16/1/2011

After making friends with the English girl and Scot couple, they gave us a free lift from Vilanculos down to Tofo! It was a much more bearable ride in a 4x4 and I was in front! Gregor was a top Scottish chap living in Newcastle and was good company whilst I had a numb bum for four-and-a-half hours.

As we left our accommodation Baobab this morning, we paid our bill but the woman tried to overcharge us, or the guy who served me the night before. He'd tried to write down two bottles of water and a lime cordial when I had two limes and a water when it was the other way around and there was a significant difference in the price! Also, I wasn't paying for the water because he told me he couldn't be bothered to go and fetch tap water so he offered me bottled and I said: "as long as its free". See what I mean about stitching you up? I was stubborn the next morning and refused to pay for the stuff I hadn't had, and the water, much to the woman's disappointment.

The road to Tofo/Inhambane was remarkable. Their was coconut/palm tree forest everywhere. There were piles of stacked coconut shells all over the roadside and many locals flogging mangoes. Eve and Joe decided to buy two buckets of mangoes because they love them so, and this cost them £1.40. For that they had 70 mangoes. Crazy. The kids they bought them from loved the fact I was taking a photo and posed, so I gave them the scraps of the crisps we'd been eating which they were very grateful of.

At Tofo we stayed at Bamboozi backpackers which was stunning. Our dorm was different, a round room, completely open with windows behing every bed because of the heat. And there was just one old Dutch guy sharing the room with us. He gave us bad news that there had hardly been a sighting of a Whale shark in the area recently and that was the only reason we came. The rest of the place was nice with catering areas, cheap washing available, restaurant/bar overlooking sea on top of the giant sand dunes and a delicate little pool to cool-off.

We trotted along the beach which was another beauty, and ate some food at Dino's bar. Spicy chicken strip burgers were tasty! Popped back to the camp for a wash and returned to watch Spurs' 0-0 draw with United. We definitely deserved to win that game! For tea, our Scot and English friends joined and we ate a crammed pitta bread full of salad, humous, chicken and veg. Got chatting to an STA travelling guy from Norwich with his Swedish bird, he was saying he'd give me a reference because it sounds like you can get a decent job with those guys if you have been travelling!