Nothing quite prepared me for what there was to see in Ilha de Mozambique. Hardly anyone had mentioned the island while I was traveling in the south. Ilha is only 3km long and 500m wide but it used to be the capital of Mozambique and was the centre of the Portuguese empires’ operations in Africa until late in the 19th century. The colonial architecture is out of this world. Since the Portuguese were kicked out it has been inhabited mostly by the locals and it has this feel of a ghost town to it with kids sleeping rough and kicking footballs around by the old palace and fort. They seem to have little idea about what a gold mine they are sitting on. I imagine its a bit like Zanzibar or Malta before the tourists got wind of them. A fascinating place. I spent a wonderful couple of days there soaking up the atmosphere and making new friends.
It was great to see John and Martin turn up on Thursday night. We planned a day of sightseeing on friday but after 30 mins we found ourselves sat in a pub for about 12 hours. Good stuff!
After a night camping near the beach I’m now back in Nampula and ready to get on the train leaving in the middle of the night for Cuamba which is on the way to Malawi.
I’ll be sorry to say goodbye to Mozambique. The friendly people, stunning beaches, fresh fish, spicey peri peri food and lack of tourists put it up there with Bolivia as one of my favourite countries visited so far.
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