Tofo (not Tofu), Mozambique

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Our bungalow at Bamboozi

We are not exactly sure why, but it seems like all the transport leaves at ridiculously early times in the morning - like 5AM.  So, together with Jennie and Sean we got up early and made our way to the 'chapa' (minibus) station.  Madness ensued, and of course some haggling, to finally get down to the correct price without any extra for baggage or whatever!!  I found it kind of crazy that on a long distance mini bus, there was absolutely no space for luggage, so we had all our bags piled around us, under seats, in aisles - every inch of space was used, and this of course made for a fairly uncomfortable ride!
Arriving on the beach in the popular backpacker town of Tofo was a nice feeling.  Because of price, we split up with Jennie and Sean, so we could camp at a place called Turtle Cove.  When we finally arrived there what seemed like an eternity of walking later, we found that we could camp, but they had NO other facilities for us to use - no kitchen, and no safe to lock up our valuables, were the big criteria.  So, we walked all the way back to town, then on to Bamboozi Lodge, another couple of kilometres the other way, to meet up with Jennie and Sean again.  In total we worked out we walked about 9km with our backpacks. Luckily, we hitched a ride on a diving truck for the final 1km, and needed a drink when we arrived.  Bamboozi was great and they even gave us a 2 bed bungalow for the same price as camping!!  We'll take that any day.

Overlooking Tofo Beach

We spent the next four days hanging out with Sean and Jennie and socialising with other guests at the resort chatting about the wonderful countries of Africa and collecting great tips and recommendations for our future travels. Alan, who we'd originally met 10 days ago at Swaziland Backpackers, also made it to Bamboozi, and with Jennie and Sean, the five of us walked the beach by day and played Carcassonne by night- a game that Martin and I had introduced them back in Maputo -- and to which they were now addicted to. We basically just chilled out in Tofo and our major highlight was cooking up huge crayfish bartered from local fisherman on the beach in town.

Sean and Jennie with Michelle in front of Bamboozi

The thing that draws people to Tofo are its beaches, its laid-back feeling and its whale sharks! Scuba diving and snorkeling is the thing to do! It was pretty expensive though at $60 for a two hour snorkeling trip, so we thought we'd check out the snorkeling deals further up north at Vilanculos, and if not there, then we would retrace our footsteps back to Tofo and find those whale sharks.   We'll see what transpires, but it would pretty special to see one of these massive fish up close and personal.  * Stub/Mush

Our delicious crayfish dinner