We got up on Wednesday morning and it was cold and overcast. A cold front had blown in from the Cape and we were in for a few shitty Dublin style days. We were on the beach though and the water was still warm so we decided to just grin and bear it for the day and discuss our options that night. It was an energy filled day and I went for a long run on the beach and did a lot of swimming and body surfing.
We headed for dinner that night and made a plan for the next few days. Some of the group wanted to head for the border which would be the easy route. I was for that strategy on the first morning but with the aid of a few days of chilling I wanted to conquer the sand and give it a go at breaking back out of Ponta D’ouro. We eventually decided to give it a go and headed North. We asked a few African lads at the camp site if they minded escorting us as far as the dirt roads. They agreed and we set off. We let a good bit of air out of the tyres and I was adamant that I was gonna stop for nothing. We were going great guns until the lads in front slowed down to much and we lost momentum. We ended up getting stuck and had to start pushing. It was completely freaky as the next thing out of nowhere the guy from the first night turned up looking for his rope. It was mad, we were 5 klicks out of the town and he just turns up as we get stuck. At this stage we told him we were alright but he wanted his rope so we gave “Dumber,” the rope back and kept going. It didn’t do his popularity any good when we heard the first morning that the he had told his boss that we didn’t pay him the night we got pulled out of the sand. The little scammer pretended he no hav any englis!! when we confronted him about it. He knew the game was up fairly quick. After getting lost about 5 times and nearly blowing the engine in poor auld “Fixer,” we got to the dirt road. Boy was I happy to see some kind of solid road. We ended up kissing the ground like the Pope. We were relieved!
We bowled along after that at a good click and then we came to a Police checkpoint. I knew we were gonna be scammed the moment the cop stepped into the road. He was looking for a kickback like all the rest of the cops we ran into in the country. They target tourists because they know we carry a bit of money. I guess we’re easy targets but it was more a case of pay the fine and move along and not waste some of your time down the cop shop. “You must pay for your freedom,” he kept saying!
On all our trips we have a dickhead of the day comment prize and the last trip I went on the “special one,” my roommate cleaned up but Danielle did all of the cleaning this time. There were numerous dumb American moments but the best one was when she asked Kev to divide 1000 by 4 in his head and he gave the answer as 250. She replies and I quote “Wow! how did you do that in your head?” She then proceeded to ask him to divide 6000 by 6 and got her calculator out! “I was never good at Maths in school,” she says. Enough said!
We got to Maputo the capital of Mozzie without much of a problem and found the hostel. After paying another fine for pulling an illegal U-turn (As if I would!) we settled in for the night and had a few drinks. The Backpackers was pretty dirty and the mossies were everywhere. They were worse here than at the beach but I drowned myself with mossiie spray and let them do their worst. We decided to go out that evening and we met a couple of English lads who run a dive company a little bit further along the coast. They advised us to visit a couple of bars so we took off for them. We went to a Blues bar first (Rourkey would have loved it) and then went to a nightclub. The place was full of NGO staff and we had a great night. Mind you the ringing in my ears didn't stop for a couple of days after!
Myself and James headed out in the morning to check out some markets and we hit the fish market and food market downtown which was quite cool. It was full of very colourful merchandise from wooden ornaments to exotic fruit and lots and lots of fish. I began to feel a little queasy after a while in this section and we moved on! We didn’t get any hassles here and we had a good morning. The other guys went somewhere else and they got out of the taxi back at the hostel raging. They had been hassled by the cops again. Great fun!
We had talked about running into some of the people at college on our trip and I didn’t want to run into my room mate “Special One,” the most. He was off to the North of Mozambique and I thought it was safe enough to assume he either didn’t make it on his own over here or he was back in college. I assumed wrong and I suppose to an extent I was surprised and have to give him a bit more respect for being able to deal with travelling on his own. He came into the room in the hostel just after I had woken up from a snooze and I genuinely thought I was hallucinating. This dopey fucker with his stupid hat down the end of my bed! Then he shook the bed and I knew I wasn’t dreaming! Luckily I had a good book to read and then we went out after for our dinner. It meant he didn’t annoy me too much.
We did it all again that night but not to the same extent with the notion that we were getting out of Maputo the next day. We headed to a nice Thai restaurant and Dee decided she needed money but the ATM swallowed her card! She hasn’t had a good run with that but luckily we picked it up from the bank the next day. The Thai was excellent and cheap as chips! It was funny because we sat in a corner of the place and I hear this accent behind me. I kind of ignored it and Kev the Scot goes that the guy is Irish. After a second I realize he’s speaking with a bit of a mix of an Irish brogue with something else. I overheard him talking about Waterford and their chance in the All Ireland Hurling final and I was just thinking how small the World really is!
