We headed on to Pemba, the last major town heading North before the border, and the southern gateway to the Quirimba Archipelago and National park. Again it was just a larger congregation of grass huts, but we felt like we were back in civilisation, sort of. We camped a few kilometres south of town at Russels Place on Wimbe Beach. We met Russel, a nice Aussie guy from the sunshine coast, another expat who came and just never quite made it home. Russel's was in th...

We arrived mid afternoon at the coast and were confronted with the short drive across the 1.5km single lane causeway to the Ihla do Mocambique. The drive was interesting with motorbikes and people scrambling clear of the car, but event-free except for being stung twice for the toll. We could have argued, but although irritating, for 50c it was more hassle than it was worth - and they knew that as well. Ihla do Mozambique, or "Ilia" as it is known to the...

It was another long drive day in order to cover several hundred kilometres to Nampula, but with fewer vehicles on the road since we had crossed the Zambezi, perhaps passing only a handful all day, we were able to dictate our own pace.The impressive drive was extremely scenic and a welcome change from that of the past couple of days. Dotted along the horizon, colossal granite monoliths rose from the forested plains like giant termite hills. Scattered sun showers a...

We made our way back down to the ferry on the same road we had travelled the afternoon before and arrived minutes before we were loaded onto the barge. Strangely, only one of us was allowed in the car and the other 3 of us had to walk onboard, separated with the rest of the foot passengers from the vehicles by an imaginary line that was strictly policed. The Zambezi seemed quite high to us (though we had never seen it before), and there was considerable flow as w...

The journey north was much like those we had done previously with varying road conditions through predominantly lowland plantation forest and agricultural land dotted with giant mango and cashew trees. The highway/dirt track flanked either side by endless arrays of mud-brick and grass hut villages, small agricultural plots and people seemingly wandering about aimlessly in the middle of nowhere. The further north we journeyed, the fewer towns we came across. Those...