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Final Day in Mozambique and the end to the Expedition!

Lacey / August 27, 2012 / No comments

Expedition Day 4 – The Last Day

The last day of the expedition started with the usual groans of apprehension. What followed was to be a great day of walking down to the border between Mozambique and South Africa.

The morning started with everyone getting up and preparing their kit bags for the day ahead. Tents were to be cleared out of all kit although some people forgot their clothes which they had left to dry on the washing line (trees around their tent) What followed was a quick final breakfast down at the dive center then bags on and off walking for 8am.

Walking the road past the market followed by some very quick haggling with the locals for the last items from them, then off again down the road and on to the school we were at all those day’s before. Followed from the local village by the usual entourage of kids all of which were coping with the heat better than the rest of us.

As time went past a giant game of leap frog started to occur between the 3 different groups all trying to reach the border first helped to while away the hours as did loads of energy sweets and the constant chatter of random topics of conversation ranging from what we had done, what was left in store for use to some very random topics which are too strange for words. This would only occur when we were not observing the sky’s for the odd bird of prey (kites and a Fish Eagles mainly but there was a snake eagle)

It was as the final kilometers drew into view the final realization that we were leaving Mozambique began to kick in memories came flooding back of what we had done in Mozambique. At the border we were greater with the wide embrace of Tony and Anton (Ha it was more of being thrown through the border bags into the van and the shout of scavengers over here). As well as congratulations from Lacey (who was, I think, taking 100 pictures a second) and Charlotte. On the other side of the border we where greeted by Meva and then driven back to Anton’s where we were treated to Meva’s famous Lasagne.

From the whale watching to climbing signal hill and the tremendous fun we had with the locals in the schools and orphanage none of us would forget what we have achieved.

Stuart

Category: Activities, Albizia camp, Amangwane Kosi Bay, Bushwire, DofE2012, Duke of Edinburgh Award, Environmental Awareness Course, Gold 2012, Wetland Park Group / Tags: adventure, build self confidence, Duke of Edinburgh Award, educational holidays, Environmental awareness course, expedition, family holidays, gold award, hiking, make friends, memories, Mozambique, once in a lifetime, sand, self sufficiency, student, student expedition, youth expedition

Day 9 &10 – Second Day of the Expedition

Duke of Edinburgh Participant 2012 / August 22, 2012 / No comments

Woke up at six o clock, reluctant to leave the awesome comfy-ness of the Kosi Bay beds but knowing that we had less than an hour before we would be on the road to Mozambique. We sleep-walked our way through breakfast and all too soon our big bags were on our backs and we were off. It took just under an hour to get to the border, and once we were across, everything changed. It was amazing how different the land looked, and although we were still only a few feet from South Africa, we could tell immediately that we were in a different country!

We started off down the only road out from the border post (much sandier than the roads in South Africa!) and suddenly the sun seemed a lot hotter than before! I am pretty sure that the only reason I made it to lunch time was the fact that Nathan offered round the Rowntrees Randoms every time we stopped! Finally we stopped to eat our sandwiches and had just started to relax when we realized we were sat on a nest of GIANT RED ANTS! But by this point we were so hot and tired that we couldn’t be bothered to move! After another couple of hours walking we finally made it to the Blue Bull Bar where Anton, Tony, Lacey and Charlotte were waiting, looking very un-sweaty compared to us! Once all of the groups had arrived we walked down to the campsite and after a FREEZING COLD shower, collapsed into our tents.

On expedition day two, everyone woke up aching! Today we were going to be living off 10 Rand each, in an attempt to understand how hard life can be for so many people in this part of the world. So we began the day by walking up to the market and buying three loaves of Pao bread per person, this was also our first haggling-experience in Mozambique and we were managed to get the price of our bread down from 2.50 to 2 Rand by combining with one of the other groups and buying 33 loaves of bread all at once! With the basics of our diet for the day sorted we started our walk towards the local primary school, where we would be spending a couple of hours playing with the kids.

Becky and I were quite nervous as we had been asked to plan a few games but had no idea what to expect, we needn’t have worried though – it was amazing! As we arrived and began unloading parachutes and plastic balls from the back of the Land Cruiser, the children came pouring out of the school and swarmed us! We started off playing with a couple of parachutes, bouncing the balls on top and letting the kids run underneath, then after a little while we decided to bring out the footballs, Becky and I went to fetch a couple and as soon as the kids saw them the place descended into CHAOS! Impromptu games of football and catch started up all over the place and we had to think of a quick way to calm things down a bit! It turned out that the answer was… the Hokey-Cokey! We managed to get all of the children into a huge circle and they picked up the actions pretty fast, they especially loved holding hands and running into the centre screaming! By the time we had to leave, an hour and a half later, the children were still full of energy, but we were all shattered! We took a lot of pictures and gave a lot of high-fives and thumbs-ups and then we were on our way to Ponta D’Oura, where we would buy the rest of our food for the day at the market.

I don’t think that what we did for the rest of the way to Ponta D’Oura can be described as walking, it was definitely more like trudging! The sun seemed a lot hotter than the day before and the sand a lot harder to walk on, plus we were tired and stiff and hungry. But we made it eventually and, with some haggling, managed to spend the final 20 Rand our group had left on 5 tomatoes, 7 potatoes, 3 carrots, and onion and a pepper to make a stew with for dinner. The journey back to camp wasn’t nearly as difficult as we just walked along the beach until we saw the bar. Two of the groups decided to team up for dinner as we had a lot of the same ingredients so we shoved them all into a pot of water and hoped for the best! It all worked out brilliantly, despite one moment of panic when Beth thought she had ruined everyone’s food by getting a little too excited with the salt and spices!

Living on only 10 Rand for a day was more difficult than I had expected, but it really opened up my eyes to the hardships that so many people have to face everyday; if it was such a struggle for us to survive 24 hours on 10 Rand, what must it be like for people who have only ever known a life with that little? By the time we went to bed I am pretty sure I was the most tired I have EVER been!

Although it had it’s ups and downs, today was still amazing, and I still agree that since being in Africa, each day seems better than the one before, however knackered you are by the end of it!