Wednesday, 3 April: Gorongosa Adventures

Today was to be a day filled with running errands and traveling to Gorongosa Adventures (check them out here), the camp where the missionary retreat was going to be held. Before the hecticness of the day began, John and I peacefully watched some Paradise Flycatchers from the veranda.

I went with Steve to do the errands. Our first stop was the ATMs at the center square beside the Café Riviera. Since Steve was only going to be a few minutes, he double parked and left me to sit in the vehicle. As I waited I noticed a couple policemen walking along with their AK-47s. This was a bit unsettling to me, but everyone else just kept going like it was an everyday occurrence. Steve returned after a bit. Of the 3 ATMs, only one was functioning. One was broken and the other was out of money.

Our next stop was a wholesale warehouse where we bought bottled water. Then we drove to Carnes na Beira, a meat market owned by a South African. There we picked up an inordinate amount of meat.

We were still lacking camarão so went returned to Praia Nova. There we met Miguel who gave us the news that only one boat had returned and his friends were still at least an hour out. We could see 3 of the dugout canoes headed back to the beach but they were still a long ways away. Steve asked Miguel to call us if they caught any large prawns. We exited Praia Nova and went to ShopRite, a South African supermarket chain. There we bought bread, eggs, and some grapes.

Returning to the house we unloaded everything. Then I took a welcome shower. When I came out of the shower, lunch was on the counter waiting. It made a sandwich and joined the others outside only to discover that I had thought was chicken salad was actually tuna salad. I don't particularly care for tuna, but I was hungry and not wanting to be a bad guest so I stomached the sandwich. I used the delicious leftover fruit salad from the night before to wash it all down.

After lunch we packed up the Land Cruiser and got ready to leave for Gorongosa. Steve got a call from Miguel that the fishermen had caught some large prawns and he was holding them for us. We finished packing and headed down to Praia Nova for our sixth trip to buy shrimp.

Since it was around noon, the market place at Praia Nova was in full swing. With all of the fishermen on the shore, Steve commented that it reminded him of what the Sea of Galilee must have been like during Jesus' time when his first disciples "left everything and followed him." (Luke 5:11b) This setting has caused one of the pastors in Steve's discipleship class to begin holding Bible studies on the beach at Praia Nova.

Boat graveyard at Praia Nova.

This was also JoLene's first time at Praia Nova. She was amazed at all the different stands and everything that was being sold. Stands full of secondhand or donated clothing lined the street. The Mozambicans rate these clothes as A Grade or B Grade. A Grade clothing comes from the United States while B Grade clothing comes from China. People buy bundles of shirts and make a business out of them. Sadly, Steve explained that most of the clothes are still too expensive for many of the people to buy. I wonder how the people who donated these clothes would feel if they knew the truth.

Some of the shirts on sale.

Steve finally returned with Miguel and a bag full of large prawns. Our quest to find camarão grande was complete! We put the shrimp in the cooler and left Praia Nova to head to the retreat.

As we were heading out of the city, we stopped at Youngson's house. Here we picked up Raimundo's wife, Tanya. She was going along to the retreat to provide childcare for Jonathan and Becky Owen's kids. I said goodbye to Youngson since I would not see him again before leaving for Zimbabwe.

In the car, Tanya informed us who had spread the rumor that her husband had tried to commit suicide. This person tried to play an April Fools' joke on us, but didn't quite understand that the pranks Americans play are supposed to be harmless. This was a reminder of the dangers of cross-cultural misunderstanding.

With all six of us aboard the Land Cruiser, we headed west towards Inchope (pron. "in-cho-pay"), the intersection of the main east-west and north-south highways. The distance to Gorongosa Adventures was 180 km (111 mi) and would take us around 4 hours to drive. The road between Beira and Inchope was paved, but with many large potholes and some sections that had been reduced to dirt.

