Ilha de Mozambique

Ilha de Mozambique, or Mozambique Island, is a small island just off the Northern Mozambique coast. It's connected by a 3km long bridge that you get across in the back of a pick up truck for 10 metical (12p). It was the capital of Portuguese East Africa from 1507 until 1898, and is where Mozambique gets its name from. There is a fort and a Stone Town at the northern end that contains many 16th century buildings that are slowly crumbling away. The whole island is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was really beautiful to wander around it, and with hardly any tourists to be seen.
As beautiful as the island is I can understand why so few tourists make it there, as it took almost 3 full days of travelling there on the worst roads imaginable, and then 3 days getting away. Despite the awful roads, the coaches in Mozambique aren't that bad, if a little packed with cargo. The worst part is the minibuses. In Africa a common and cheap way to get around is by minibus. They wait at designated places and only depart when they are full, so you can be waiting a while in the blazing heat for them to get going. The problem in Mozambique is that they have a different definition of full - they seem to defy the laws of physics. You will often get 25 people in minibuses designed for 14 people, with 2-3 people in the passenger seat, sometimes sharing the seat with the driver. The first row behind the driver, designed for 4 people max, can have 9-10 people as they have people sitting facing both directions, with legs interlocking. Add to this cargo that often includes live chickens and baskets of fish, the abundant BO and bad breath, and sellers at the regular stops shoving all the food imaginable in through the windows hoping to make a sale, it is not the most comfortable!Leia mais