The Republic of Mozambique is located on the Indian Ocean coastline of Southern Africa. The drive from Swaziland on Wednesday morning, through South Africa, to Mozambique took pretty much all day with various rest stops including our usual stop at the SPAR grocery stores to pick up lunch and whatever goodies we want along the way. This time we had to stock up on water bottles since the water in Mozambique is not good for drinking.

Plus we had to have our passports ready to cross the border and money in hand to purchase our Mozambique visa of 750 Rand…about $53 U.S. for our two days.

Mozambique, at least where we were staying, at the seaside village of Parque de Malongane Resort in Ponta Malongane, is where people go to snorkel, swim at the beach and scuba dive. None of which I do or even like to do. The thing about this area of Mozambique is, once you get off the main road, a few miles from the border, you’re in sand. And, that meant parking the bus at the Mozambique border and putting everything we needed for the next two days onto 4×4 trucks to transport us through the sand. As we drove into Mozambique the weather had gotten cooler and rain was in the forecast. Thankfully we arrived on the 4×4 to the camp site before the rain and were able to pitch our tent in the sand…sand that gets everywhere. And, wet sand, well let me go on record as saying, that’s not much fun either.

Since Thursday was a free day my plan for Mozambique was to find WiFi, download my backlog of photos, finally get some serious writing done and hopefully get my clothes washed. Well some of that happened but in the end, it turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable day.

I was able to get my laundry done by some of the women who work at the campsite…pants, shirts, socks and bras…cleaned, folded and put neatly back into the bag I brought them in for a whopping 100 Rand which equates to $6.78 U.S. And, I did get a hold of some WiFi and when it worked, it was great so I was able to do some writing and organizing of photos.

I did find a little corner to write in, but in the morning, I trudged through the wet sand into the village, while it drizzled, with several of my tour members and really enjoyed just hanging out with them. The sun did make an appearance in the afternoon so while many chose to hang out by the beach, I hung out at the bar/restaurant not to far from our campsite.

By Friday morning we were back to taking down the tents, packing up the 4×4 and heading back to the Mozambique border, which as it turned out was rather busy. Then back on our Intrepid bus to the South Africa resort town of St. Lucia where we arrived in the height of the heat to set up our campsite…which of course meant pitching our tent. If this was a Rick Steves Tour through Europe, like I’ve done a number of times before, I’d take a nap once I got to the hotel, which is exactly what I wanted to do when we arrived in St. Lucia. Instead, it was pitch tent time and quickly get ready for a cruise of World Heritage Site St. Lucia Estuary and a fabulous group dinner at the Barraca Restaurant.

Here’s the Republic of Mozambique and St. Lucia, South Africa. Next is the Kingdom of Zulu and the Valley of 1000 Hills in South Africa.

Ponta Malongane, Mozambique

St. Lucia, South Africa