Back to beautiful S. A

14/08/10

Sitting outside on a veranda with a private garden in the corner of a beautiful sprawling Italian style villa farmhouse. The sun is going down, the crickets are singing, and there's a lovely smokey smell coming from our freshly lit braai. Being back in South Africa is such a relief after the frustrations of Mozambique. The weather failed to changed and we didn't have the time or the patience to wait it out. It became depressing sitting around and not being able to go out. There was so much to see out there, the ocean was just too rough to go out.

After the slightly terrifying journey up to Tofu with our two French friends, who became our very entertaining campsite neighbours for 4 nights, we decided to catch the organized tourist shuttle that runs between Fatima's Tofu and Fatima's Maputo. We paid a lot more to go on this bus than the local chappas, but thought it worth it to have a little more space and comfort for the 8 hour journey. We had to get up at 3.30 am to catch the 4.00 bus. There were so many people waiting I thought they must have overbooked. Obviously not as everyone was squeezed on, some riding on top of the huge amount of tourist luggage. They had a person on every seat and each person had a big bag. Picture this and you'll work out this is not going to leave much space or comfort options. It was so disheartening to see how money grabbing the backpackers could be. Sadly it seems to be standard in Mozambique.

After our experience of Maputo Backpackers we decided to splash out and stay in the Ibis. At the backpackers we paid $40 for the both of us to stay in a dorm. At the Ibis we paid $65 for a double with bathroom and breakfast. Sounds like a deal right? Our room was on the eighth floor and soon after we arrived the lifts stopped working. Our key card wouldn't work and it took 4 requests to get a replacement. Our room was set up as a single. When we went down for breakfast the only thing there was cereal, without milk, ham and cheese, without bread, fruit juice but no coffee. We were then told to hike back up to our room and get our bags as no one was willing to go and get them without the lifts working. The ultimate annoyance was that the lift engineers were all taking their time waiting for the breakfast as it slowly emerged from the kitchen. Excluding the hotel, the food in Mozambique is amazing. It's just finding a stress free sleep that seems impossible.

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Just crossing the border into S.A, what a relief. When we go back to Mozambique, as we must, we'll need to be a little more prepared for all the challenges.

Back in S.A we picked up a car from Nelspruit and drove through the Drakkensberg Escarpment to Graskop. We stayed in a beautiful backpackers called Valley View. This welcoming place is run by Andrew, a young guy with such constant frenetic energy he appears to bounce like Tigger. At Valley View we got a unit with bathroom, kitchen, double room, bunk bed room and our own sun deck all for the same price of the dorm in Maputo... not to keep bringing it up or anything. From Graskop we went on a day trip up to God's Window, Blyde River Canyon and the Three Rondhavels.