We headed back over the border without any hassle and we all felt like we were coming home when we got to Kruger and then on to the Wildlife college.
The end of an adventure. I’ll be back but I doubt the rest of the guys will!
We headed for dinner that night and made a plan for the next few days. Some of the group wanted to head for the border which would be the easy route. I was for that strategy on the first morning but with the aid of a few days of chilling I wanted to conquer the sand and give it a go at breaking back out of Ponta D’ouro. We eventually decided to give it a go and headed North. We asked a few African lads at the camp site if they minded escorting us as far as the dirt roads. They agreed and we set off. We let a good bit of air out of the tyres and I was adamant that I was gonna stop for nothing. We were going great guns until the lads in front slowed down to much and we lost momentum. We ended up getting stuck and had to start pushing. It was completely freaky as the next thing out of nowhere the guy from the first night turned up looking for his rope. It was mad, we were 5 klicks out of the town and he just turns up as we get stuck. At this stage we told him we were alright but he wanted his rope so we gave “Dumber,” the rope back and kept going. It didn’t do his popularity any good when we heard the first morning that the he had told his boss that we didn’t pay him the night we got pulled out of the sand. The little scammer pretended he no hav any englis!! when we confronted him about it. He knew the game was up fairly quick. After getting lost about 5 times and nearly blowing the engine in poor auld “Fixer,” we got to the dirt road. Boy was I happy to see some kind of solid road. We ended up kissing the ground like the Pope. We were relieved!
We bowled along after that at a good click and then we came to a Police checkpoint. I knew we were gonna be scammed the moment the cop stepped into the road. He was looking for a kickback like all the rest of the cops we ran into in the country. They target tourists because they know we carry a bit of money. I guess we’re easy targets but it was more a case of pay the fine and move along and not waste some of your time down the cop shop. “You must pay for your freedom,” he kept saying!
On all our trips we have a dickhead of the day comment prize and the last trip I went on the “special one,” my roommate cleaned up but Danielle did all of the cleaning this time. There were numerous dumb American moments but the best one was when she asked Kev to divide 1000 by 4 in his head and he gave the answer as 250. She replies and I quote “Wow! how did you do that in your head?” She then proceeded to ask him to divide 6000 by 6 and got her calculator out! “I was never good at Maths in school,” she says. Enough said!
We got to Maputo the capital of Mozzie without much of a problem and found the hostel. After paying another fine for pulling an illegal U-turn (As if I would!) we settled in for the night and had a few drinks. The Backpackers was pretty dirty and the mossies were everywhere. They were worse here than at the beach but I drowned myself with mossiie spray and let them do their worst. We decided to go out that evening and we met a couple of English lads who run a dive company a little bit further along the coast. They advised us to visit a couple of bars so we took off for them. We went to a Blues bar first (Rourkey would have loved it) and then went to a nightclub. The place was full of NGO staff and we had a great night. Mind you the ringing in my ears didn't stop for a couple of days after!
Myself and James headed out in the morning to check out some markets and we hit the fish market and food market downtown which was quite cool. It was full of very colourful merchandise from wooden ornaments to exotic fruit and lots and lots of fish. I began to feel a little queasy after a while in this section and we moved on! We didn’t get any hassles here and we had a good morning. The other guys went somewhere else and they got out of the taxi back at the hostel raging. They had been hassled by the cops again. Great fun!
We had talked about running into some of the people at college on our trip and I didn’t want to run into my room mate “Special One,” the most. He was off to the North of Mozambique and I thought it was safe enough to assume he either didn’t make it on his own over here or he was back in college. I assumed wrong and I suppose to an extent I was surprised and have to give him a bit more respect for being able to deal with travelling on his own. He came into the room in the hostel just after I had woken up from a snooze and I genuinely thought I was hallucinating. This dopey fucker with his stupid hat down the end of my bed! Then he shook the bed and I knew I wasn’t dreaming! Luckily I had a good book to read and then we went out after for our dinner. It meant he didn’t annoy me too much.
We did it all again that night but not to the same extent with the notion that we were getting out of Maputo the next day. We headed to a nice Thai restaurant and Dee decided she needed money but the ATM swallowed her card! She hasn’t had a good run with that but luckily we picked it up from the bank the next day. The Thai was excellent and cheap as chips! It was funny because we sat in a corner of the place and I hear this accent behind me. I kind of ignored it and Kev the Scot goes that the guy is Irish. After a second I realize he’s speaking with a bit of a mix of an Irish brogue with something else. I overheard him talking about Waterford and their chance in the All Ireland Hurling final and I was just thinking how small the World really is!
We headed back over the border without any hassle and we all felt like we were coming home when we got to Kruger and then on to the Wildlife college.
The end of an adventure. I’ll be back but I doubt the rest of the guys will!
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