South Africa trip recap part 1

Going down to South Africa from Nampula is something of a trek. Three days of straight driving just to get to the border. It’s a little bit of an understatement to say that Nampula is a little remote and Africa is kind of big. Who would be foolish enough to try something like that?

Somebody with a car like this.

That beast of a Land Rover belongs to my friend Jon, who invited me down on his trip to South Africa. He claims it was to get some company and show me a bit of Africa. I can’t imagine why he’d need company. The drive itself wasn't exactly boring.

Uhh, it wasn't exactly interesting either…

The first time it got interesting is when we got about half a day away and crossed a bridge on a bridge. A temporary bridge had been placed on the real bridge because one of the supports in the middle gave away, so this distributes the weight to the other pillars. But its only a temporary bridge. A temporary bridge that’s been here as long as Jon has lived in Mozambique.

That’s 8 years and counting!

Jon brought his son Isaac along on the trip. Isaac was too scared to drive across the bridge so we walked across together and waited for his dad to cross in “grover” the Land Rover.

Another interesting moment came when we drove out of the tropics. There was a sign and everything that marked the Tropic of Capricorn. The sign going our direction was about a kilometer away from the sign going the other way. Both were different than our GPS. That area is also reportedly home to the worlds largest coconut grove.

I’m also guessing its where they filmed “Gilligan’s Island”, because those guys used a LOT of coconuts.

Another interesting moment came when we made a gas stop the next morning and found that our traveling buddy, Dan, had some bananas on the top of his car that had been there well over four hours of drive time.

No comment, I just find that hilarious.

One day, we hit a tiny little town and stopped for lunch. We saw a sign telling us to go the the Pousada Azul (Blue Hotel). It was very hard to find, apparently because the hotel had just been painted. The food turned out to be decent.

And yes, we complained to the management that they need to change the name to the Green Hotel.

The only real hazard we encountered was with wild animals. Okay, I take that back, they’re not very wild, they’re just FREE RANGE COWS. We passed probably 15 herds of cows in the southernmost part of the country. This one got the closest to goring us.

It was a 4-wheel-drive cattle drive.

You just need to tell yourself they are more scared of you than you are scared of them.

Jon did not agree with me.

And Isaac, who when we saw one goat and one cow the first day of the trip and was so excited he had to phone home to his mom right then and there comfortably enjoyed everything from the luxury of his booster seat. Fast asleep.