Dec. 5, 2012 Still no rain in (South) Africa!

We didn’t feel like following the big treck of trucks and tourists to the Ziambabwe/South Africa Border at Beitbridge and looked at the map for an alternative route. Why not go north into the hills and look at a very different landscape? Yes, there is tea and coffee growing in Zimbabwe; we drove into the Honde Valley and found the Aberfoyle Golf and Country Lodge in the middle of green tea bushes.  It looks like out a 1960s film setting and we were the only guests. The staff was busy to get the lodge and the golf course ready for the Christmas holiday crowd, nature lovers and their kids; there isn’t much else to do. In Mutare, close to the border to Mozambique, our car needed some TLC – new shock absorbers after only 40 000 km, but what “roads” through Namibia and Botswana!
Border crossing into Mozambique was time consuming and expensive, 75 US $ for a single entry visa per person and no ATM to pull Mozambique money, the Meticais. Two cans of cold beer from our fridge worked magic and we got through the process in only 2 hours. Our Spanish language courses didn’t help much, but most young people along the coast speak English, so we managed ok. After 2 days of driving we stopped at the beach in Vilankulos and were speechless – white sand, palm trees and the Indian Ocean a most wonderful turquoise blue!!   And hardly any tourists, the main source of income after fishing for the locals  - “CARE”, the world wide operating NGO is just pulling out of this area of Mozambique, leaving ca 600 people without jobs or future prospects in Vilankulos alone– the projects stop working without the CARE-coordinators. We came to Mozambique for some scuba diving and found a hotel with dive center in Barra Point just north of Inhambane. Scuba diving was good, but not very good, compared to the Red Sea or the Great Barrier Reef. Big Trawlers from China and other countries compete with the local fishers who in return go fishing just off shore and sadly enough damage the coral reefs. We liked it nevertheless, but I will pack my sea sickness pills with mask and snorkel next time I’ll go diving.
Driving through Mozambique is like a big drive-in shopping center – everything get’s sold along the road side: from charcoal to cashew nuts, from Baobab-fiber brooms to colorful sarong fabrics, fruit, veggies, ice cold drinks offered through the car window, the very moment a minibus or car stops in a little village.   I admired the fabrics which the women use as skirts or to tie their babies onto their backs and finally found a shop – an Indian shop in Inhambane selling cooking pots or cigarettes or fabrics – whatever else you might need that day. The many hours we spent on the road gave us enough time to compare Zimbabwe to Mozambique. Both countries are very poor and still suffer from political changes. Whatever is left from the time before the civil war is standing empty or beyond repair and in Moz. the National Parks are empty – the animals killed for food. But in Zimbabwe people keep their houses, their kraals and their streets clean and the kids go to school wearing school uniform (although they cost too much for many families). The Zimbabweans we met believe in change to the better, may be as soon as 2013 after the next election – the obvious corruption and mismanagement is bothering large parts of the population.  Mozambique seems much more neglected, people busy with surviving. i.e. it really worried me to see young kids going to and fro the water pump, carrying lots of weight on their heads, on their shoulders, helping with farm work while they should be attending school. In addition the environment in Moz. visibly suffers. Over hundreds of kilometers the trees on both sides of the road get cut and charcoal is produced. Apparently charcoal still is the main source of energy and it sold in big bags everywhere along the road.
  We drove on towards South Africa and became part of a long line of trucks coming and going to Maputo Port. We were lucky, late morning seems to be the best time to cross this big and chaotic city – only 1 hour through yet another street market selling everything from truck tyres to iphones to freshly cooked chicken curry, while the vendors sit in the sand and garbage. When we crossed the border just south of Kruger NP we just starred at the green banana and citrus fields and enjoyed one hour of food shopping at the Nelspriut SPAR Supermarket – yes, even Stefan, who normally hates shopping malls. In MOZ we learned to do with what was available: tomatoes, onions, potatoes and lots of mango just off the tree at the road side, but fresh fish too. 
So for the last 2 weeks we treat ourselves to the world inside the  Kruger NP – a safe haven in a changing Republic of South Africa; (photo-)hunting for the BIG FIVE(= Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhinoceros).