Mozambique – My Brother Traveler

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Mozambique – Maputo – fortress from the mid of 19. century_2001_AF-01-67

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Mozambique – outside Maputo – Indian Ocean beaches_2001_AF-01-57

Excerpt from the diary 2001
Outline 2001

The description of my first day in Maputo, Mozambique from AF-01.
Sunday, October 7, 2001

My alarm clock awakes me from a dream at 7 AM. I recall that the last night we came to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. In colonial days the Portuguese called it Lourenco Marques. At 7:40 AM I head to the dining car for breakfast. Due security reasons we are not allowed to walk outside the train. Today I sit with two young Dutch. I have eggs with bacon and a croissant. I drink guava and have a cup of coffee. With my camera bag over my shoulder I scan a list of names. There is a designated number of a microbus at each name.

We are leaving for the sightseeing tour of Maputo at 9 AM. In front of the railway station, on which design Gustav Eiffel participated, the buses drive around the square twice, so everybody can take its picture. In Mozambique there is a ban on pictures taken of government buildings and also of railway stations. Maybe, it is not taken so seriously. Then we drive to Freedom Square through streets with large white apartment houses. Today is Sunday and there are only few people on sidewalks.

I see that all cars drive on the left side of the streets. It used to be a Portuguese colony and I think that in the past they drove on the left in Portugal, too. On the other hand, all countries bordering Mozambique used to be British colonies and all of them drive on the left. So it might have been a necessity to drive on the same side.
Čti dál

At 9:30 AM we are driving inside the Municipal Market. I am making video through the bus window. It looks like they are selling everything from fruits and vegetables to firewood here. From the market there is only few minutes drive to Avenida Vladimir Lenine. Almost all, if not all, streets in Maputo have names of various world communists or African leftist leaders. In the late 70’s and all 80’s Mozambique was bona fide communist country and it is still now. At 10 AM we leave the buses and go in the Covered Market (it has a roof). It is full of the local people. I am making video and some pictures. Most common articles are cashew nuts, wrist watches and CD’s. Our city sightseeing continues at 10:25 AM. The sun is shining through the thin cloud cover.

Next stop is at Praca da Independencia (Independence Square). Its neoclassical City Hall and the Cathedral command the most attention. On foot to nearby Casa de Ferro (Iron House) dating from the end od 19th century designed also by Gustav Eiffel as a residence for Mozambique governors. However, its metal exterior was not suitable to tropics and no governor ever lived there. In its vicinity is a botanical garden, Jardin Tunduru. There are two benches made out of rifles inside. A statue of the first Mozambique president, Samora Machel, is in front of the garden. Machel was a convinced communist. He died in 1986 in a plane crash.

It is sunny, starting to be hot and unpleasantly humid.

Within few minutes our buses bring us to the sea shore. It is the Indian Ocean, the third largest expanse of water on the surface of Earth. We follow the shore to the east before it turns north. There is a new Holiday Inn Hotel on the left and beautiful but almost empty beaches on the right. The people on them are mostly digging for oysters. At 11:35 we make a stop at one of the beaches. I am collecting some shells. There is a stand with souvenirs on the shore. About a 10 years old boy asks for money. Generally, people don’t bother us too much.

We depart this idyllic place at 12:10 PM. Our buses are passing expensive villas shielded by walls and vegetation. Among them is one, where Nelson Mandela often stays, since he married Samora Machel’s widow.

At 12:30 PM there is a lunch break at “Mundo’s” restaurant on the corner of Avenidas Eduardo Mondlane and Julius Nyerere. It is quite a nice place. At last I see the exchange rate $1 = 21 000 Mtc (meticais). I decide to have “Grilled Chicken Ceasar’s Salad” with bacon, avocado, almonds and Chinese noodles. It is “Salada Cesar com Galinha Grelhada” in Portuguese. I like the dual language menu card. I ask and I get it as souvenir. We are safe, they take VISA and Master Card. The meal I ordered costs 120 000 Mtc ($5.71). I drink Winhoek Light for 25 000 Mtc. With the tip I pay $9.

