Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Mozambique: A case study on how travelling enriches the soul

We all need to decrease consumption and individual emissions and I am aware of this on a daily basis. I have, however, one guilty pleasure. Travelling. I just spent my new year's holiday road tripping with two good friends from Windhoek (Namibia) to Inhambane (Mozambique), a journey that took us a surprising 3200kms, three full days of driving and two nights overnighting (scrolling desperately at 22h00 on an ipad in the car in the dark looking for accommodation on route) to get there. Rumours and paranoia gave us a few hiccups on the way ("what? you forgot your passport photos? but we need them for our visas!!!"....cue two hours in random town looking for a photo place and then discovering at the border of Moz we needed nothing we were told we needed....only our perfectly good and functioning Namibian passports). We made it up as we went along and happily found ourselves bumping around in our seats looking at elephants and chameleons and tortoises in the Kruger National Park as we entered the leisurely northern border of RSA/Mozambique. Anyway, despite the annoyances, the drive was spectacular. We did a country a day, from Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and into Mozambique. Travelling from the west coast of Africa to the east coast.

We arrived in Inhambane at 22h00 at night, tired, annoyed and totally lost. Once we found our camp site at Barra, we set up and passed out. The next morning (heat and sun at five in the morning) we awoke to palm trees and mangrove swamps. And (almost) immediately we packed up some stuff (my surfboard, snorkelling equipment, a cooler with beers and snacks) and off we went on our missions. First mission: find surf. Which we did. Well, which I did. The boys spent their time snorkelling, chilling, and playing their games on the beach and I would surf endlessly. And so it went on. Every day we would get up, have breakfast, get our stuff together and go mission. Every day was different, yet every day was the same. We would be active, but activities would always include surfing, snorkelling, swimming and chilling (is that an activity?). We would then, for dinner, either grab a beer and some food at some bar on the beach, or we would braai some prawns or meat at our camping spot and have a sundowner. We just could not leave that place. We had initially booked camping accommodation at another town further down south for the second part of our 10 day holiday....yet we just stayed in Inhambane as if we would never leave.

Everywhere we went we marvelled at the beauty of the place. I felt a deep connection with the country. And it made me think about love in a different way. I have travelled to quite a few places in my relatively short life. From South Africa to Nigeria, Hungary to Canary Islands, Brazil to Chile, every place has had something special and beautiful. But like with some people, some places you have chemistry with. And the notion makes sense. If you think about it, a country is a system, a living entity if you will. It is made up of its people, its landscapes, its biological diversity and its climate. And with some systems you find absolute love. I had a love affair with Mozambique. Granted it is not the perfect system. Most wildlife is gone, it has been war struck and, like many African countries, has come accross some difficult times. And it can strike harshly at you when it feels like it (I had my absolute naive trust ripped off me: the ocean reefs ate my body and my surfboard, i had all my electronic posessions stolen - and these I will not be able to afford to replace in many years, and because of this we had none of the beautful pictures of our trip). Yet when you find yourself on the beach on a balmy evening after a three hour right point surf session, with the slight breeze on your sunkissed face, drinking your R&R, you will see what I mean when I say "I love you Mozambique".

I was sad to leave. I think we all were. This particular trip, despite also having been on brief trips to beautiful Zambia, Hungary and South Africa last year, made me all the more itchy to spread my wings and fly. The people you meet and the places you see when you are out of your comfort zone, the experiences you have, is worth more than any physical possession you could ever buy yourself. For experiencing the world enriches your soul and breathes endless depth into your life.

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