The road back to Nampula

Two weeks ago we made the trip from South Africa back up to Nampula where we live. There is one main road running up from southern to northern Mozambique, and while there are stretches of freshly poured black top, there are also some areas with unbelievably large potholes and gullies in the road that are often several feet deep. There are also some stretches that are just regular dirt/mud roads. Navigating these roads is, of course, challenging in and of itself and terribly hard on the vehicles (e.g flat tires, bent rims, and broken tire rods are quite common on a trip). The other danger is that many people walk along the roads in seemingly unpopulated areas--and with ten foot tall grass on either side of the "highway", it can often feel like a person appears on the road out of nowhere! Probably one of the most dangerous aspects of the trip, however, is avoiding the oncoming semi-trucks. They literally run smaller vehicles off the road in their own attempt to keep to the best part of the highway and avoid the potholes. Friends of ours only about a half a day behind us on the trip north were in a terrible accident due to this very reason.

On our trip up from South Africa this past month, we were blessed with a safe and uneventful trip...Nevertheless, it was still a long, tiring, and stressful journey as we tried to keep two little boys entertained in their car seats and a newborn fed and changed and back in her carseat for three straight days. Obviously, there are no rest stops for the children to get out and run around, no bathrooms, and no McDonalds to make the trip a bit more bearable. No matter how hard you try to find a private place along the road for any necessary stops, Cohen still had to figure out how to "do his business" with a half a dozen people crowding around him to see the novelty.

One of the places we stopped for the night was on the coast and we enjoyed just taking a walk on the beach after beeing cooped up and strapped in for so many hours.

Down the beach a ways from where we were walking, some fishermen were bringing in their catch and we got to watch them hauling their nets in and sorting through the various fish and other ocean creatures they had caught.

The women relatives of the fishermen sorted through the days' catch, throwing various types of fish, lobsters, and squid into piles.

Little children with bowls and pots also crowded around to beg the smaller fish that would not be able to be sold.

We really enjoyed being on the coast again even if for only a few hours!