During the trip, the scenery changed from coastal swampland to flat plain to mountainous. The flats were an excellent place for birding so we stopped numerous times for John to get out and identify the birds. This was done by Steve stopping abruptly on the side of the road (still on the road, mind you, because there were no shoulders). John would then get out of the car with his binos (British form of binoculars) to identify the distinguishing features of the bird. Steve or Chris would then say what kind of bird it was either from memory or by looking it up in one of the many bird books they brought along. After a few minutes, John would get back in the car and we'd be on our way until the next bird was spotted.

We came to a bridge over the Púnguè River (the same river the flows into the ocean at Beira) and Steve stopped because there were some fishermen selling freshwater camarão grande. These prawns were larger than the ones we bought on the beach. Many were at least 12 inches in length and had bright blue legs. Since we weren't able to get enough shrimp at Praia Nova, Steve bought some more here.

Camarão grande!

When we got to Inchope, we turned right and headed north. We were also swarmed to people selling cashews and other products. They quickly surrounded our vehicle and were shoving their wares in through the open windows. Steve bought 6 bags at a price of 100 meticais ($3.33) per bag.

As we were leaving Inchope, we got stopped at a police checkpoint. They wanted to see our passports so they could verify that we were in the country legally. Meanwhile, Steve had to get out to open up the back of the car and explain what we were transporting and why. The biggest hassle was over the paperwork for the car. If you remember from earlier, Steve had just renewed the vehicles licenses. He had not, however, put the new stickers in the windshield. They finally let us continue on our journey without asking for any money.

A few kilometers down the road, we stopped so everyone could get out and stretch our legs. During this stop I learned how the Newcomers got the two vehicles they own. When Steve and Chris first came to Mozambique, they purchased a car and had it shipped from Japan (this is quite common in Africa). Meanwhile, the previous owner of their house, a South African man, had to return to South Africa on short notice because his work permit was not renewed. He needed cash on hand so he sold it to the Newcomers for a low price. Their other vehicle, a red 1991 Toyota Hilux was owned by MCC. They didn't need it anyone so Melanie sold it to them.

Another interesting story we learned was about the owner of the Gorongosa Adventures. Recently, he was driving by the river near the park at night. He came around a bend in the road and was face to face with a bull hippopotamus. If you don't know anything about hippos, you should know that more people in Africa are killed by hippos than any other animal except the mosquito. Back to the story. The hippo decided to charge the vehicle. By the grace of God, he was able to escape with his life by throwing his car into reverse and turning the headlights off. I hoped this wouldn't be an issue for anyone this weekend.

Beautiful view from the bridge. Thankfully no hippos today!

Finally we arrived at the turn for Gorongosa National Park and turned off the tarred road onto the wash-boarded dirt road. After 8 km of extra bumpy road, we arrived at the camp. There we were greeted by one of the camp's Mozambican managers, Raimundo (a different Raimundo than Tonya's husband). We unpacked the vehicle and took our belongings to our respective tents.

View of a tent shelter.

Let me describe the living quarters for you. They were glorified tents, typical of African safaris or hunting camps. Each tent had 2 single beds, a bookshelf/dresser, wastebasket, and 2 lights inside. Each tent also had an 8x10 foot canopy in front of it. Most of the tents also had a permanent bamboo and reed structure built around them. On the ground were reed mats. My structure also had an extended sitting area with a table and 5 chairs. In front of it was a raised circular fire pit and also an oven.

My tent.

My tent was located in prime real estate close to the center of the camp and right next to bathroom. I would be sharing my tent with John Spurrier, a doctor at Macha Mission Hospital in Zambia

Sitting at the table I was able to witness quite a few wonderful things. Behind me, I could hear the ants either marching or chewing (it was quite surreal). In the rafters, two lizards perched near the light. As insects carelessly landed on the bamboo rafters, the lizards would race forward to snatch an easy meal. All kinds of birds and other called one another in the forest surrounding the camp. There were also innumerable insects and bugs flying around which avoided me after a careful application of every square inch of my body with bug spray.

