We knew that we had a large task ahead of us and geared ourselves up for five days of hard riding and wild camping.
Everyone who had travelled up the EN1 to Inchope had told us that there is absolutely nothing on the road. 500 kilometers of bush and the occasional pineapple stall.
Yes it is not as populated as the stretch from Maputo to Vilanculos but, nothing is a vacuum, and we saw lots of life.
Marc and I set a goal of 100km a day and pushed ourselves to 120km/day just to get ahead of the visa d-day.
We found ourselves asking villagers if we could camp in the safety of their village.
Under no circumstance is this a case of pitching your tent and keeping to yourself. 20 kilometers south of the Save River we approached Senhor Cheife Alexander for accommodation.
We had barely made camp and a table was brought out, table cloth spread over, cutlery neatly set out. Senhor Alexander then called us over to sit and was on his way back to sit around the fire when we asked where he was going to eat.
The table was set for us. We insisted he came and sat with us.
Being custom his lovely wife sat with the smaller children while his elder son, Thomas, came and joined the table.
We ate sociably on jojo beans and the servings were man-sized. Both Marc and I were stunned at the portions.
Good cycling portions!
We sat with the flickering of the cooking fire at the table speaking broken Portuguese, with Thomas interpreting in broken English, until Senhor Alexander laughed at us and started speaking in Afrikaans.
He had spent many years on the mines and had picked up Afrikaans.
We ended the night with a coffee laced with Jack Daniels. Good company deserves a night cap. This experience with Senhor Alexander and his family made the race for the border easy now. People in Mozambique are approachable. We would push the pedals all day till just before sunset and then speak to a village elder. To have the security of people definitely helps you sleep far sounder than if you were in the bush.
We met a lovely missionary couple while having lunch on the side of the road. Frikkie and Juanita de Jager left their contact details and said we could stay with them when we reached Chimoio. They even offered to help us with the visa problems if necessary. Juanita left us with butter soaked boerewors, which just set the bar for a definite visit.
After a hard four days of no bathing and water conservation we reached a school near Rio Buzi. Shame the children brought us each 25 liters of water,just so we could bath.
Viva Mozambique, viva!
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