Barra & Surrounds

We stayed at Barra Lodge, which is the flagship lodge of the Praia Do Barra area. Barra has a beautiful beach which is bordered by the Inhambane Estauary on the one side and the Idian Ocean on the other. Loads of coconut trees everywhere, making it quite interesting to park your car in the correct place and ensuring you dont have a huge dent the next day incase of the these little suckers decides to drop on your car over night.

The lodge itself is very basic, a typical family and diver orientated resort with smaller casitas and larger family ones that can cater for up to 6 or 8 people. There is also the new Cabanas, which we can see the aim was to progress with the times, but maybe doesn't really fit the rustic, truly Mozambican feel the rest of the resort offers.

None the less, 100% recommended purely based on the diving. If you are looking for a bit more upscale on the accommodation front go for their sister resort Flamingo Bay, from which they offer a shuttle service to the dive centre in anyway.

 

The local church, one of many, the school and scenery around Barra.

 

Bar Babalaza, can be found on the junction where you will turn off between Inhambane and Barra towards Tofo. It is certainly an instituation as it dates pre war and it gets quite busy over weekends and almost insane crazy over peak periods such as Christmas and the Easter holidays.

 

We stopped simply because of the name. A pun on the Afrikaans term "babbelaas", which means the worst hangover you have ever experienced. I can see how things can go quite lopsided here.

 

The dochem's were fabulously cold....

 

 

Two ladies Gill and Jenny opened a small deli called Chilli's in the small petrol station complex just after the tunroff to Tofo. If you are tired of all the market food and the local restaurants such as Tofo Tofo and What you want, it is definately worth while making a stop here.

 

I am a total sucker for anything that has to word deli in it and made Dru stop immediately to see what home made goodies I could get my hands on. The guy next door sells out of the oven fresh pao and we bought a home made marula jelly which was absolutely delish.

 

The Chilli's ladies alos published a small recipy book on local dishes and cooking with their favourite dochem beer. I can's wait to get home to try out all these recipes.

 

 

Our little car

 

Crazy "Wacky" Wednesdays at Barra, this has nothing to do with getting two burgers for the price of one (AKA Steers), no it's Cruise Ship day. So we had been a Barra a few days already, had days and nights where we would go walk on the beach and there will literally not be another soul in sight. Unless you count the Great Dane that we picked up at Mad Mozzies Bar, and who followed us for our walk to the Light House and Back.

 

Yet on wednesday, the MSC ship pulled in and it was like we were in Durban. The whole of the Tofo market moves here for cruise ship day, hence a previously deserted beach now is clad in colour spurts as far as the eye can see.

 

We'd opt for the normal days at Barra, far more our idea of a nice relaxing trip to a off the map area.

 

The Jolly Roger - Inharrime

 

The Jolly Roger is situated almost exactly halfway between Maputo and Vilanculos in the small village of Inharrime. This is the perfect stop if you intend doing the stretch of driving in one go, or if you decide to break the journey they offer good clean and inexpensive accommodation.

 

For us they were situated only a few kilometres from our proposed first stop - Zavora, yet we just had to pop in for the best prego's and mince on toast in town, and then continue on to Barra as we dicided to swing the journey around and end our travels off with Zavora (this time)...

 

 

Great hospitality, and very friendly owners! You feel right at home.

Xai Xai and Chokwe flood plains

 

The 2000 Mozambique flood was a natural disaster that occurred in February and March 2000. The catastrophic flooding was caused by heavy rainfall that lasted for five weeks and made many homeless. Approximately 800 people were killed. 1,400 km² of arable land was affected and 20,000 head of cattle were lost. It was the worst flood in Mozambique in 50 years...

 

The floods began on 8 February with a lot of rain across South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland. Mozambique received the most rainfall, the capital Maputo was flooded. Torrential rain continued to the 11th of February, in Mozambique's Limpopo Valley, the banks of the Limpopo River burst, causing severe flood damage and a dysentery outbreak in the local population. On 22 February, tropical Cyclone Leon Eline hit the Mozambican coast near Beira.

On February 27, flash floods overwhelmed low farmlands around Chokwe and Xai-Xai.

Over 50,000 people were rescued from rooftops, trees and other isolated and flooded areas. This effort was at first carried out by only a few Mozambican naval vessels. The governments of South Africa, Malawi, and Mozambique provided a few helicopters to the rescue team. One of the devastating images of the flooding was Sofia Pedro giving birth in a tree while surrounded by flood water. She was then rescued by the South African Air Force who flew both her and her new daughter Rositha Pedro to Chibuto.

 

 

This is the area around Chokwe and Xai - Xai which this year from about the 5th of January saw almost the same picture they saw in 2000. The Limpopo valley flooded again, washing the bridge to Xai Xai away.

 

Dru and I were starting to get a bit worried about if we will even be able to reach our destination if the rains continued, luckily by the time we got there they were already busy rebuilding the bridge to Xai Xai and our travels were in full swing.

 

Our thoughts go out to all the people who lost loved ones during this years floods.

 

The Old Inhambane Train Station

 

The building is maybe not as picturesque as the train station in Maputo, but it still holds some charm. Scattered at the back of the building you will find various old steam trains and parts such as train wheels and the tracks disappearing in the dust.

 

The gardens are kept very neatly and the locals use it as quiet lunch spot. 

 

 

Inhambane, Terra de Boa Gente (Land of Good People) - as displayed by these two teens who were just to happy to pose for a picture.

Inhambane Central Market

 

The Central Market, here you can find just about anything so no need to rush off to a local store and load the entire car full of goods for your next Mozambican holiday. However keep in mind prices are about three times what you will pay elsewhere as the import duties and customs applies same as in the rest of Mozambique.

 

Also egss are not fresh, so we learned the hard and very "stinky" way :)

 

In search of an emory board, after cutting my toe nails with scissors! DO NOT TRY THIS AS HOME...

 

Fresh and looking better than anything we find in our local supermarket.

 

 

 

Inhambane

Covered by large coconut plantations and famous for the production of cashews, coconuts and sweet tangerines, the province of Inhambane is one of the main tourism centres in the country today.

 

Inhambane is the capital city of the province and was originally founded by Swahili traders. The town grew as a slave port and ivory trading centre in the 18th century under mostly Indian control. It was destroyed in 1834 by Soshangane (a general of the Zulu King Shaka), but grew rapidly in the second half of the century, from which period its cathedral and old mosque date.
Old History

 

About 2 000 years ago the expansion of the Sahara desert led to a mass migration of Bantu-speaking people southward, replacing or assimilating scattered groups of San hunter-gatherers on the way. The Karanga, or Shona became the dominant group in the region and were trading with Arab dhows as early as the 10th century. The Arabs brought beads, salt, cloth, ceramics (and later guns) in exchange for gold and particularly ivory. The Arabs increased their influence until the arrival of Vasco da Gama who, in his quest for supply points for Portuguese vessels en-route to India, anchored his four ships off Inhambane Bay in 1498. His men made landfall during inclement weather and approached a settlement where the locals told him in the Bitonga dialect to come out of the rain: 'Bela khu Nyumbani'. The Portuguese incorrectly thought they were being told the name of the region, and so Inhambane got its present name.

 
 
Today, Inhambane town is the hub to resort and beach areas such as Tofo and Barra, mainly concentrating on fishing and tourism. A haven for divers, with prestine reefs and plenty of healthy corals and megafauna.

The town itself oozes old town charm and romanticism, yet with its unique architecture and old derelict buildings amongst newly painted shops with MCell and Dochem signs displayed on walls and windows it speaks true Mozambican.