Teepee For My Bunghole

Don’t you check that palm trees are like the supermodels of the tree world? I mean check how they rise above all the others gooiing poses all over the show. For sure you get a Iman oak or a Kate Moss willow here and there but palm trees always seem to steal the show. It’s so easy to look good in pictures up against white cloud spotted blue skies and even easier if there’s long stretches of beach beside you and islands in the distance. Wait a minute – I think I just described Mozambique. Actually just add in people that are an exotic mix of African, Indian and Arab.

Then someone made me wys that palm trees aren’t actually indigenous to Mozambique and I was like: “Wow, foreign supermodels!”

My mission here in Mozambique is pretty simple i.e. Use Maputo as a base and one week in Vilankulos and one week in Tofu. But, of course, now that I’m here I’m checking that there’s a whole lot more that a man wants to check but this time though, the cash is weak.

Vilankulos was good to me though, even though they had a cyclone a few months ago and large parts of it was damaged (including the internet spots). There were supermodels lying broken along the roadside but enough survived to make the place still pretty special. The snorkelling around the Bazaruto archipelago was also befok. As was the electrical storm the last day we were in Vilankulos. I go to Tofu tomorrow.

Now since the ‘cash is weak’ [in Afrikaans this translates to ‘swak geld‘], you’re all thinking I need to address that age old question of ‘When are you getting home?’ I’m out of denial now, so I can address the question directly. You see the thing is, I had a really cool plan. That was: quit your job, take your pension and spend it travelling for a year and then go back home and start over. [Actually this was Plan C, Plan A and Plan B being shafted due to factors beyond my control]. The problem is that now I’m going home to ‘start over’. I am kak reluctant to get back and I don’t smaak to be broke and look for a job and all that stuff. But it will be soon methinks. After all, the cash is weak.

After a few days buzzing around around Joburg, I met my sister and we hopped on an overnight bus to Moz. The bus trip was uneventful except for having to wait for two hours at the Moz border while the customs brasse went through the bags.

So far Maputo seems quite relaxed and chilled. Nice places to eat and interesting sites to check out. We’re going to lam here a few days and figure out where we’re going from here.

Back in my home country but not yet quite back home. Just got back to Joburg in time to witness South Africa further rather grandly in both the cricket and the under-19 rugby world cups. Excellent stuff!

The way things are working out is that yesterday here in Johannessburg I met up with Shaheed who I’d last seen in Switzerland (always good to meet up with people twice in the same trip!), today I meet up with another bra and hang out with him while he does some photography goede (by the time I get to Cape Town he’s off to Germany for long time) and tomorrow I meet my sister and we gooi to Mozambique (now doesn’t that sound exciting?).

PS By this afternoon my old SA phone number should work i.e. 0824698568

With my fear of flying I should really not be using such potentially portentious (how’s that for fucken alliteration, of hoe?) titles but I couldn’t resist myself because, kyk hie, I’m done with Cape Verde. Actually I could stay a lot longer but my credit card expired and I’m going to run out of money. So it’s home, James.

I have a return ticket from London but because it’s so expensive to get there from Cape Verde, and I have to pay charges for changing my ticket twice, it works out that flying directly home is not much more expensive. Actually I’m lying, I think I just rationalised the spending of so much money to fly direct because I’m so kak scared of flying and this way I get to fly a lot less. So, ja, back home for me.

But wait a minute! The flight is to Johannesburg… so I think I might be taking the long road to Cape Town. Watch this site for details…

 

So I put some of the pics up from my excellent walks in Santa Antau. Now remember what I said – in no way do my horrid photos compare to the beauty of this island. I only put up a few miserable ones and it was difficult to choose them due to my limited time. Also… ag, just go see the place for yourself! It’s stunning!

Yep, let me wys yous that Santa Antau is probaby the most beautiful island in Cape Verde and and if you do come here, don’t leave without seeing this island.

