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Day 9
Time to leave Kaya MJ behind us. Artur arrives at about 6:30am with the Land Rover and we load ourselves in for the journey to Maputo. Nick is in the back with Artur’s wife and daughter, and I’m in the front. The weather is bright and sunny, and the car quickly gets hot and stuffy. We start by going to Barra Lodge to see if they have my sunglassses, which I lost on the ocean safari yesterday (they don’t), and then on to Inhambane to fill up with fuel (an exorbitant 2100 meticals – about £65) and pick up Artur’s luggage from his house. By the time we’ve done all that it’s already 9:30am and we haven’t even left Inhambane yet.
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Day 9
location:Penang
summary:In which a new traveller is introduced, who makes an unexpected admission which threatens to ruin the trip
trip:sea04
day:9 -
Day 9
We breakfasted at 9.05 AM, looking for potential beetrooters. Because our two week tour was actually two one week tours, today we’d be getting some new people. Very exciting. There didn’t seem to be anyone in the restaurant who looked like a likely candidate, and at 10 when we saw Sasha in the lobby he explained that the newcomers would join the group on the walking tour which Rob and I had done yesterday. We turned up just long enough to meet the new guys and hitch a ride with them into the city. There was Charlie, a single brummie in his fifties on a world tour. Mike And Julia were a middle aged couple from New Zealand, also on a world tour. Finally there was a trio of flat sharers Matt, Simone and Tanya, also from New Zealand and in their late twenties.
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Day 9
location:Plett. Bay / Shamwari
summary:On the road, visiting Jeffrey’s Bay on the way to Shamwari
trip:sa02
day:9 -
Day 9
I checked out and headed for the station to leave my luggage. A large sign indicated the ‘Luggage Room’, which turned out to be a big but very dark room despite the bright sun outside. A man sitting behind the desk took my bag and wordlessly tore off a ticket for me. I wondered how many hours of sunlight he got each day. Maybe his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light and were now super-sensitive.Another short metro ride back to the centre of the city, and I switched lines to the city’s park. Lunch used up most of my remaining florents at a restaurant near the national museum of culture. I’d had quite enough culture the previous evening and was feeling very poor, so I skipped that museum in favour of the transport museum, which cost just 150 florents to enter (about 40p, US$0.28).
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Day 9
On Charlotte’s orders, we had to be in the lobby for 6:30am. I had set a wake up call for 5:45, and it didn’t work, but I was awake anyway, having slept fitfully on an aching stomach. I was still the first to arrive in the lobby though, and started to check out for the second time, as Steve and Sue arrived. The laundry I had done yesterday had cost me 650 baht, very high considering that you can get the same amount of laundry done on Khao San Road for 100 baht or so. Came back in very nice shrink wrapped packaging though.
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Day 9
Otherwise known as the day Phil couldn’t count. Lots of stops today, one significant one where the bus would pick up or drop off passengers: Townsville. On arrival, we got off to have our one-hour break in the town, and arriving back found the bus was a scene of chaos. There were about 50 seats on the bus, and about 70 people wanting to take them. Musical chairs was out of the question, and Phil was trying to decide what to do. He decided to board people one at a time after checking their reservation slips. The problem with this was that almost everyone had a valid reservation slip. After weeding out the three or four that didn’t, Phil re-boarded the bus triumphantly to find that about fifteen people were standing in the aisle.