up’, meaning ‘north! north! north!’. I head north from Pemba to Quissanga, the next town along the coast. Within a couple of minutes of walking I can see that Quissanga is exactly… Continue reading
Tumbledown island Nampula is not coastal. It is a relatively large town, meaning running water, proper sugared ring doughnuts, and onward connections to Mozambique Island. A large minibus (capacity around 25, today’s capacity about 35) is almost ready to depart, for the morning’s journey. The poverty of the island –… Continue reading
The tar runs into smooth-ish orange clay that’s just beginning to become crennalated not soon after Mocuba. The sun tries to break through the clouds-cum-mist over the vast green of Mozambique in the rains that can’t have changed much in hundreds of years save for the mobile phone masts. We… Continue reading
The unchanged face of Mozambique’s countryside For long distance transport from Imhassoro I’m told I must first go to Maluwane 15km away, less of a town worthy of a name, more of a T junction on the road. At the felled tree trunk that serves as a waiting room I… Continue reading
The Imhambane-Maxixe ferry. The key to speaking Portuguese is your best Sean Connery impersonation. The tent had to be packed away for 5.30 am and the bus to Imhambane. We see much less of the coast then I imagined we would, but when we do its spectacular. Verdant islands just… Continue reading
Mbazwana is heaving when I leave the hotel at 9am: long Monday queues for cash machines, food-laden people pouring out of the supermarket, market stalls set up, the sellers busy attracting buyers. Its much easier then I imagined to get towards the South African border post at Kosi Bay. After… Continue reading