Day 15

Last day in South Africa. Nick gets up early to do the final game drive with the dutch family and Christina and her mother, but since I will be spending 6 hours driving today I give the game drive a miss and get some extra sleep. Breakfast at 9:30 is the usual 4-course affair, followed by a dash to check out by 11 so our tent can be cleaned for the next guests. The Gualaguala guide suggests that we tip a total of about £30 a day, which seems mightily excessive to us, so we go with about £10 a day, split between the ranger, tracker and general staff.

Day 14

The morning is cloudy and cold as we gather in the lounge at 5:30am. Our second drive is a ‘big five’ drive, which means visiting a neighboring reserve, the 15,000 hectare Thornybush Private Reserve. The extra size (it’s 32 times bigger than Gualaguala) means they have space for all the big five animals (lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard), but in such a massive space they can sometimes be difficult to find.

Day 13

We’re up at 7am, and the power is still off. It comes back in time for breakfast, and with everything packed into the car we head off to the border.

At the border crossing, we get stamped out of Swaziland, and stamped (again) back into South Africa for the third time. We drive through customs with nothing to declare except a lot of Swazi dirt which is now attached to the car.

Day 12

Breakfast is included, which is good as it’s a full english, and relatively good, especially compared to dinner yesterday. It’s served in silence by our semi-mute host. We decide to stay another night but to get dinner elsewhere.

Day 11

A taxi takes us to the bus station for 6:30am. It’s raining again, this time with more enthusiasm.

When we arrive there is a bus already there, and people milling around. We check in and wait. The bus leaves and another arrives, which turns out to be ours. we get our bags stowed and board in time to leave just after 7am.

Day 10

This morning Maputo is enveloped in cloud and drizzle. Our hotel doesn’t offer breakfast and is unrepentant on their pricing so we leave early in search of food and another hotel. After a few transactions with street vendors we have ourselves bananas, bread, tempura and water, and are marching towards Fatima’s Backpackers, the Maputo branch of the place we found quite hospitable in Tofo.

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.

Day 8

Weather this morning looks promising for our ocean safari. We’re down at Barra Lodge for 10:30am, and we leave at about 11, having been issued with wetsuits, snorkels and flippers. My flippers are a manly size 9, with a ‘medium male’ wetsuit, while Nick is issued with a pair of size 6s and a wetsuit that appears to have an age range sewn into the back.

Day 7

Rain.

The morning is spent reading and relaxing in the house, and when Artur arrives, we decide to go with him to Inhambane to get some fuel and money, and check the flight situation for Tuesday. The rain makes driving on the sand a different experience – sometimes easier, sometimes harder. The road from Barra to the Tofo junction is more vibrantly red in the rain, and the car is getting covered in clay.

Day 6

Another cloudy day, though I can’t say I’m that disappointed as I’ve yet to recover from the sunny one. It’s calmer though, which makes it good weather for sitting on the deck reading. In the morning I finish atonement and reply to a few emails from Rob.