A Forgotten Colony |
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A pity, the country Mozambique is really very VERY rich in many diverse resources and natural beauties! It's capital Lorenço Marques was renamed Maputo after independance. I visited the capital as a child.
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The Portuguese established their first base in 1505 and governed the country till independence in 1975 when most of the European patriots fled, since then the country has only seen civil war, droughts, floods and poverty. A pity, because it’s location in the tropics and on the warm ocean current should makes it a tourist paradise! Instead, Mozambique has become the second poorest county in the world after Ethiopia and even behind Somalia. With a per capita GPD of only $1200/annum. HIV 12%, TV sets 5 per 1000 population, the statistics are terrible. The capital Maputo with a population of over a million is apparently sore to the eyes of previous colonialists,little capital available to maintain the infrastructure. Back in 1974 (incidentally the first foreign country I ever visited ) the city was a very bustling active traders market, all that Africa and Portuguese workmanship and expertise could offer, even ship building.
One sunny morning on our camping trip there, dad ordered us into the mini-bus for a special beach outing. We quickly grabbed all the usually gear and needs and embarked on a another exiting day trip in this new world. Passing the harbour we saw a small sign advertising boat trips to Inhiaca Island, an after enquiring we all gave thumbs up enthusiastically and took on dad’s fantastic deal. Inhiaca is and island only about 50 miles off the coast and even visible from Maputo but half way there the waves became larger and larger until the boat seemed hardly to be moving forward! With waves up to 20 feet high our little 40 foot ferry boat bobbed up and down immensely, the horizon disappearing with every wave and walls of water around us seemingly wanting to engulf the boat. We all got horribly sick.....
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[Inhiaca continued] .... it was an hour of horror. Reaching the safe haven of the islands port, no good reception or sight seeing or beaches. It was announced that a cyclone was approaching and that the boat will not return to Maputo for a few days! Because of the advancing danger, the small airport not having hangars ordered four small planes to leave the island and hearing of this our 10 member group boarded various planes in direction mainland, an expensive but quick solution getting off the island. After not even an hours stay we were heading west, this crossing of Delgoa Bay took about 20 minutes. We thus all arrived safely at Maputo’s International Airport all dressed in swimming trunks, wrapped in beach towels, most of us barefoot, dirty and shaken to the bones also looking a bit disorientated!
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One of my first travel photos!
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We headed up the coast a few days later in miserable weather, on poor roads again past Xai-Xai and then eventually just tracks in the direction of a hot tip someone had given us back home. Were not disappointed. The sun came out and we lived in a “Swiss Family Robinson” or “Robinson Crusoe” environment at a lagoon for the next 5 days. Well, we had our equipment, even speed-boat and gas cooking set-up but the place was as it had been for hundreds perhaps thousands of years. We fished and swam and picked fruit and laughed all day. No neighbours, sang loud around campfires and told stories and planned the next day. The nearest electricity, doctor, telephone, radio... a day’s drive away!
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Since we had our camping gear, we cooked ourselves or got readily available take-outs. Fresh fish was on the menu daily and world famous 6 inch LM Prawns with hot peri-peri sauce a regular feast. Delicious roasted cashew nuts, bought kilowise always made good snacking!
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Kruger Park Waterbuck now free to roam three countries!
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“Parque Nacional do Limpopo” is Mozambiques part of the planned „GREAT LIMPOPO TRANFRONTIER PARK“ consisting also of South Africa’s „Kruger National Park“ and Zimbabwe’s „Gonarezhou National Park“ forming a borderless conservation area of 3.3 million hectares - one of the largest wilderness conservation areas in the world.
www.greatlimpopopark.com
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Published on Saturday January 14th, 2006 by rangutan
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