The Buttons of My Mind

What a night! After a routine day at work we had arranged to meet with Lord Waverley and two geologists who visited the DNG earlier at the Costa do Sol (see previous entries for my thoughts on that place!). After sitting there for about 15 minutes the phone rang, “we’re in a meeting, we’ll phone in 20 mins”. An hour later the phone rang again, “we’ll be there in 10 mins”. Twenty minutes later the geologists arrived, but no Lord. He was still in the meeting! By now of course we’d had a few 2Ms, were starving and had exhausted every Lord joke we could possibly come up with. Into this the geologists arrived.

Several more 2Ms were consumed with dinner and then we were invited back to the Polona for cocktails (it’s about midnight by now). A few Singapore Slings later and the bar told us it was shutting so we got kicked out. My colleague is a proper Yorkshire lass and as unladylike as you could imagine, she gave the poor geologists quite a bit of grief over “his Lordships” failure to show. Oh dear! Hey, at least it didn’t cost us a penny and we might see them again tonight. I’ve just gone teetotal…

Today was a public holiday in Mozambique, Fighter’s Day or Armed Forces Day depending on what reference you use. We met up with one of the DNG staff and drove to Barracuene just north of Maputo where there is a ferry across the river to a beach lodge, unfortunately the road was not suitable for our car so we stayed this side of the river and had lunch. We then attempted to drive down a road completely unsuitable for a car but turned back just before we got stuck!

Tonight we met up with a couple from a geological consultancy in the UK who very kindly bought us dinner.

This blog is a bit brief as I’ve had a few beers and the keyboard is tricky to use!

Just returned from a weekend trip to Bilene, a beach resort about 190km drive north from Maputo…

Saturday: We set off around 10am for the drive to Bilene. After negotiating the outskirts of Maputo with throngs of people and chapas we hit the open road. Very smooth, very straight and very quiet. Easy to cruise along at 100kph and only a few small villages between us and our destination. The journey taking us about 2.5 hours we found a reasonable hotel to stay for the night and hit the beach. Went for my first swim in the Indian Ocean, although this is a lagoon it is connected to the open ocean. The sea wasn’t as warm as I was expecting, but it was by no means cold. The only down side of Bilene is that it is a popular weekend spot for South Africans and they like to bring their quad bikes with them and thrash around the village destroying the peace. This was compunded by the fact it is a holiday in South Africa this week so more people than is usual were at the resort.

The highlight of the evening was a powercut during dinner at the beach restaurant. This gave me my first truly dark southern night sky of the trip with the milky way directly overhead. It is a sight to behold and nothing compares to that completely light free environment. Fantastic.

Sunday: The whole purpose of the trip was to seek out a geocache at one of the lodges (see About Me for details of this hobby!). Sadly we couldn’t find it despite enlisting the help of the managers and half of the guests in the search. My first Mozambique geocache will allude me I think (there are only 6 in the whole country and this was the closest to Maputo). It then decided to rain on us during lunch, unbelievable! We still managed an hour on the beach in the afternoon before the drive home. Again negotiating the outskirts of Maputo was exciting, with me driving the wrong way around a burger roundabout at one point!

I think we will be able to make a trip to Xai Xai, the next provincial capital, one weekend. Now we know what the roads are like it is only another 50km further on from Maputo. Or maybe we will return to Bilene and rent one of the thatched chalets at the resort. A truly magical place.

There was a annular eclipse of the Sun today off the southern coast of Africa (the Moon’s apparent diameter is too small to cause a total eclipse and the Sun appears as a ring in the path of annularity). Most of southern Africa saw a partial eclipse of the Sun and Maputo saw around 30% of the Sun covered. I took loads of pictures of the Sun projected using binoculars. Once I have processed them I will up them here.

For the second time we had no internet connection at work all day, which is very frustrating when you need to upload and download scripts. I did reboot the modem for them (the internet is provided by the local cable TV company and rebooting involves pulling the plug out and plugging it back in again!). But it appears the whole of Maputo was out.

We went for cocktails after dinner at the Polana hotel this evening, so posh it’s quite incredible. There was us heathens knocking back Singapore Slings and Pink Nellies!!

Might be going to Bilene for the weekend so if there is no update tomorrow it’s because I’m too busy swimming in the crystal clear sea or drinking beer in a lounger on the white sand.

Had a mildly embarrassing moment at work today. The director of DNG came to see how we were getting on, I’d met him in his office earlier in the week. Problem was he came very casually dressed and I didn’t recognise him, I just thought he was some random bloke! He started asking me about my work etc., and all the time I was thinking ‘who is this guy?’. Anyway he was obviously interested so I showed him everything and he left very impressed with what I had done and what I propose to do. It was a little later when someone said the director had come to visit that I twigged! No harm done!

My colleague decided to cut short her trip to Tete and came back today, so I drove and picked her up from the airport, had a mildly amusing episode at one road junction where the traffic lights were out. A traffic policeman was stood on a box directing traffic, his actions were very confusing and very exaggerated, he almost looked like a ballerina perched up there in his white gloves. I half expected him to do a pirouette!

Time for a mild rant. The ‘in’ place is Costa do Sol, you see so many well heeled people eating there and it has airs and graces. The guidebooks wax lyrical about it. It is the place to be seen in Maputo. We ate there again tonight. The problem is the food is just so average, it’s no better than you might expect from a Hungry Horse, in fact it’s worse than that. I just want to go around the tables where all the la-di-da people are sat and tell them ‘look it’s a nice location n all but they are making no effort with the food, you are eating in no more than a glorified Little Chef’.