Before we get in our buses, some young street vendors surround us in front of the restaurant. One of them is already unzipping my camera bag. Time to leave.

At 3 PM we are at the Natural History Museum. It is not large but very nicely done. There are dioramas in the central hall with stuffed African animals often in dynamic positions. On two levels around its perimeter there are exhibits on various topics (evolution of man, water animals, birds, etc.). We are leaving at 3:40 PM.

The last stop is at the fort built by Portuguese in the middle of 19th century. The guns of this fort have never fired in anger. There have been no wars here. Its structure made of carved brown-reddish rocks is overwhelmed by the city high rise building standing just behind it, though at its prime it inspired confidence of the city dwellers. The surrounding wall is 5-6 meters high. In its fortified corners one can see the barrels of guns. I am taking pictures from the top of the wall. Most of the inner space is grass area from which few coconut trees and some perhaps magnolias grow. In one corner there are some guns arranged in a circle. There are two brass statues in the fort, but nobody can tell me whom they represent.

We are leaving for the nearby railway station at 4:30 PM. Back on the train I have a drink in my compartment. Exhausted by the “hard work” of a tourist, I lie down for a while. Well, somebody has to do it.

Before 7 PM we leave for dinner in a seafood restaurant. There is Greek salad, fried fish and a chocolate mousse for dessert on the menu. After 9 PM we return to our train. I am finishing my notes of the day, read Lonely Planet about Maputo and the Kruger Park and getting a mosquito out of my compartment. Thunder and rain start before 10:15 PM. At 10:30 PM I turn the light off.

