Pemba 7th -21st June 2012

Pemba - Thursday 7th June 2012
When arriving in Pemba, we headed straight for Pemba Dive & Bushcamp. This is a beautiful spot right on the beach in the huge big Pemba Bay, with lovely shady trees in the campsite and a baracca for shade. They offer all sorts of free activities: Kayaking,nature walks,archery,trampoline,mud baths and a huge bonfire at night with drumming.

View from campsite

Archery

Bryce & Aimee

We set up camp and went for a swim in the Bay. After work my friend Karen(From Varsity days), her husband Guy and daughter Drew came down to visit. It was so awesome to see her again and to meet her family.

On Friday morning Grant took the scooter into town to get some basics and the kids did some archery and paddling. Drew finished school early and Karen came to fetch us and took us on a tour of Pemba. We went down to a couple of places on Wimbi Beach and the kids played and swam in the beautiful flat warm sea and then back to her house for supper. A couple of beers, a fire and meat on the braai - Grant was in his element.

Wimbi Beach

On Saturday we went with Drew and Karen to her Sports Day. Aimee was at the campsite with Grant as she had been up all night with a nasty tummy bug.

The sports day started a bit later than intended, so the run was postponedto later in the day when it would be cooler. The boys enjoyed the other fun events - hurdles, ball toss, frisby throwing and sand castle building

Bryce & Drew sandcastle building

Hurdles

Karens husband Guy went to check up on Grant and Aimee and fell through our makeshift plastic steps. He had a huge gash in his leg as wide as your thumb and long as palm of one hand. It needed to have around 14 stitches done by an oil company medic. Seriously EINA!

Guys cut to the bone

Baobab at Londo

On Sunday we went with a group of Karen & Guys friends to Londo Bay on their mate Peter's large dhow. We had lunch at Stefans house. What a beautiful spot. Clear blue seas, huge baobab trees

We were spoilt to an awesome goat potjie and the kids had a blast exploring the Bay. They found jellyfish, mussels, clams, shells, explored caves & swung in Baobabs

Drew & Aimee - mussel peaks

jelly fish

Swinging on Baobab

Cave at Londo

Later in the afternoon we headed back to Pemba Dive & Bush Camp and Bryce got a turn to steer the dhow back

Bryce steering dhow

Monday 18th June 2012

Boys surf spot when there are waves

We have had a wonderful week in Pemba. Karen & Guy generously lent us their combi and we have been able to get around and see some beautiful places. On Monday last week Guy took us down to a lovely beach on the sea side as the wind had picked up a bit and the boys were able to surf as they are light enough to get up on the foamies.
Drew & Aimee had great fun swimming and collecting shells.

 After the beach we went to," Pieters Place", where they have the most amazing Baobab tree with a ladder up to the top and some chairs where you can sit and hide away. This tree is also home to the most beautiful bushbabies, which are also resident at our campsite but we have not been able to spot them, you can just hear their distinctive cry at night. 

Baobab at Pieters Place

On Tuesday we had a nice day at the campsite and in the afternoon Drew came to join us for a nature walk at Pemba Dive & Bushcamp. We did a lovely walk around the mangroves and learned a lot about the local flora and fauna.

On Wednesday morning we were all very excited because this is the day that Grant and Michelle would be arriving. In the morning Aimee, Mitch & I met Karen in town so that she could show us some of shops and we stocked up on our supplies. Grant & Bryce took the scooter for a ride to get some Pao. After we had picked up Grant & Michelle from the airport, we all met back at the camp.

On Thursday morning, we all went down to Wimbi Beach and had a swim, we then popped in at Russels Place for lunch and back to the campsite later.

Grant & Michell at Wilson's Wharf

On Friday afternoon we went up to Guy & Karen and the kids had a blast playing,"indoor" hockey on this cement slab that they have at their house. The game extended to jay-boarding and roller blading hockey. We went out for pizzas & really yummy chicken liver peri-peri in the evening

On Saturday morning the children had been invited with Drew to a friends house and Karen & I went for a shopping trip into the local market. We picked up the two Grants, Michelle and Guy and went to two beautiful spots on the sea side of Pemba where they do most of their kite-surfing.

Having drinks at Italian's kite surfing spot

The second spot we visited has been done out so beautifully with such creative flair using all the local wood, shells, driftwood and have these stilted chalets that they rent out.

French couples spot on beach

Sunday was father's Day and we went to Peponi Beach to have lunch and swim. We had a lovey day with awesome food & company.

Peponi Beach

Horses swimming at Peponi Beach

On Monday we spent the day around the camp, catching up on some work, while Grant Brown went on a scuba dive off one of the reefs. In the afternoon the two Grants, Michelle,  Bryce & Mitch went to try and find some surfing waves but with no luck. Grant Brown organised a skipper and a boat for us to go snorkelling on Wednesday morning. We left from Wimbi Beach & headed out to a small reef just off the shore. We saw some beautiful fish, starfish, huge shells and  beautiful coral. The kids snorkel was a bit short lived as there is a type of plankton in the sea that stings you and kept zapping them. We moved on from this spot to another one, where a sunken ship is surrounded  by the most beautiful  fish, coral and a lot of sea anenomes. 

Mozambique (Pemba) - Malawi (Nkopola)  20^th  June – 22^nd June

After dropping Grant & Michelle at the airport on Wednesday, we headed back to Pemba Dive & Bushcamp to start packing up camp & load the scooter back on. It was so lovely to have Grant & Michelle here and we really enjoyed their visit, very special. We decided to go up to Guy & Karen’s house to spend the night in their yard as we were going to leave early in the morning. Karen had left on the same flight as Grant & Michelle that day. She was heading to Cape Town for her well deserved holiday. It had been really great catching up with her after not seeing her for 11 years and really fantastic to meet her family & friends.

Guy & Drew

We left at 1h30 in the morning and began the really long trip towards Malawi. After a very hectic day of driving on horrendous roads, we arrived in Cuamba at 17h30 in the afternoon. The only place to camp was inaccessible to us, as you have to drive through the local village and they have low hanging electricity wires which we would have connected. So the reversing started until we could find a spot to turn & go out forwards. We went to the old Hotel 2000 and asked if we could pay to sleep in their,”carpark.”  The staff were so friendly and helpful, we had a really good, affordable meal and the hairdresser in the back room let us plug the electricity into her, “salon” once she had closed up for the night.  Fortunately we were all so exhausted that we crashed early. We slept to the sounds of puppies crying outside our window, followed by dogs howling outside and eventually after a huge dog fight at about 1h30, we left at 2h00 heading for Malawi. We arrived at a petrol station near the border and slept for an hour waiting for it to open. At 6h00 we changed some metacai into kwacha,( with the help of Grant Brown’s up to date exchange rate information via sms), filled up with diesel and went on our merry way. Got to border post at about 6h30 and all went relatively smoothly. We left border at about 9h00 and we got onto a much better road in Malawi. We stopped to buy some bread and a Malawi sim card, as the charges for roaming here are very high. We arrived at Nkopola Lodge which is one of the Sunbird group. When we arrived at the campsite, Grant & I realized that we had stayed here on our last visit to Malawi with Ryan & Kevin. The staff here and the locals are amazingly friendly and helpful. Very similar to our previous experience in Malawi, where I remember the people being so friendly. This is clearly why they call Malawi,”Africa for beginners.”