Quite a smart little lizard.

Shortly before 7:00 pm, we gathered to head up to the house for dinner. Although the men working in the camp were trustworthy, we were told to bring our passports, money, and cameras along with us whenever we walked to the house. When we arrived at the house, we were met by Sakkie (pron. "saki". Sakkie is short for Isaac, pron. "e-saac"). Sakki is the main manager of the camp. He is the oldest son of Piet (pron. "Pete") and Ria van Zyl, the owners of Gorongosa Adventures. Sakki is Afrikaans and is a professional hunter when not managing the camp—no small feat for only being 22 years of age!

For dinner, we had pork in a sauce over rice with green beans. The food, made by Ria, was top notch (It puts Camp Yolijwa's food to shame). We ate in Piet and Ria's dining room in their very unique house. It is unlike anything I had experienced in my life. Their house is completely open air except for the bedrooms. It has a thick, grass roof (Despite what you may think, well-built grass roofs with proper maintenance can last for more than 15 years.). The section of the house with the dining room was in a bamboo/reed addition. The van Zyls' keep adding on more rooms to accommodate groups of guests who come to the camp (The camp can hold up to 100 people!). Despite the size of the house, each room is decorated in a rustic style that showcases the family's history.

The van Ryl's amazing house.

After dinner, I returned to my tent and went to sleep. The mattress was more like a foam pad and not very comfortable, but after a long day and a good meal, it didn’t take too long to fall asleep.

Tuesday, 2 April: Camarão Grande

Canoe made from the trunk of a coconut palm.

Steve and I had an early morning today which began at 5:30 am. We were headed to Praia Nova (pron. "pry-a nova". New Beach.) with the quest of finding shrimp for the missionary retreat. We drove through a market where the vendors were just beginning to set up shop. Steve wasn't quite sure of the way so he stopped a couple times and asked, "Camarão?" (pron. "cam-are-ow". "Shrimp?") We continued driving into the market. The road narrowed until it was just big enough for us to fit through. We drove until we came out on the beach where you could see a bunch of fisherman in their dugout canoes. We know we were in the right place so we parked the car.

We got out of the vehicle and walked around, but none of the fishermen had anything yet. We stopped by a group of fisherman preparing to launch and Steve asked when they would how shrimp. They said to come back at 2:00 pm. We thanked them ("Obrigado") and headed back to the car. We drove back into the city and headed up the coast to check another spot.

On the way, Steve drove past the Grande Hotel. The Grande Hotel was a 5-star resort which was built in 1953 and was the premier resort on the entire eastern coast of Africa. It featured the only Olympic-sized swimming pool in all of Mozambique at the time. The business went defunct for a number of different reasons (you can read about it here) in 1963, only 9 years after it had opened. It was then used as a military base during the Mozambican Civil War. Afterwards, it was abandoned. Now thousands of squatters are living in the hotel in slum-like conditions. The Grande Hotel has been stripped of everything of value down to the concrete walls by its new residents. This once extravagant luxury resort designed to attract the wealthiest whites is now ironically home to some of the poorest in Mozambique.

The Grande Hotel today.

We continued up the coast and parked at the end of a street. To get onto the beach, we climbed a small set of stairs up the sea wall. Trash was strewn all over the beach. The smell of the trash combined with the fish drying in the sun was a pungent, but a normal odor on the beaches in Beira. Steve and I walked along the waters' edge until we came to a group of fishermen consisting of mostly young boys. They had a bucket of fish and some shrimp. Steve negotiated a price of 50 meticais (pron. "meta-cash". The metical is the official currency of Mozambique. Meticais is the plural form. Roughly 30 meticais is equal to $1.) for a small bag of coconut shrimp plus a few muito grande (pron. "moi-to gron-day". Very large.) prawns that were 6-8 inches long. He also bought two flounder for another 50 meticais. We still needed quite a bit more kgs (kilograms) of camarão grande, but at least we had a start.