Yesterday I walked up a valley from a village called Paul but pronounced with a cool accent so that it rhymes with ‘towel’. The valley puts the ‘verde’ in ‘Cape Verde’ and I don’t think photos will ever appreciate the detail of the beauty of this valley. Sugar cane, bananas, farms on the sides of mountains, stone houses, cool people.

I dunno if it’s the Cape Verdeans culture or the Portugese or the previous communist government, but someone made them put a lot of effort into developing this region. It’s all cobbelstoned roads and every inch of the slopes that can be levelled and farmed, is and it all looks like it took generations of work. I mean, they’re even using aqueducts all over the place – that’s like the original old school water pipes, ma broer!

And then today I take a walk in the other direction thinking it couldn’t be as mal and it turns out to be spectacular! This cobbelstoned path that hugs the cliffs along the beach. The walk took five hours but I didn’t even feel it (okay, maybe a little.) How they built this path in the first place is beyond me but it is exce-fucken-lent.

So I’ll post some pics soon mainly because I ran out of space on my memory card but pay attention to the detail in them people because after so much beauty I just didn’t feel adequate enough to pick out tiny bite size pieces and say ‘this little part is worthy of note’ or ‘that little part is worthy of note’ because it was all on such a majestic scale.

Okay, so I was loving Mindelo so much that if so many people hadn’t been telling that I MUST see this island, I would still be sleeping rather than being fresh from the 8am ferry to Santa Antau. I just seems like such a rush with only being able to come here for two days after having so much time to get to know other places that I gave serious thought to forgetting this place and chilling in Mindelo.

But I’m kak glad I came. Already the drive from Porto Novo to Riberio Grande (and then to Ponte Do Sol) was brilliant. Just like the drive on San Tiago from Tarrafel to Praia, this was also through the mountains and just as spectacular. Of course, with my vertigo I was always halfway between checking the views and also trying not to wet my pants. There was even some forest which in Cape Verde (which isn’t green and isn’t a cape) is quite unique. My camera failed to capture the essence of both drives though despite my best efforts.

Anyway, I’ve checked into a nice sorta place and am now ready to do my whirlwind runabout of this island and looking forward to see if it’s as beautiful as everyone says. So far, it has been.

Recovered and recuperated and what not, so I’m here to write y’all a little something just before yous go off on your Easter weekend (and since I’m in a Catholic country, no doubt this weekend will bring some interesting points to my travelling).

I’m on Sao Vicente Island (I’m never quite sure if I must capitalise the ‘I’ in ‘island’ or not) in the city of Mindelo which is probably the best city in Cape Verde. Since I think I’ve now been to all the spots you could theoretically a call a “city” (i.e. Praia, Espargos, Mindelo, Sal Rei), I feel qualified to make that statement. The rest are glorified towns/villages though some people (like me) might find the villages are better anyway.

So why is it a nice city? Well, it’s got some cobblestoned roads, nice views, it’s right next to the ocean, there’s well looked after old buildings, beautiful cosmopolitan people, plenty of cafes, live music and pleasant weather.

But there’s a down side too. Not a big one but because there’s no real backpacker trail here, I sorta have to forge my own way. And it’s slightly harder in a bigger city with more options. I have to find the best internet cafe, the best places to stay, the places to eat and shop. All this takes some time and also I have to establish a network of people I can hang out with or, at the very least, find some things I can do to keep me busy.

Anyway, so far it looks like I’ll be catching a short ferry to the next island to do some sightseeing and also hanging about on the beach here (though the beach was better on other islands). I’ll have to wait and see what Easter is like and whether it messes with or improves my logistics here.

Oh, and I posted some more photos…

Usually I try to write something as soon as I can when I get someplace new so that I give my impressions fresh off the block but I’m unusually drained after the 14 hour (boring) ferry ride from Praia to Mindelo, Sao Vicente Island. Maybe its because I’ve been missioning in the midday heat finding a room, internet cafe and the other usual reconnaisance. Maybe I’ll write something soon.