AF_01SOUTH AFRICA, MOZAMBIQUE, ZIMBABWE, ZAMBIA, BOTSWANA, NAMIBIA, LESOTHO
Date of travel: Oct 3 – Nov 7, 2001

ITINERARY:
On Oct 3, 2001 early in the morning I leave Vista in a Hertz car for Los Angeles airport. There I board a plane for 5-hr flight to New York and from NY to Johannesburg taking 14.5 hrs. The landing in Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA is in mid-afternoon on Oct 4. By a minibus (van) to a railway station with our “Shongololo Train.” I get a cabin in it. I am taking its “Southern Cross” leg of the trip from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls.
The following day there is a minibus trip to the “Voortreckers Monument” and Pretoria, one of South Africa 3 capitals. Among other places we see is the “Union Building” (the seat of government) and the “Kruger House.” In the afternoon we visit “Soweto” a black suburb of Johannesburg.
In the evening of Oct 6. we reached the MOZAMBIQUE border. Next 2 days we explore its capital Maputo with train station by Eiffel, city hall, cathedral and the “Iron House.”
In the evening of Oct 8. we are back to SOUTH AFRICA. The following two days we spent in the “Kruger Park” seeing many animals. On Oct 11 we do the Panorama Route in the northern part of South Africa with Mac-Mac Falls and Pilgrim’s Rest which used to be a gold mining town. The following day we have a similar trip from Louis Trichardt.
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In the evening on Oct 12 our train crosses to ZIMBABWE. Following days we explore this country. The fist day the “Great Zimbabwe,” the second day Bulawayo and the Cecil Rhodes grave in “View of the World.” On Oct 15 we go to “Lake Kariba” and take a boat ride on it. The day after there is sightseeing of “Hwange National Park.” On Oct 17 our train comes to “Victoria Falls.”
Still this morning we go from our train on foot across a bridge to ZAMBIA. We see the “Victoria Falls” from the Zambia side. Then our minibuses take us to a Zambian town Livingston. We see a market and a museum there.
On Oct 18 we take our minibuses from Victoria Falls to BOTSWANA. There we visit the “Chobe National Park.” The most memorable are the many elephants we see. We take a boat ride on the Chobe River. Then we return to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
On Oct 19 in the morning we go to “Victoria Falls” on the Zimbabwe side, my second visit here (the first was in 1983). After lunch I am taken to the local airport for my flight in a small plane to Windhoek in Namibia.
The plane lands in Windhoek, NAMIBIA after 7 PM. A taxi takes me to my hotel. From here I take the “Dune Express” another “Shongololo Train” to Cape Town. On Oct 20, there is a sightseeing of Windhoek, the pretty capital of Namibia. One fact that before WWI Namibia (that time South West Africa) belonged to Germany is that the streets are called “Strasse.” In the afternoon the minibuses take us to town Otjiwarongo in the northern part of Namibia. Here is our train.
While the train stays in place its passengers make a day trips to “Etosha National Park” and the following day to “Waterberg Nature Reserve.” Then the train starts moving south. Morning on Oct 23 we take a van trip to area around the mountain Spitzkoppe. In the afternoon we are in the town Swakopmund with the main street called “Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse.” Then south to 34 km distant Walvis Bay. Near it there are high sand dunes. By evening we are back to Swakopmund and our train. Next day I take a trip north to “Cape Cross,” which is a southern edge of the “Skeleton Coast.” In the afternoon, back to Swakopmund where I explore the town by myself.
On Oct 25 we leave the train to see the countryside and spend a night in a tent camp. We reach the train again in the evening of the second day after it moved to Mariental. Next day we drive to Kalahari Desert. A Bushman shows us their live in the desert. Then to the Hardap Dam built for irrigation. By night we are back on our train. Over night the train moves to Keetmanshoop. Today a minibus tour takes us to a POW camp from WWI for German soldiers, later a now closed diamond mine and to a port town Luderitz. The following day we visit the “Fish River Canyon,” the second biggest canyon in the world. Late at night our train crosses the border to SOUTH AFRICA.
On Oct 30 we awake in Upington. This is a wine growing region. We visit “Augrabies Falls Nat. Park.” There are many wild animals there and we see beautiful waterfalls on the Orange River. Later a visit of “Spitskop Nature Reserve.” Then the train goes the whole night and in the morning we are in Hutchinson. By vans to town Graaff-Reinet. There we travel through Great Karoo which is a semidesert. Our train is waiting for us in Beaufort West. On Nov 1, I take a tour through Klein Karoo (a green country) to “Cango Caves” and town Oudtshoorn. We visit the caves and individually see Oudtshoorn. In the evening back on our train. The following day our trip starts at Paarl where we visit the “Afrikaans Leguage Monument” a symbol of the Afrikaan language. Next stop is in a winery to do some tasting. It is followed by wine towns Stellenbosh and Franschhoek. In Franschhoek we see the Huguenot Memorial. Our train is also there.
On Nov 3 we are in the Cape Town. We spend two days here. We take the cable car to the top of the “Table Mountain,” then the “Castle of Good Hope” in the city. At noon we are in “Victoria and Alfred Waterfront Shopping Center.” In the afternoon “South African Museum” and the “Company Gardens.” The second day a trip to “Cape Point” and “Cape of Good Hope.” In the afternoon we see the famous “Kirstenbosch Gardens.”
That ends my “Shongololo Train” trip. On Nov 5, after the last night on the train, I fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg and from there to Maseru, Kingdom of LESOTHO. By a van to my hotel. The next day a car with a driver takes me through the capital, Maseru, then outside the town a visit to Thaba-Bosiu Mountain with graves of the royal family. It could be said Lesotho begun here in 19th century. In a town Macitsieng I see the compound of the king and in Morija I visit a small museum. After 4 PM the car takes me to the airport.
From Maseru I fly back to Johannesburg. There I change the plane for one going overnight to Atlanta, USA, where in the morning on Nov 7. The last plane takes me from Atlanta to Los Angeles. There I rent a car. In midafternoon I am at home in Vista.

Travel office: Wild African Ventures and Shongololo Train.
Who took part: On Shongololo Train were Dutch, Germans and Brits. In Lesotho alone.