What to take, what to leave?

The road has thrown us up at the Tofo peninsula off Inhambabe after an interesting, and adventurous peregrination.

First we blasted out of Pretoria at oh dark thirty, to beat the traffic and to make as many kilometers as we could. Only to discover, after half an hour, that we had forgotten the all-important car papers at home. So we turned back, to the delight, and then dismay of the dogs …

Pietersburg, Magoebaskloof and Tzaneen brought back many memories, and sooner than we had expected we were in Phalaborwa, and into the Kruger Park.

A few kilometers of disappointment was followed by a sighting of a family of giraffes, and then a herd of elephants, urgently going their way on some important elephant business, hurrying through the bush, bypassing the water hole, and grabbing a bite here and there, before disappearing. Near Letaba a magnificent tusker deigned to allow us a photo.

Packing to the dismay of the dogs

Next morning we were at Giriyondo gate at 08h30, and checked through with the assistance of pleasant people, even the Mozambican military, who offered not to let us unpack the car for inspection if we could offer a few beers. Instead we began to untie and unpack, to their dismay, and they sent us on our way.  On the Mozambican side of the park we saw the rare two-headed giraffe, and many cattl, more than outside the park. Can you run a park like this?

Peace and calm on the Letaba river

At Chokwe we stopped to try out our visa cards, and to buy sim-cards, with the promise that they would work in a modem. By early evening we clocked into Xai-xai, which we found rather tumbled-down. The camp site looked nice, but in the absence of any signs of a dive center we decided not to set camp but to take two chalets and to push on north the next day.

A pleasant young lady at a M-cell shop showed us how to configure the modem, and not much further north we saw a sign to Zona Braza, the hot spot.

We decided to spend an hour checking this out. A very nice resort, not expensive, with charming self catering cottages tempted us to spend two days instead! Local fishermen supplied crayfish and red snapper and we were reluctant to leave, but after all the idea was to come diving!

Big tusker posing

Rare two-headed giraffe

We headed for Inhambane, as we had the use of a house at Barra Do Tofo, and we knew that here we would find diving. Inhambane sorted out our last modem glitches, and also delivered our first vehicular contretemps: The Pescador restaurant serves excellent fish, but their parking requires a sharp turn on the beach, and the Cruiser was a little heavy, something that the four wheel drive sorted out. But then the left hand axle lock would not disengage!

Looks comfortable!

Catch of the day

We found the house, the dive center, and the seafood, but tinkering with the axle lock did not deliver many positive results. Se now we will enlist the assistance of Paulinho, and see what we see. 

fishing boats at Tofo