Another installment from our african picture series: Mozambique.

We were expecting a lot of hassle, not to mention corruption when entering Mozambique. Especially at the rarly used northern border near Mandimba where virtually no tourist ever pass. We had read and heard about people being fined for silly things like broken headlights which were not broken. When this was pointed out, the police officer quickly smashed them with a baton and demanded payment... Luckily things have changed for the better in this previously conflict torn country and government officials have been nothing but helpfull towards us. The biggest problem at the border was the language barrier as people here speak Portugees (which we don't!) and few speak much english. It wasn't a big problem though and after filling out some forms and letting a customs officer look in through the back door, we drove on from Mandimba. It was a reasonably good dirt road down to Cuamba where we planned to spend the night. Upon arriving there we soon found out that the only place to park our car and put up the tent was in the backyard of "Pensao Sao Miguel", a small bar/restaurant with a few rooms in the back. It seemed that the rooms were mostly used on an hourly basis by some of the local ladys. The backyard was a mix of kitchen and washing area with a little space for our car. When we were finally able to communicate to them that we wanted to sleep in the car, not a room, it turned out that they would let us do so for free if we had some food in the restaurant. This suited us fine as we were too tired to cook anyway! We had spicy chicken which gave our jaw muscles a good workout, but the taste was at least good and then went for a walk around town until it got dark. There isn't much of interest in Cuamba. It's more of a town where you stop over on the way to somewhere else. The people are very friendly though and it was the first place we could buy diesel after leaving Malawi.

The guys who came to work in the kitchen the next morning were quite suprised to find us sleeping there!

A decent northern Mozambique track from Cuamba out to the coast.