The fishermen told us they would have more camarão around 10:00 am. We walked back to the car through the groups of tiny fish lying on the sand to dry. When we got back to the house, we ate breakfast. Then Steve left for attempt #2 at getting his vehicle licenses renewed. He returned successful! He was near the front of the line when the office opened and when they saw his white hair, they brought him to the front of the line.

Around 9:45 am, Steve and I headed out in search of camarão again. We returned to the spot where we had some success earlier. This time we parked close to a rusty relic of war, an old naval gun. Unfortunately, the fishermen didn't have any camarão grande so we settled for the smaller coconut shrimp. When Steve went to pay for the shrimp, I got to experience the art of haggling, which Steve has down to a science. The fisherman set the initial price at 500 meticais by writing it in the sand. Steve got the price down to 400 and handed him the cash. Then the man threw a curve ball and asked for 50 more meticais. Steve calmly "fumbled" through his wallet and produced a 20 meticais bill. The fisherman couldn't help but laugh as he handed over the seafood. We returned home with a plastic bag full of camarão and a realization that getting enough shrimp was going to be trickier than we had planned.

After lunch, Steve and I went to the airport to pick up John and JoLene. We loaded up their luggage and brought them back to the house. Then Steve and I took John to Praia Nova to try to buy more shrimp and to give John a true Mozambican experience.

Good ole SAA. I highly recommend using this airline if you're traveling anywhere in Southern Africa.

Steve went a different way than we had gone earlier that morning. We ended up turning down a wrong (well, technically it wasn't a wrong street, just not the one we thought it was) which meant we had to drive through the slum that’s beside Praia Nova. As we drove, the people glanced curiously at the "lost" white men. Eventually, we made it to the beach.

On the beach we saw a group of people huddled in a circle. This was our clue that a fresh catch had just been hauled in to shore. We walked over and inquired about camarão. They didn't have any large prawns, but said there would be some in about an hour (though at first one man told us to come back tomorrow) so we decided to wait.

A fresh catch!

To pass the time, we decided to walk down the beach. We came to the beach adjacent to the slum we had driven through. At one point, we had to cross through some runoff from the slum. These pools were full of water turned green and brown from the sewage. It was pleasantly warm between my toes, but the smell soon brought me back to the stark reality.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but they'll also build a house.

We found another group of fishermen that had just brought in a catch. Still no shrimp, but they did have a large stingray. We returned to the spot where the first group of fishermen was. They still didn't have any large prawns. We checked a few other groups of fisherman without any luck.

Our search for the elusive camarão grande was then interrupted by a large commotion. A group of 20-30 men were working together to get one of the large boats off the beach and into the water. They did the Portuguese equivalent of "1, 2, 3, PUSH!!" When they had successfully gotten the boat into the ocean and a loud "Hurray!" went up among those pushing.

Just a bit bigger than the dugout canoes...

As we were reveling in the excitement, a man walked up to us and greeted us in English. His name was Miguel and he was more than happy to test his English (which was excellent) with us. He rightly guessed that we were in missions and Steve gave him his card so he could get more information. He was friends with one of the groups of fishermen so we asked where we could get some large prawns. Miguel told us he would ask his friends and give Steve a call when they had some. We thanked Miguel and drove home passing the Grande Hotel for John to see.

After returning to the house, we decided to take a stroll through the Club de Golfe to go birding (Steve and John are avid birders. Steve set of lofty goal of showing John 100 new species of bird on this trip.). John only saw one new bird on this excursion. I, on the other hand, got to see numerous birds that I had never seen before. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and enjoying the fresh pineapple Steve had bought when he went to renew the car licenses. I went to bed early since the Newcomers were adamant about sleeping on the couches to accommodate John, JoLene, and I in the two bedrooms. 

Gray heron

Lilac-breasted Roller

The perfect end to a wonderful day.

*A special thank you to John Hawbaker for all pictures in this post which are not things that can fly or the last picture.