TechZati

December 25, 1996 – Christmas Day

Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe. Meaning “the place of the elephants” in the southeast corner of Zim. I saw my 1st African elephant.

It all started back in Mozambique.  After leaving Xai Xai, I went to Inhambane.  This is a fantastic little town up north.  Walking around, I was greeted in regular Portuguese style with kids coming up to me – so I thought – to beg for money.  As it happened this kid wanted me to stay at his house, a little reed hut.  I thought – my luck is too good to be true…but then I got kicked out when his father came home.

No worries.  I ended up getting a ride to one of the “praia’s” beaches.  I first went to Tofu.  Beautiful-but not a whole lot to do. I met some South Africans on holiday and ended up getting organized to go diving in Praia do Barra the next day.  These guys were SCUBA fiends…and laywers.  We got sorted with this guy who was just starting a dive company.  Diving in the ocean is a thousand times different than in a saltwater lake.  Fantastic!  The fish were amazing.  I stayed behind at the dive shop for about 2 days.  (I’ll you what, snobby South Africans on holiday  SUCK!).   Here I am thinking I’m in remote Mozambique and around me are hundreds of SA’s on vacation – ah well.

Taking a dhow across to Maxixe, I got sorted on a bus to Vilanculos.  Excellent also, but I got tired of the beach life.  I took another dhow from there to Margenque Islands (sp?), part of the Bazaruto Archipelago.

I met a German traveler. Actually I met him in Inhambane.  Anyway we traveled up to Beira together (a hellish 12 hour bus ride!). We spent the night there. A couple of random thoughts -  you get to the point where you can suss out a city in a few hours.  It’s really strange all the Mozambique girls thought hot stuff.  People pointed out to me, girls flirted obviously and the general attitude towards me was quite different from the way they reacted to other guys.  Definitely a different feeling.

I was supposed to catch the 12:00 bus to Mutare, but working on Mozambique time, I didn’t get on a bus til 4:00 in the morning. Sleeping in a bus station is becoming second nature.

I got a ride to Mutare and found my way to the hostel.  Getting there, I tried to figure out how to get to the Okavango Delta.  Marcus – German traveler – talked me into going.  So I decided I wanted to get there for New Year’s (1996-1997).  We ended up parting ways, I ended up meeting this Aussie gal Lisa and we somehow ended up going to Chimanimani National park.  She had just gotten out of Mozambique also.  Sick of her friends, we ended up hitching partway to the park and catching a bus the rest.

Getting to Heaven’s Lodge, we organized a couple of days camping in the park.  So it was the most exercise I’ve had since I got to Africa.  Lisa is a hilarious travel companion.  We basically hiked a hell of a lot in 2 days and covered the park.  Although trails are clearly marked, we still got lost a couple of times.  Side note-also, the map in the Lonely Planet guide is NOT to scale!.  The banana route is MUCH longer than it looks..and there are deadly green mambas on the trail.

Getting back to Heaven Lodge were both sort of – not sort of – but extremely stuffed (dead tired).  We sat down, had few Boulies (Bollinger beers) and met these other 2 blokes from Durban.  And thus the story.  Inviting us to come along, we piled into the care and here we are in Zimbabwe.

December 10, 1996

All the stories about people asking you to stay the night with them has finally happened to me.  Originally, I was going to go to Praia do Biline.  After buying the tickets – these 3rd world bus lines are hell – I got on the bus. Jumping off (after making the driver stop twice), I grabbed my kit.  Here I was in the middle of a town where nobody spoke English.  Well crap – it’s what I always wanted.  Taking the first road into town, village, country, farm community – whatever it was – it started raining.  Right in front of me was a store with a veranda.  I stepped under it and tried to figure out where the hell I was.  This was NOT Bilene like I was led to believe.

It was strange, people stared at me and they didn’t even look away when I looked back at them.  Sign language is definitely helpful.  I got directions (I thought) to a hotel. Silly me…so, walking up the road I saw a couple of South Africans who were headed up to Xai Xai…so here I am – sort of.

After driving into Xai Xai I still had to find my way to the Praia (beach).  We found the road and I started walking.  It was about 10 KM’s. Hitching is harder in Mozambique due to the fact there are fewer cars. After walking for a time – no luck hitching – I walked past a man waiting on the side of the road.  He asked (in Portuguese) where I was going.  Fortunately, I could comprehend (sort of) and I told him the beach.  He spoke a little English.  He invited me to stay – and that’s how I got to stay with a local.

Broken windows and no electricity

I’m watching my first real Moz sunset and it is fabulous!

Almost forgot, yesterday in Maputo – cruising around – I had a much more fulfilling time than in most of South Africa. We went to the bazaar and had dinner. It was great.  It was the “real” Africa.  I think the most difficult part of travelling so far is when you get to a place – what do you do?  It’s sort of the concept that the journey is the most important part of life, not the gal at the end.

What I figured was that traveling is NOT about seeing animals, it’s really about getting culture.  The only way to do that is to step out of that funny thing we call “security” and go crazy!  Thus far, I’ve really gained a sense of that.  I mean beaches are beautiful, but after 1000 or so the start to look the same.  I have to look back into my line of thought where I’m here to “see” all there is to see and do all I can do – not going there and doing nothing.