Tuesday 15 June Bobolo to Inhassoro

Tuesday was another long and interesting day. The sunrise in Bobolo was magnificent and we climbed into the car with great expectations - only to find the battery was dead! We had left the small mobi cool box plugged in overnight. Thank goodness for the graciousness of Paul who brought his bakkie round to charge our battery.

The trip up to Xai Xai was comfortable and we enjoyed the scenery along the way. The town itself it pretty with an obvious Portuguese influence in the architecture. The streets are clean with very little litter. It's one thing that has that has struck me so far is that the towns are not as littered as they are in South Africa.

Just before leaving the town we stopped for a short break and then we hit the roadworks. The good thing about roadworks is that something is being done about the state of the roads - thanks to the Chinese who are trading infrastructure upgrades for natural resources. The construction slowed us down but things still went smoothly.

It took us until sunset to reach Inhassoro. There were times when we were able to travel fairly fast but one has to be very careful of the 60kph speed limits wherever there is a town/ settlement. That is where the traffic cops are likely to jump out and hand over a ticket. Again the roads are litter free even though there is a huge number of people living along the main road. There is seldom just open, unoccupied countryside. People go about their business and try to sell whatever they produce. Cashew nuts, banana, pawpaws, cabbages.....

As a teacher the school children impressed me. From very small they are walking in an orderly fashion on the side of the road, facing the traffic. The schools I saw were well kept, freshly painted with clean surroundings. By the end of the day we worked out that they must run a platoon system with some children going to school in the morning and some in the afternoon. There certainly appears to be a commitment to education.

The worst part of the day was the roadworks closer to Inhassoro. They are completely reconstructing the heavily pot holed road and for 50km one travels on sandy tracks at the side of the main road. At least it's one way each side and providing one doesn't get behind a slow moving vehicle one can travel at a reasonable speed  (60kph). It's just red dust flying everywhere but the alternative is to stay on the road and risk falling into one of the deep potholes/dongas. Eish!!!

And so to Inhassoro where we stayed at the Dugong lodge. The accommodation was good and the food delicious. The only other guests were a group of bikers but they did their own thing in the bar. Once we fell into bed at the late hour of 8pm we both just "died". A satisfactory end to an interesting day.

I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised by Moz. We had heard about road blocks and aggressive cops but apart from the speeding fine we were only stopped once by a very pleasant female cop who I think was just interested to know where we were going. She did tell me I should learn Portuguese if I am visiting Moz. Yes, I agree - but for two days all we've learnt to say is "Obrigardo". Thank you to the people of Moz for a great trip so far. It really is a beautiful country.