Public Holiday Season Part 3

Terry and I spent Easter weekend on a real African adventure. We loaded the Jeep up once again and set off for a long weekend in Mozambique. Terry had to be in the capital, Maputo for work so we decided to go down early to Ponta d'Ouro for a few days of beach and diving.

Unfortunately for us, on the way down our trusty Jeep's power steering pump called it quits. Through luck, perserverence, and maybe a little help from above we managed to find a mechanic in Ermelo (that's the edge of the middle of nowhere) willing to give up his Good Friday holiday to help us out. After a few patient hours we realized the only way the Jeep was going to manage to continue was if we bypassed the power steering systen, so out came the pump, in went a smaller belt, and with a little use from our biceps we were back on the road!

It would have been a very lovely weekend on the beach but we were treated to a lot of rain during the time we were there and when you are in a tent rain is not your friend... So as much as I enjoyed snorkelling and looking at the fishies and reefs, which was a lot (Terry said he hasn't seen me that giddy in a long time)! I was definitely ready to pack up and head to Maputo on Sunday.

The way to Maputo is what you might call a road on a generous day. Mostly it was soft, deep beach sand that held water in remarkably huge puddles but every now and then we were "treated" to tar road which was more like a continuous series of pot holes with a few pesky bits of road in between to bump you around (see photo). Five hours and 170 kilometers (105 miles) later- do the math on MPH there! we arrived into Maputo and into the arms of a very nice hotel to dry off and shower properly.

Before the civil war, Maputo was one of the nicest resort cities in southern Africa, now 15 years after the war has ended it is still slowly scrapping its way toward recovery and is still a shell shocked remainder of what it had been (see photo of one of the main streets). On the up side the prawns are still good! Since there was no consensus on safety I ended up staying in the hotel for the 3 days we were there while Terry took care of business. (More Mozambique Photos)