Day 222: Barra to Chidenguele

After the owner helped us to plug the hole in the tyre we drove to his ‘workshop’ area which had a cement surface to change the wheels back again. We deflated the wheels a bit for the Sandy roads so when we got to Inhambane we wanted to inflate it again. We couldn’t find a garage with air so we just stopped at a Petromoc and inflated the wheels with our compressor. Hugo then noticed not one, not two, but 5 nails that went straight through the tyre.

The tyre was however not deflating so we pushed on towards Chidenguele. We got there around 14:00 and then headed to the Sunset Lodge, but couldn’t find any signs so we ended up at Paraiso de Chidenguele. The Afrikaans lady then went on about how they are still building their campsite, but that it will be much better than at Sunset Lodge next door. What is it with these Afrikaans lodge owners in Mozambique? In Barra, the owners at White Sands don’t even know what camping costs at Areia Branca and had bad things to say about it. And at Areia Branca, the owners said if people ask where they can eat in the off-season when their restaurant is closed they send them to Neptune’s which is a long drive away instead of just next door to White Sands.

Anyway, we then drove to Sunset Beach Lodge where we couldn’t enter as a massive truck was in the driveway where they were busy building a drainage causeway. We walked down to the campsite and found Jared and Jen with their Conqueror caravan. They had been there for a few days already.

We waited for well over an hour before the truck reversed out and we could get to the campsite. Camping cost only R60 (offseason and perhaps because of the construction), but each site has its own bathroom with amazing showers. Good water pressure and temperature, a rare combination in Africa.

After showering we went to the restaurant and ordered crayfish and a hamburger. The crayfish was only R100 so we were rather surprised when the plate arrived with two crayfish on it.

After dinner, we sat and worked until well after the staff closed everything and turned off the lights (we sat outside on the deck).