Airport Coffee

The journey to Ilha de Moçambique from Ponta D’Ouro was a titanic feat, including all forms of travel: land (both road and sand), sea and air. The journey also included private and public forms of transport, and began at 9 am one day (with a little bit of anxiety) and ended at 5 pm the next day. Needless to say it was an exhausting trip that took us from Ponta D’Ouro to Catembe, to Maputo, to Nampula, to Namialo and finally to Ihla de Moçambique.

The same man that drove us to the border, Stevo, drove us to Catembe in his chapa. We initiated the trip with a little hiccup, we initially thought the flight from Maputo was 2 hours later than it turned out to be when we double checked an hour before set-off. A series of factors played in our favour, firstly a fairly large buffer and secondly an initial overestimation of the travel time (which was obtained from a different route taken on the way to Ponta). This meant that we actually arrived to Catembe, to take the ferry across the bay, on time. In Maputo we had the chance to grab a quick meal (at our favourite low-cost Indian restaurant “Galaxy”) to then head straight to the airport. Passing security Jaime had an interesting encounter with a police-woman, after being signalled out for having the dangerous item composing of a couple small metal locks.

The flight to Nampula was a pleasant journey, which gave a chance to crack a cold one with the boys in celebration of the Outstanding Achievement Award 2017 from Imperial College that was granted earlier in the week (with some incredulity). Once having touched ground that evening in Nampula, we met an older couple that were heading that same evening to Ilha de Moçambique to volunteer at an orphanage for girls. We mention this couple because we were going to bump into them several more times once at Ilha, despite heading there a day later. Once we had our bags, we headed to the hostel for a well-deserved meal and rest.

The following morning, we set off early towards the train station of Nampula to catch a regular chapa to Ilha, and here is were the real adventure began. Initially, all went smoothly, we promptly found a chapa, and then things began to hint towards complication. The chapa driver and cobrador were trying to get 2 more people in than could actually fit (we were already 23 in a chapa built for 12, on top of a few chickens free to roam the floor of the vehicle). The journey proceeded smoothly for the first 3 hours, until this chapa that was supposedly going to Ponta D’Ouro forced everyone to get off at Namialo, to get on on another chapa. Before heading off, there was a heated exchange between us and the driver of our first chapa, where the driver had the intent of getting more money than had been agreed. Finally, 20 minutes later, once that was settled and we set off on this second chapa that spent two hours looking for people to fill up, to then finally head towards Ilha, stopping every 300m almost. Once in Lumbo, we had to once again change chapa. This was the final chapa that took us across the bridge to the centre of the island, followed by 10-minute walk to the hostel. Amidst this mess, we met a character that would be present throughout our experience in Ilha: Saleh.