20/12/2010

Jack was up at crazy o'clock whereas I was up at 8 following a monster rest! Only downer was, no mosquito nets here meant that I got completely demolished by Nampula's resident biters! The doors and windows had nets but you really do have to have a net over your bed to limit the b*****s as much as possible.

It seemed like we had brought the rain with us from Malawi as we witnessed torrential downpours whilst eating egg, chips and cheese on toast at the Indian place.

There were lots of big 4x4s driving past and other nice cars mainly driven by people of Indian descent. They've obviously made a killing out here. In Malawi however, our friend Innocent was saying how the blacks were not fond of the Asians at all and that they are all greedy! On our last night we saw a local Malawian kick-off at an Indian guy. They have beef!

Anyways, me and Jack found a fairly comfortable mode of transport from Nampula to Nacala. The only negatives were that we had to sit for four hours and with all our travel bags on our laps as they wanted to charge us double as our bags would be taking up two seats! Sod that I said, we'll squish ourselves in!

We didn't want to take any chances getting cramped next to locals so we shotgunned the front two seats with all our bags, listening to Jacko's iPod all the way to Nacala.

It was another scenic route and this time with less stops (but still mobbed at villages by mango and banana salesmen) and a tarmac road! We had a packet of biccies for 20p to keep us occupied.

In Nacala, none of the Portuguese-speaking locals knew Libelula where we were supposed to be working. Dozens of motorbike taxis tried to persuade us they did and after following us whilst we walked down the road, one guy took us to a phone credit boy so we could use his phone to ring our prospective employers! It did the job and the guy whizzed us to Libelula.

Ian Kingsley was there to give us a lift down the dirt road to his rustic accommodation and dive centre where we settled in very quickly.

It really was a beautiful location. Out in the sticks, well-looked after, overlooking the bay, scorching sunshine, palm trees, pool, camping area, restaurantand six delightful A-frames made of wood. If that wasn't enough, the 200 steps down to their own private beach with the Dive shop (where Martijn was sleeping and occupying), they have 150x350 metres of unspoiled reserve where the fishermen are banned from using.

Our first evening, they welcomed us in with a beer or two and we went for a snorkel in the reserve. Wearing giant extra large fins and goggles, we came across dozens of species of stunning tropical fish all surrounding the pinnacles of coral.

After that, they put us into the empty dorms and made us spag-bol for tea.