A factory destroyed in the civil war

There were a number of factories in Moz wich were boombed/otherwise destroyed in the civil war..... Reference in the Luabo thingie... An idea of what they look like. This one was bombed. Doesnt it look pretty?

The great white returns

The new guy is here....

Gorongosa

Historically it is one of the first reserves to have been created in Africa and considered one of the conservation gems of the colonial days

But people who refer to it , refer to it in a forlone voice referring to glory days long gone. It was once a place where you could get out of your bungalow in the morning and watch the lions frolicking in forests nearby. The civil war days absolutely ruined this park and what remained at one time were just a few bulls and mebbe a few elephants.

I hope the above justifies the absolutely tanked levels of hope with which we approached our trip to this sanctuary. For fear of seeing absolutely nothing, we considered taking some dogs/goats with us so that we could get some pics to show our friends when we come back :))


The surprises started as soon as we passed the gate. We saw some warthogs and babbons on our way to the base camp itself. I now regret that I did not get a single shot of a babboon despite the multitudes that were present. However, that is not of any consequence as I intend to go back for a more organised visit soon.

To go on with the story, we were absolutely surprised by the amount of wildlife we saw in the park. I dunno whether this is a script reflecting the success of conservation or the hardiness of mother nature, but it sure was a movie worth watching and we had tons of fun. And the way the staff handled that place was a revelation to me though maybe not so much for my South African friend. The place was managed tastefully and whats more, had a great after taste

The night we spend there totally tired and dipped into the pool was as much fun as anything else. And do check out the snap of the bush fire which I took just outside the reserve.

Oh...yes....I really had a hard time selecting these pics....I might have got it wrong....I mean as to the best ones

You can see more of these snaps at

http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa79/renjithmdas/African%20Safari/

I loved them....So you may....

To Gabbon with hope :))

as
Recently( as in , last month) ....I was able to hop on a trip to Gabon to attend a conference out there. Like most African journeys, this one was also a looong winded one as I travelled first to Maputo, then to Johannesburg, from there to Ethiopia and from there on to Liberville(the capital of Gabon).

As the plane landed into Johannesburg one passes over a large number of fields. Now we all know our fields, but these were exotic multicouloured one and designed as if to look good from the air....I just cant imagine how else people could grow anything in circles.....it was quite good.... Johannesburg airport has a great duty free shopping area where I bought an all weather cap, a mp3 player and a head phone while returning....but thats cutting the story short

Well....after a painful transit time there....we flew to Adisababa.....Adis seemed a grand city....as one of my co-travellers told me, Ethiopia is one of the few countries in Africa which have never been colonised....it is a grand city.....with clean and big roads and very well mannered people....and some interesting mixed cuisines

And then it was off to Liberville(my destination)....it was a city smaller than Maputo by size and population....but clearly much more expensive and affluent. The modest hotel rooms came at 200$ a night..... Thats roughly double of what a five star room costs in India, just for comparison.

After the conference was over, I stayed back to see the wonderful rain forests of that region which Gabbon shares with congo.....and Boy was it rewarding! The country has 95% forest cover(or shoult I say that it has 5% clearance)....

The forests are so thick that you cannot walk through them without a chain saw and the canopy so thick that you really cannot see the sky....... and logs which come out of these forests are HUGE....I cant touch the top of some of them....see the snap....wow(not world of women...the other less usual wow)

Adding to the fun was staying in the town without power and water...... withmy leather shoes soaked in mud....ofcourse I had no other footwear but my formal eather shoes as I had no idea that we were going to the forest....

And going forward I saw some really HUGE saw mills....must have been built over 1-2 hectares...amazing things

Anyways....thats that....will add to it after Gorongosa....which is where I plan to go this week end....is a wild life reserve

The road to Luabo...

Having got instruction to check out a sugar factory in the town of Luabo on the banks of Zambezi(doesnt that sount cool?), I sat down with my globetrotter maps to see the best way of reaching there.
And if you look long and hard, how far can the road be....so well, there it was....We had two possible routes....take the highway to Beira and turn off at Zero on to the bush road to Mopeia and from there to Zero. The last bit proved particularly treacherous for around 60 kms or so(My odometer and speedometer gave up their ghosts)....was a real back breaker....On the way I did search around for an old portugese fort which the map mentioned, but to no avail. The road was quite scenic and afforded views of some great scenery, some sarus cranes and a monkey which looked like a macaque from the distance. We also passed a large number of waterbodies before limping into Luabo.
Luabo was mostly a let down initially. For a town that had once played host to the second largest sugar factory in the world, there was really very little to see. The factory had been bombed somewhere in 1985 during the destructive civil war. The state of the factory(no walls and a lot of grand rusted machinery which was falling apart) seemed an accurate reflection and statement on the state of the town. Trees sprouted from the many dilapidated building while at other places, the old lans and gardens still retained their daintiness.
We took a drive around to see the old jetty/port on the river(Zambezi) which used to be the lifeline of the once prosperous city......and then turned back.

Snaps to the put up soon

On what meat does Caesar feed?

Hey...havent mtaken names here before...but yes one of the best friends I have made here is Nicholas...a South African of greek origin settled in here doing timber business also....well, he isnt my subject....its his big Boer Boel Caesar....yup that is a type of dog, you are right......and yes, he is great....supposed to weigh abt 75 kgs....

Jogging down Avenita Marginale the other day we were agreeing on how bang on my 9th grade english teacher was when she said that Shakespeare's work reflected life....remember Cassius saying" On what meat doth this our Caesar feed that he has grown so great"

GK: In Portugese, a 'cow' means a dog
And what do you then say for a cow....well, a boy

Desh mere...Desh Mere

The reach of Bollywood is just plain amazing!...I mean, I never expected the top 5 towns in mozambique, all seem to have theatres filming only Bollywood movies. Unbelieveably the only theatre in my town shows only Hindi movies.....I dont complain just because they run here 6 months after their release in India

Des mere, Des Mere meri jaan hai thu.........

Vandee mataram

In the dangerous world of frog eat frog

Talk abt competition...as the waters receded(they did that pretty fast actually)....there magically sprung approximately a billion frogs...sometimes it was really hard to avoid stepping on them.....and guess what these guys are so hungry that they gobble up each other given the chance...I snapped up an amazing moment.

When the waters ran up...

Quelimane had a flood of sorts in January second week...the waters were waist high on many roads. The lower areas are still under some water

Spider and man

This dude showed up in my office a couple of days back....coulourful chap...isnt he colourful...unfortunately, the fellow was assassinated with a stick by a darkskinned your in fading evening light

Another shot

Had to add a front snap to put the thing in right perspective...this guy is not the full version...but a shortened version with just four setas and a 2.5 litre engine(Diesel)...supposedly better for bush roads because of the lightness but does not have the same balance as the full version

The new guy is here

Good bye to the Nissan...the pajero is here...the new chap in the block is a smallish Pajero...featured in this snap, we see him all muddy and battle hungry enroute the mudroads from Nampula to Quelimane

Hair cut in Quelimane

Had my first hair cut in Quelimane...boyy, these guys mean business....he went over my hair with 3 different machines...two break downs...leaving it as shown in the pic...and there were snaps in shop of handsome men and women which proveds the Quelimane saying " If God has made you to look good, there is nothing in the world that a barber can do about it!!"