Beira to Nampula

We left Manica ready to discover the country.  Sloan and his business partner, Barnie, dropped us off at the market, which also happened to be where we’d get the chapa (combi) to Chimio.  They were a little hesitant to leave us there, but we knew we’d be on our own at some point and were ready to see the country.

We spoke with the head hunter of an almost full chapa and decided to wait until the next one came to get the front seat.  They would charge us extra for our bags, but we were expecting that.  We’d been told not to let them put our packs on top for security reasons, but there was no space to put them inside.  So they got strapped on and every time we stopped, we kept an eye on what was happening around us.

 

As we pulled out of town, we hit our first police stop.  They asked for the IDs of several people in the back as well as ours.  We knew better than hand over our passports so they got a copy instead.  He seemed satisfied with this and they let us carry on.  As the chapa got back on the road, the driver took a rolled-up bill and put it in the fold of his license.  When we reached the next police stop, they didn’t ask for anyone IDs.  He refilled his license with another bill as we left so he’d be ready for the next stop.  There were 2 more stops before we reached Chimoio, which made for an expensive ride for them.  Along the way, we passed rock quarries that were done completely by hand.  Men, women and children were scattered over the massive rock slowly etching away at it with their picks.

We were told where to catch the vehicles to Beira and had people immediately directing us towards the bus.  We negotiated a price and they showed us towards food and the bathrooms.  This time our bags went inside as it was a larger vehicle.  We waited for an hour until it was completely full and then started moving.  As it pulled out, we were handed a form to fill out.  We asked the guy next to us what it was.  He said it was to list our names and an emergency contact information in case we got in an accident.  Not the best feeling before you start the long journey, but we filled it out anyway.

It took us almost 8 hours to reach Beira, but we’d reached our first destination.  We called our contact in the city, Lulas, and coordinated which hotel to head to.  He gave us a recommendation and would meet up with us later.  When we met him in the lobby, he was waiting for us with Tío Didinho, a children’s TV star, so we took a picture before heading out.  We had dinner and drinks together while watching the waves crash on the beach before calling it a night.  It was nice to be near the ocean again and to think the last time we saw the water we were on the other side of Africa.

 

 

The next day we wandered around town and got our bus tickets.  Even though we were already at the beach, we’d have to head inland to get to the Northern beaches.  We knew it was going to be a long haul, but expected the beaches to be amazing and make it all worth it.  At the bus station, two different guys tried to persuade us to go with their company.  The price was the same, but one left 30 minutes later.  Considering they leave before the sun comes up, we opted for the later of the 2.  We left the station with tickets in hand for a 4:30 am departure with Nagi.

 

It had rained on and off all day, but it cleared up enough for us to spend the afternoon at the beach.  We ordered food from a takeaway restaurant and grabbed a few beers from a street vendor.  The promenade had benches above the sand so we sat and watched the water as we ate.  It was a holiday weekend so the beach was full of people and there were large groups in the sand doing acrobatics.  There were also young boys that stripped down to nothing to get in the water and fight the waves.

 

 

 

Later that evening, my phone rang.  As only a few people had the number, I decided to see who it was.  It turned out there was an issue with the bus and it’d be leaving at 6:30 am instead of the scheduled time.  Not sure if I’d understood his Portuguese, I asked for someone to repeat it in English.  We called the taxi and asked him to come later, yet again with confusion due to the language barrier.  Even though we were excited to get to sleep a couple extra hours, we knew this meant we’d be getting in late.

We arrived at the bus station at 6 am to find it mostly empty with the exception of a family of 4, who were also waiting.  They’d received the same phone call yet despite their attempts to speak with someone that morning, no one would answer.  As time passed, 2 more people showed up, but there was still no bus.  Everyone tried to call the number that had called the night before.  No one had any luck.  We followed the lead of everyone else, which was to wait, and made ourselves comfortable.  It was a perfect opportunity to play cards as there was a table and chairs nearby, so we entertained ourselves while we waited.

A few minutes before 8:30 am, the bus pulled into the station.  It had people coming up from Maputo on it, but there were still several places open.  Someone was in our seats so we took 2 next to them and got a little sleep.  As the bus carried on, more and more people got on.  One argued that we were in the wrong seats and tried to get everyone up to rotate around, but lost the battle.  Then, more people got on and had to stand/sit on the floor in the aisle.  We were glad we had bought our tickets ahead of time and had assigned seats so we weren’t one of those passengers.

After 5.5 hours, we’d only made it 200 kms (124 miles).  Meaning we still had almost 500 kms (310 miles) to our destination.  We had a quick bathroom stop at a restaurant, where we also had the chance to buy food before continuing on.  A few hours later, we passed a bus from the same company on the side of the road and we loaded up the stranded passengers.  The bus was well over capacity at this point, but people made themselves at home in the space they had.

