No power this morning. I open the back door to find the housekeeper waiting for us to wake up, and a chap painting the well, who sees me looking forlornly at the fusebox and says ‘power at ten’, which a big grin. Whether this is knowledge of power company schedules or simply blind faith, who knows. I guess we find out at 10 o’clock.

Ten o’clock rolls around with no power. We heat some water on the gas stove for washing, and head for Tofo in the car in the afternoon. I’m quite keen to get behind the wheel and try out the road during the day when I can see what I’m doing. First stop is Inhambane, to stock up on fruit and veg (why don’t they bring the produce to Tofo and Barra!?) and get some other essentials like milk and cereal.

In Inhambane it’s raining, and still overcast – making this the fourth day since we’ve seen the sun. It’s warm, which is the only consolation. We get the shopping, and some more cash, spend half an hour online, stop for some Meze platters for lucnch, and head for Tofo. Tofo is the next beach along from Barra, and billed as a livlier, backpackery sort of place. Since Barra is all but deserted, it seems to make sense to try and find somewhere a bit busier.

Walking along Tofo beach, Nick is accosted by three dogs, who desperately want him to play with them, and when he doesn’t, set about playing all around us and tracking us along the beach. We find a bar and have some drinks – I order a great banana smoothie – and then I decide to check out the horse riding opportunities. I get the car and follow the signs down a long track, having to switch to 4×4 to get through a number of trickier bits. The track runs through a palm forest and a number of small villages, and eventually reaches what looks a lot like a stables.

The guy in charge is a german ex-pat called Voelcker. I fail to establish whether this is his first or last name, but he is friendly enough and quotes 700 met (about £21) for a 1.5 hour ride – a few pounds cheaper than the stables at Barra Lodge. I take his number and drive back to the Tofo Scuba bar, where Nick agrees to a ride tomorrow afternoon.

Since neither of us has been in the sea yet, and there doesn’t seem t be ay sign of the sun, we decide to tackle the surf anyway, and relocate to Fatima’s Nest, a bar further down the beach with direct access to the sand and changing facilities. Having changed, I dive in to find it’s as warm as advertised, and good fun though the rough surf soon wears you out, and since the beach slopes so gradually it’s nice to feel the sand still under your feet even though you’re a hundred yards out from the beach.

As I’m changing back again, I drop my camera in the toilet bowl, which is possibly not the cleverest thing I’ve done today. I turn it on (probably also not a good move) and it flickers to life, so possibly all is not lost. I turn it off and remove the battery, which I probably should have done straight away, and resolve to leave it in the sun until dry before I try it again.

The evening brings more people to Fatima’s, and we hang around chatting to some South Africans, including an optician who tested Robert Mugabe’s eyes 25 years ago and remembers forlornly that he felt awed in his presence. This was in the early 80s, when Mugabe was the success story of Africa.

Artur phones, concerned that we’ve been mugged or kidnapped or something, and we reluctantly leave the bar to go and pick up the keys from him. Driving back in the dark is straightforward, except for finding the turnoff for lighthouse ‘road’, but we get there in the end. Once at Kaya MJ, we have to figure out the route to Artur’s house, which he showed us yesterday in the dark. Directions would something like: walk away from the car, away from the house, and follow the trees until you hit (proabably literally) a big pile of bricks. Turn left, follow the 4×4 tracks (avoiding any cars), to the road, go around the sharp bushes, and you’re there. So far, so indiana jones. I arrived with a cut across my hand from the bush, but did manage to see the bricks in time.

Artur also, as promised, gives us some honey, but it’s unlike any honey I’ve tasted – obviously home made, but tastes more sharp than sweet. The aftertaste is a bit more like normal honey though. Wierd. We take a jar anyway, and tackle the walk back to Kaya MJ. We manage to get into the house without Vasco noticing, which is probably not a good sign, but we do find him and wake him up to give him his torch.