track our trek

we decided to head into mozambique for a few days...neither of us had planned to travel there, but we heard it was lovely, and we could go swimming with dolphins in tofo (pronounced tofu). so off we went...the official language in mozambique is portugeuse. we spent one night in busy maputo, the country's capitol. we felt the atmosphere was completely different from what we'd seen in our first few days in sa...much more laid back, slower pace...and the city was much less modern than parts of south africa. day two, we hit the road for a 7 hour journey north to tofo...another major difference from south africa is the roads!! the distance wasn't so great, but we spent a couple of hours bouncing gingerly and dodging enormous craters in the road with our little vw golf. when we finally reached the little town of tofo, we travelled the last 2km down a sand road to our backpackers, where we got stuck and had to be pulled out by 2 nice guys in a pickup truck! tofo and bamboozi backpackers were not the beach resort town natassa had envisioned, but we thought it was beautiful! with no hotels, the town offers only thatched huts and a few holiday apartments to rent. we stayed in a huge open air round thatched dorm hut w/ 14 beds where we quickly discovered there was only electricity for several hours at night, and no internet access at all...we had to charge our camera battery behind the bar! but the reward for its remoteness and lack of modern amenities was a beautiful full moon over a pristine beach! we spent a few days soaking up the sun, and perusing the local craft market. on our last day, we tried to go on an ocean safari to swim with whale sharks...they are the world's largest shark measuring some 8 meters long...don't worry, they are plankton eaters, so they have no teeth! unfortuantely, we had a very unlucky trip...there were no whale sharks to be found in our 2-hour boat trip...only the quickest glimpse of 2 dolphins who wanted nothing to do with us! as consolation, the captain to us to a reef for some snorkelling...after a couple minutes in the water, dp and i were noticing pin pricks along our arms...jellyfish! a bit frightening, but i tried to relax and concentrate on the fish down below...they were pretty much a bust too...the reef is too deep there, so you really need to scuba dive to be able to see the fish. i gave up when i got stung across the lip and ear! ouch! painful for a few minutes, but harmless, they said...hmmm...next time i'll try snorkelling somewhere i don't have to worry about getting stung!