Pedalling through Mozambique – Keeping back emotion and steering ahead.

Posted on 9 May 2009

We reached the Inhambane ferry and along came Captain John. Within no time the Captain was spinning us a story how the bikes will cost us 350Mts each to cross to Maxixe.

Marc, to all our surprise, fluently cut our Captain down to 90Mts each. My parents, myself and Kacy stood gob smacked as Marc negotiated in Portuguese.

In true Chris deBurgh style he would only pay the ferryman once he got us to the otherside.

The bikes were carried over the water into the wooden dhow, while the stern man bailed out buckets of water from its bilge. A continuous bailing until we hit dry land in Maxixe.

With all loaded it was time to say our goodbyes once again to parents and friends. It has never been so hard to say goodbye to my parents. For the first time in my life I had to hold my composure and put on a brave front while my stomach twisted with emotion.

It was the hug from my mom that almost cracked me. It was so strong and heartfelt that the goodbye to my father was brief but by the confirming nod and wink he sent me, I knew he understood.

I boarded the dhow with Marc giving me joking smile saying he won’t tell anyone if I cry. We laughed as the sails were set and we waved our goodbyes.

We were back on the road, heading north to Kilimanjaro with a rejuvenated motivation, we had to reach Kili before all the snow melts!

Once we reached Morrungulo we were shattered. Thankfully we had a place to head for. Silvia Shoal is a magnificent beach resort owned by fellow St Francis Bay locals, Mickey and Merle Peens. Uncle Mickey insisted we stop over there three months before we even left St Francis.

To our surprise another community mother was on her last night at Silvia Shoal. Gene Mack has looked after all us beach rats since we could order a Ma burger, the secret burger only Gene can make!

“JoobieJoobs!” was all I needed to hear and I was suddenly back in St Francis. Hugs and kisses and in true Gene style a fat plate of food in front of you before you can protest. Not that protesting was on the menu anyway.

Marc and I sat catching up with Gene and were sad to hear that she was off early the next morning to catch a flight from Vilanculos. We woke up early to the dripping of water and dull rumble of thunder in the distance.

That was not part of the game plan, but luckily we were not camping. We said our goodbyes to Gene and spent our day organizing our water and made use of the available electricity to charge our gadgets and treat ourselves to a movie on the computer. It can be tough in Africa!

The following day we managed to get a lift back to the main road with our neighbour, Mr Nel, from Zimbabwe. He offered to save us the muddy struggle.

Our stay at Morrungulo was greatly appreciated and many thanks to the Peens’, Gene and Alberto for their contribution in helping us further to reach our goal in aid of Sea Rescue.






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