Romance at the Border
Day 248
As soon as we were up and showered we were out of the backpackers. What a waste of a night, especially when we were both not feeling well. Regardless we both felt better and after we showered we took a taxi around the corner to the Crossings Mall where the tourism office is and where the Maputo left from.
We dropped off our bags at the office and went over to the Mugg and Bean coffee shop for breakfast. Even though we had hours to kill it was a good place to be. We backed up our photos on DVD and even posted them home. Inside Super Spar we bought some needed toiletries and spent some time on the internet. Back at Mugg and Bean we had some cold fruit shakes and before we knew it 4pm had come around and we piled into the mini bus with 13 others. All but a young family of 3 were Mozambiqan woman in Nelspruit to shop. The bus actually started from the mall we were at and then picked up more at another large mall. I guess they were shopping for things they couldn’t get at home.
We drove along the same N4 highway that Jordana and I drove on yesterday. Its quite a beautiful drive through a valley with tall mountains on either side. Closer to Kruger the landscape flattens out again. The ride was comfortable and thankfully air-conditioned, it was another very hot day. We approached the border as the sunset, there is something about crossing borders at in darkness that I just don’t enjoy. The minibus stopped outside South African customs. There was a short line that Jordana and I were near the front of, without a question we were stamped out of South Africa. We got back in the bus and drove across to the Mozambique side. “Looks really dark here, I don’t think there is power?” I commented as we approached the dark chaotic customs office. Sure enough, they didn’t have power and the whole customs building was lit by candlelight. It was the most romantic border crossing we’ve done and one of the oddest. We filled out visa applications, paid our 172 Rand fee and then just waited around not knowing what to do. The rest of our bus passengers waited calmly for us. 15 minutes later we were on our way in the darkness towards Maputo.
Just over an hour from the border we entered the mostly dark and deserted streets of Maputo. The friendly driver had called a taxi for us that met us where the bus terminated. We climbed in and drove off along some very rough side streets. Soon we at the Base Backpackers. The hostel looked OK and we were warmly welcomed by the young man at the front desk. All they had available were dorm rooms and while they were a bit expensive we had little choice at this time.
The friendly guy from the front should us around the hostel. It looked typical enough, OK share bathrooms, a sitting area and a somewhat clean kitchen. We were in the kitchen when he turned into a dark, narrow entrance. “OK, and your room here”. I laughed, he was joking right? We walked down stairs into the basement, there were chairs and tables all over and 2 bunk beds. This was ridiculous. It was easily 35 degrees down here even with a large fan blowing. OK we figured one night then we move, although it was tough to be paying $11 each for this. We put our bags down and talked about what to do in the morning. We weren’t even here for 10 minutes when the power went out.
We sat on the breezy and cool upstairs balcony with other travellers. Figuring the power would come back soon and we’d try and just get through this night. Well over an hour went by and still no power and obviously no fan, which equals an unbearably hot room. We asked if they had any other rooms available, they didn’t. “We can’t stay here tonight”, Jordana said. I agreed, sleeping in this room with no fan or window was like torture. I told the night security guy that we were sorry but we couldn’t stay in this room tonight. He called the owner who I explained the situation to, he was very apologetic and helpful. So we called a taxi and were off to the Ibis Hotel.
The Ibis had changed names to Hotel Turismo but with a clean room, a/c and BBC on tv this was a much better option than the hostel dungeon room. We both fell asleep with ease as cold air blasted on to us. An interesting start to Mozambique to say the least.
Tags: Africa, Hostel, Mozambique, South Africa
Michael Coroneos
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