August 2011 - Central Mozambique & Isla de Mozambique

We have reached the North of Mozambique after two full days of driving from 5am to 6pm through the central parts of the country.

We have been able to practice pot-hole driving but the roads are still in a very good shape, in some areas better than the ones in the more accessible South due to heavy Chinese investment in a fancy new road network this, at the same time is granting theirs access to Mozambique’s natural resources. Chinese people are the only non-Africans we saw from more than 1800km.
For the first time we needed to stay in a hotel room as there was not campsite around. This made us realise that traveling in Africa on a budget and not-camping is not an option as the accommodation facilities are extremely basic and overpriced, making you miss the well-developed backpacker scene of South Africa.
Two days of solid driving and about 3 full tanks a day blew up our budget; Cruisi has an enormous consumption of petrol which we can only afford by saving on accommodation and staying in one place without moving for at least 2 days after each day of driving. Mozambique’s petrol price on top of that makes things even worse. We knew that Mozambique would be one of the most expensive countries we would be passing through but we had not expected it as pricy as it is.
Driving through central Mozambique was a pleasure, it is very green and people are friendly. We try to stop as often as possible and buy fresh snacks and fruit from the road stalls, this also gives us the opportunity to interact with people because driving in your own vehicle can be fairly isolating.
Our Portuguese is getting better and communication eases day by day.
We reached Isla de Mozambique and have been staying here for 3 days in a lovely camp site just on the beach. We treated ourselves with a small bungalow on the white sand below the palm-trees as it was only 5 Euro more expensive than camping. It could be a proper honeymoon destination if the toilet would be functional and it had a shower nevertheless, it feels like one to us.


It’s been two weeks now without a warm shower (and chocolate! Stocking up on Nutella is essential before heading into Africa).



Isla de Mozambique is a small island only 3.5 km long and 500 meters wide. It was the capital of Mozambique and of East Portuguese Africa; today it is a UNESCO world heritage site due to its colonial architecture from the 1550s and its mixture of cultures.
The Portuguese had strong trading relations with the Middle East and India and this little island blends the three cultures uniquely.
It might be one of the few places where one can find a Muslim-Catholic-Hindu cemetery.

Each corner of the island makes for award-winning pictures, making our principle of trying not to stick out as hard-core tourists running around with a camera very hard.


People are more used to tourists here and have learned to take advantage of their pockets making it from time to time quite tiring to be considered as a moving wallet and expected to hand out whatever is asked for. When a little boy asked us for a pen so that he can go to school we were all too quick to give him the pen we had with us.
Throughout the day we found out that ‘pen’ is the only English word they know and it equals money, because when the soft-hearted tourist does not have a pen for the African child to go to school he will easily give some money.

We learn a lot each day especially about the very fine line between paying a price that is higher than what the locals will pay (call it tourist tax and one feels better about it) and being completely ripped off just because you are white, which is attempted on a regular basis.

For 3 days now we have been recharging our batteries for the next stretch of road which will take us to the Quirimbas Archipelago here in Mozambique and hopefully the opportunity to snorkel with some turtles and then to the border crossing with Tanzania.