 

The bus had interesting smells with so many people and there were quite a few children crammed 2-3 in a seat in addition to their mother.  We were very impressed how well they did considering the lack of entertainment and space.  There was an occasional cry, but there were no tantrums.  At one point, once it was completely dark I felt something fall on my leg.  With the help of a cell phone light, we saw someone’s leftover rice strewn over the floor, my leg and the owner’s foot.

 

The road had patches where the road was completely washed out from rain and others where giant holes covered almost every inch.  One section had us crawling for kilometers as we dodged the holes.  I’d occasionally look at the map and see how little we’d moved, but at least we were getting closer.  When we stopped to drop people in different towns, it was usually on the side of the highway where stalls with loud music and dancing lined the road.

 

At 12:30 am and after 16 hours with only 1 bathroom stop since boarding that morning, we pulled into the Quelimane station.  There were people sleeping everywhere and others that appeared to be there be socialize.  The good thing was this was the final stop so we were a large group getting off.  We still didn’t know where we’d stay that night, but we knew we didn’t want to get back on the bus at 4 am to finish the trip to Nampula.  I asked the woman that had gotten on with us in Beira and she offered to share a taxi with us.  She told us where to stay and helped us more than she knew.

The lights of the pensaõ went on as we unloaded our bags and 2 men came out to greet us.  Just as the taxi pulled away, 3 police officers approached us asking for our documents.  Tico frustrated from the long haul snapped at the officer and refused, but I pulled out the copy of our passports anyway.  They reviewed the information and let us enter the hotel without another word.  We were glad to see a bed and couldn’t wait to climb in and be horizontal.

When we woke up we realized that our accommodation was across the street from the market.  We knew we could come back to see the action so we headed out to get bus tickets for the next day’s trip.  Once at the bus station, the man told us to come back later as the ticket book was somewhere else.

 

Since we had time to waste, we wandered around to see a little more of the town.  When we checked back in, they still didn’t have the tickets so we decided to go towards the river.  My phone was still having issues with the new line so we found a Vodacom shop on the way.  I was put in a line that moved slowly so we decided to split up to finish our errands.  While I waited for the phone, Tico used a bike taxi to get our bus tickets.  Once we were both done, we went towards the waterfront for lunch.  We got the fish (magi) from Guest House Leopoldina and were very impressed.

 

Then, we headed back towards our hotel.  We wanted to check out the market and get a few things for the next day.  As we wandered around, we found the used clothes aisle.  Both sides had stalls selling clothes, which made us feel like we were in an outdoor thrift store.  As we continued, we found the clothing auction.  There were 3 men standing on a platform each holding a different piece of clothing while shouting numbers based off the reactions of the people below.  They had large bag of clothing that looked like it had been shipped directly from Europe or the US.  Once we finished experiencing the town, we headed to our balcony to get a different view of the market before making it an early night.

 

 

The alarm went off at 2:45 am to make sure we made the 4 am bus.  We waited for some time for our taxi and debated walking if it took much longer.  Thankfully, it showed up before we decided to leave on our own.  The bus station was filled with people, many who had spent the night at the station.  All were waiting for the buses to start so they would let people on.  That didn’t happen until 30 minutes after 4, but one-by-one we were let on the bus and our bags were put under the bus.

We had imagined a bus ride similar to the one we’d had days before, but were very pleased when we realized the road was in much better condition.  There were still patches that made us go a little slower, but nothing in comparison to the previous section.  By 11:45 am we were in Nampula and coordinating with our Couchsurfing host, Mwaura.  He sent his driver to the bus station to fetch us since he was at work.

 

Once we arrived at the house, we settled in and grabbed a bite to eat from a nearby takeaway restaurant.  We relaxed and waited for Mwaura to get home that evening.  He is from Kenya, but has been working in Nampula for several years.  We learned more about his story and got tips of where we should go in Mozambique as well as Kenya.  He took us out for dinner so we could sample some of his local favorites.  We went for shwarmas, which actually had French fries inside, and had fresh cane sugar juice for dessert.

 

In order to cross into Malawi where we wanted to, we would go North before coming South again.  So we each packed 2 small bags and left our big packs at Mwaura’s.  His driver took us to the chapa station so we could get a ride to Ilha de Mozambique.  We’d see the history of what used to be Portuguese colony and really start to enjoy the beach.

 

Helpful tips:

• We heard mixed reviews of Beira. The city is the 2nd largest in Mozambique and doesn’t have much charm.
• Nampula has a good selection and cheaper fabric compared to the rest of the country.
• If traveling long distances by bus, make sure to buy your ticket in advance to get a seat and ideally try to get one by a window.