Tomorrow is payday, so I expect to see loads of drunk people tomorrow evening.

Kind of a frustrating day at work today. The web server is all set up ready and secure. The website is all templated and I’ve done all the necessary preparations for testing it live. I just need to adjust the settings on the network, half of which we control and I can do, the other half is controlled by DNG and the network guy is on holiday this week. He said he would come in and see me, but he didn’t show.

Friday is payday and Monday is a public holiday so I can’t see much being done before Tuesday. It’s a 5 minute job and I could do it myself. Ah well, this is the African way sometimes.

I’m starting to drive like a local, had a couple of mad manoeuvres today, but we had a good laugh about it (nothing dangerous you understand). We also know where the police hang out for their road blocks so we tend to avoid them now.

Oh and I pigged out today, two tosta mistas for lunch (cheese and ham toasties), the waiter thought I was mad!

Tomorrow morning is Lariam time. I’m going to take one more and see what happens, I’m hoping nothing too serious.

What to say, we went to work, I finished templating the DNG website. Now I just need to work out how and where to host it. We did go to the large indoor market at lunchtime, similar in style to the covered market in Oxford, lots of narrow aisles and stalls selling fruit and veg, toiletries, gifts, crafts, clothes etc. Very atmospheric and very busy, it was nice just to mingle and soak up the vibe.

In the following short video you can see the scene from the Café Continental where we usually have lunch. You can see the chapas (small minibuses) that are everywhere and usually in a very poor state of repair. A couple of street hawkers and general street scenes.

Café Continental (8.2Mb DivX Movie)

After last night’s storms the morning dawned cold, wet and windy. The drive into work was punctuated with swirls of sand blowing against the car, a fallen palm tree and huge puddles. From this I drove my colleague to the airport for her trip to two of the regional offices in Tete and Chimoio. The temperature in Tete, which wears the badge of hottest town in Mozambique and not for its nightlife, was 42C.

So began my first solo drive in Maputo, I knew the way – the city is built as a grid – I was careful, I was vigilant over the junctions where the traffic lights were out, I kept below 50kph. But as I drove down the hill into the city centre I could see the police standing either side of the carriageway, letting motorists past. I knew what was coming. Single white guy on his own? Let’s pull him over. A quick check of paperwork and my almost zero Portugeuse saw me right this time. We have all been stopped once each, the full set!

I still went to work in a T-shirt, but it was amusing to see the local workers huddled in pullovers and coats indoors, it was still around 22C but this is a very cold day in Maputo!

Here are some new videos for your enjoyment…

A walking tour of the house (9.3Mb DivX Movie)

My room (2.8Mb DivX Movie)

The botanical gardens (1.6Mb DivX Movie)

If you’re having problems watching the videos you will need to download and install the DivX codec from DivX for Windows. It is free and painless.

Eventually got around to watching V for Vendetta tonight. What a cracking film. Will definitely be watching that one again.

African storms, you gotta love em! You haven’t seen a thunderstorm until you’ve seen the African version. Tonight we had an example of what can be done with static electricity. We walked to the local resturant in cloudy conditions, but while we were eating, kaboom! Lightning so close you could feel it, thunder so loud you couldn’t hear anything else! Still flashing away in the distance now about 3 hours later, and the wind is gusting gale force. I’m writing this on the balcony looking out over Maputo hoping to see some more close lightning so I can get some pictures or movies.

Today we went into town to look at the sights, of which there are few. We saw the Casa de Ferro (Iron House) designed by the French engineer Eiffel and made of prefabricated metal parts. Also the Jardim Tunduru (Botanical Gardens) which were beautifully neglected, they reminded me of the scene in Logan’s Run where they visit Washington after nature has taken over. We then went to the Museu Nacionel des Artes (Modern Art Museum) which had some bizarre modern art pieces, Post-it Note pictures for example, and some lovely local pieces. Photography not permitted unfortunately. Probably the oddest sight of the day was the Louis Trichardt Memorial Garden, in tip-top condition in the middle of abandoned housing and rubbish. A strange 1960s memorial to a Great Trek leader on the spot where he is supposed to have died of Malaria, a piece of apartheid chic surviving in downtown Maputo.

We gave the Catholic Cathedral a miss although we walked close by, completed in 1944 the labour to build it was recruited by the authorities by picking up teenage girls off of the streets of Maputo and examining them to see if they were virgins or not. If they weren’t it was assumed that they were prostitutes and as a fine they were made to help build the cathedral. You couldn’t (and wouldn’t want to) make it up!

And on that cheerful note, I will bid you good night, and check back tomorrow for pictures of today’s visits.

We drove out of Maputo for the first time today looking for the home of a famous artist which has a restaurant and is open to the public. Unfortunately we didn’t know the address and after driving around randomly for a while we stopped at a pool bar for lunch and to ask directions. When we did ask it was apparently ‘too difficult’ to explain! We have since found the location on the internet so maybe we’ll go back.

It was interesting to see some of the country outside the capital, some very poor areas of shanty housing. This is after all one of the poorest countries in the world, it is hard to remember this when you see so many well to do people in Maputo.

I’m feeling much better today as you may have guessed, looks like a 24 hour malaise hopefully.