Ponta d'Ouro

Last week Tuesday was a public holiday here in Moz. Something like Army day or so. Even the locals didn't really know why. It's a bit like Ascension day or Whitson in Holland. It's a public holiday, but less than 10 per cent actually has a clue why. You think that is bad? Every year we get a similar statistic regarding Easter. Only a small percentage even knows what (supposedly) happened on that day some 1.974 (being 2007 minus 33) years ago. The rest probably think we're celebrating the first hatching of a bunny egg or so...

A Dutch colleague, Astrid, being here on a 4 week assignment decided to extend her weekend and spend it in Ponta d'Ouro. That is a beach village on the very south eastern edge of this country. Right on the border with South Africa. Of course that means that the visitors are almost all South African and that the local economy runs on the Rand. So much so, that when I wanted to pay for something using Meticais, the girl at the counter looked at the money as if it was a picture of George W looking intelligent. So surpised! And she lives and works in Mozambique!

So, a few colleagues decided to use the holiday to go pick her up. That means, taking the 4x4 and driving there for about 3 hours on a road which can hardly carry that name. This was the worst "road" I ever took! It is a sand dune road which you cannot take unless you have a very good off-road vehicle. Not just any 4x4, but the real thing. So no Suzuki Samurai's or so, but the stuff you see on Camel Trophy or Paris-Dakar races.

At 07:15 hrs we mounted the Ford Forest of one of the managers and went on our way. First obstacle, the ferry to cross the harbour, right here in Maputo. That, of course, is another amazing display of 'how many can I fit in...". This ferry was a bit larger than the one I wrote about 3 months ago. This one was the size of a tennis court, so it fitted 9 cars, 2 large quads, a trailer and then still had enough room for a truck carrying cement blocks! You should see how they load up these ferries. Cars have to go back and forth 34 times to ensure that every single square inch is used. If a Paris Hilton on a diet fits in between two cars, then there's obviously way too much wasted space. Then again, any space occupied by Paris....

Finally we got to the other side. It was 09:15 now, we were two hours on our way and I could still see my hotel! The trip could really start now. The first hour driving was easy. It is on sand roads, but hardened sand, so quite smooth driving. On our way we passed Maputo's animal reserve where you find road signs warning you for elephants pushing over your car. At some point the road changes to the earlier mentioned sand dune path. Me and a colleague were sitting in the back. Not the best place to be! For 1.5 hours we were thrown around in the back. Heads bumping into each other. Later my brain was were my left testicle should be and my kidneys were playing hide-and-seek behind my lungs. I think I even ate my breakfast again that ride. It was not as good as the first time...

When we got there it was time for a quick lunch followed by the 3 hour quad ride. Yes! As a proper American would say: Awesome! Or "Vet!" according to the Dutch teens. I'll just stick to the Curaçao 'Campion!' It was really fun, doing a quad safari. Technically, it wasn't really a safari as the only animals you would see were gerbils and small monkeys. it was just a fun off-road challenge driving these things over the rough terrain. I want a quad! Now that is what I call toys for boys! Three toyful hours later me and my quad had to part ways. It was an emotional goodbye and I promised I would visit her soon again. That line really came out too well... ;-)

It was time to go back again. Yes, back to Maputo over that same road! this time there was an added bonus. It had rained making the road even more 'fun'. Another 1.5 hours wobbling in the back of the car. This time there were three of us back there making it even easier to bump heads. I think while knocking heads, we even swapped some IQ points back there. I felt really smart (but that could've been the cold beers too).

Oh well, around 21:00 hrs we were (finally) back in Maputo and ready for some food! 24 ribs and 2 beers later I was in my bed. I needed that!

PS: The world map on your right has been upgraded. Now you can look in even more detail where the visitors of this blog come from. Click on the map and a new page will open with a large world map. You can then click on a region to zoom in. And if you select 'map with smaller clusters' the red dots will even be more detailed.

PS2: Also the Google Map has been updated showing the spots described in this piece.