13/1/2011

Check-in at 3am on the bus turned out to be five as seen as they were cleaning and refuelling following the previous trip. Passed the time catching mosquitoes and playing cards on the pavement.

On the bus, infested by mosquitoes as all the doors were open in the dark, we were greeted by a freebee juice and biscuits. We slept on and off until the bus needed some repair and stopped in some village. The driver got down to business whilst I bartered 10p for a few bananas and the same amount for a few baked dough goodies. Cans of Fanta however I couldn't haggle, so had to succumb to the extortionate price of 50p!

Outside our bus was some begging little turd, who kept making the most piercing annoying "eh" sound to try and persuade people! It was really annoying me as all these other kids were selling food or actually doing something and this little docker* was just being a pain in the rear!

At Quelimane, we got lucky and the conductor lady squeezed us on so that we could get all the way to the next big city of Beira.

It was another on-off sleep journey, admiring some delightful scenery including the Zambezi river. Randomly though at some service station, we saw the Portuguese guy who I had been serving tonnes of drink at Nacala! He remembered his trustee waiter! All the blacks bought chicken and chips but we didn't notice until we got back on the bus because we thought they had all come in the shop! Gutted for me as I splashed out like £4 on bloody raisins! I think they were supposed to be for cooking but I was starving!

We arrived in Beira (Mozam's second largest city, Nampula is third) at night and managed to buy a ticket to get all the way to Vilanculos so we managed to do well with the travel, especially for comfort even if not the price. We saved on a night's accommodation by waiting at the station for a few hours before the next bus, sitting on breeze blocks playing cards and trying to cover up from mozzys whilst our stuff was locked in the station for two hours. We were on the next bus by 5am.