The first
thing I noticed once I crossed the border (which cost me about US$100 for visa
and road insurance) was that there are LOTS more people about,,, As far as I
can tell its simply that the population is significantly denser here… It also helps
that the land is becoming rapidly less dry and more tropical as I head for the
coast… There are lots of Mango trees and papaya etc. Second thing is the roads…
They got worse transitioning into Zimbabwe but they got significantly worse
again as I went to Mozambique. Im pretty much constantly playing “slalom pot-hole
dodge” across the full width of the road all the time now…And it gets an
exciting “fatal roulette” feel to it quite frequently when the big trucks coming
the other way are playing the same game … They really don’t feel the need to
get back on their own side of the road for a puny motorbike!J Other than that the traffic is mostly manageable and
I only saw one police check-point in about 300Km… much nicer J
The only
identifiable industry that I can make out as I ride along seems to be Hardwood
export… There are lots and lots of yards about the place with sections of big
logs all piled up and lots of 20foot sea containers laying about and being
loaded. The interesting thing to me is to see that the logs are all cut up very
short… to fit cross-wise in the containers which means they are all about 2.2m
long since a container is only 8feet wide. Im guessing the wood is all teak and
mahogany and Im guessing it is really destroying the forests (of which I have
seen none on my driving route)… very sad if true but like I said, its all
speculation on my part at the moment.
Next
thing is that though there are lots and lots of people walking about on the
highways, they are all really poor… There are mostly no shops of the sort that
people from the developed world would recognize… its virtually all street side
sales with peoples wares laid out in the dirt or on a plastic sheet by the
highway … Sofas, fridges, bras, jeans, shoes, bananas, tomatoes, fire wood,
bricks, rocks (sorted by size!), padlocks etc… There are whole towns worth of
vendors gathered in clearings by the highway and throngs of shoppers … Its very
“alive” but very dusty and very poor… There seem to be far fewer affluent people
here than even in Zimbabwe…In fact, Mozambique makes Zimbabwe look downright
wealthy!
I rode on
to a city on the coast called Beira. And though it was a short riding day, it
was a quite stressful one… The bike chain is very badly worn in one section
(which is the way it pretty much always goes) and so one section of the chain
is “long” and the other section is “short” and it makes the bike sort of “surge”
its way along. Now that would ordinarily get mostly absorbed by the “cush-drive”
in the rear wheel hub but the Africa-Twin doesn’t have that piece of technology
for some reason and so the only “flex” in the system is the rear tire its self…
and Ive got a low tread sports tire on and inflated hard for highway riding…
Anyway, all that means that its quite uncomfortable riding, bad for the bike
drive train, and is a constant concern for me as I listen to the chain
clattering and surging its way along the highway… Yep, I gotta change that
TODAY!... But that’s not my only challenge at the moment, because my GPS is
really playing up… It seems to have periods of working well and then periods of
being completely locked-up and unresponsive to commands. And today its just totally
ignoring my finger presses. Its just lucky that I programed in todays
destination when the unit was in a “responsive mood” last night… I gotta try to
fix that today too. That or get a better paper map with a scale of something
other than 100KM per cm!
So, I
made it to my destination at about lunch time.
But I had no address of where I might find cheap accommodation and even
if I did have an address, my GPS was ignoring me so I was a bit “out on a limb”
so to speak… Im in a mid-sized city with probably the most dust and dirt roads
that Ive ever ridden in at all (significantly worse than any South/Central
American city Ive been in) There are virtually no street signs, lots of
traffic, its very humid and 30degC or so, Ohh and I don’t speak any Portuguese
at all (and Spanish really does not cut it I assure you!
So, I
kind of ride randomly around for half an hour and come across a “Guest House”
that looks too expensive so I note it and keep riding around… After another
20min or so Ive got no better options so I go back and ask at the guest house…
Yep, about US$100 per night… I try to ask the people there about other options
but communication is very difficult. I decide to capitulate and I end up
negotiating a room for $40 which is double what Ive paid anywhere else but Im
feeling like Ive tried enough for today. So, I park the bike in their drive and
start to relax a little after a very stressful morning.
Right,
now that I have luxury accommodation sorted out, lets see if I can fix some of
the other issues. First up is the chain… The current chain is completely done
in, so while Im still hot, dirty, and sweaty I decide to change it for the
spare one. I break out all the tools and the spare chain and it takes me about
an hour to break the old chain, link on the new one and pull it through the
drive sprocket, and then rivet the master link closed… then I adjust the chain
tension and give it a lube. Then I start her up and let it run while on the
centre stand… ahhhh smooth and quiet, Much Better J
Then I go
have a shower and get out of my hot and filthy riding gear. Now its time to
tackle the GPS problem. Ive noticed over the last couple of weeks that the
problem has been getting worse but Ive also noticed that the problem also has a
definite pattern to it… It works well when its cold and badly when its hot! It
also seems to respond sometimes to pressure and mild beating J And, when it doesn’t work, its just the user input
that seems broken. It seems to always be running fine and the screen is always
displaying what it should be. Now, my engineer mind likes to think about that
sort of clue and my conclusion is that there is no problem with the software or
most of the hardware. Rather, I think the problem is limited to the “touch-screen”
functions, and I think there is an intermittent connection inside the unit.
Now, I can fix that sort of problem if I can find it but to do that, I need
first to get the box open… And the damn thing uses tiny little TORX screws to
hold the case together… I dont have one of those screwdrivers in my otherwise
quite comprehensive tool kit. But, I figure cell-phones will probably use the
same types of screw (they are a bit more tamper-proof than the usual phillips
or flat-blade screws.
So, after
the shower and a change into shorts and walking shoes, I head off down the
street in any random direction. The streets here are all covered in dirt and
indeed, many of them are not paved though in the district where I presently am,
they are paved and there are not too many pot-holes. But dirt there is plenty
of… It seems to have come from the side-walks which are universally not paved
and in fact have pretty much “dissipated” with time… The curbs are all there
(though there are many missing and broken sections) but the dirt is gone and
its now at the same level as the street surface but there are all-sorts of tree
roots, rocks, blocks of concrete, drain openings etc in the way… In fact, the
foot-paths are such “obstacle-courses” that most people don’t actually use them
because you cant get any rhythm to your gait… you are constantly dodging obstructions
and adjusting your stride… Most people seem to prefer to walk on the street
with the cars rather than the side-walks J
And another thing, I see no street dogs at all (actually that’s pretty
much true for all of the African countries Ive been in so far and is a stark
contrast to the Latin American countries Ive visited)… But there are quite a
few street cats about and they are in general quite healthy and friendly
(though quite dusty)
After a few blocks I come to something of a
business area rather than residential. I
ask a few people (as best I can) where I might find a cell-phone shop, and
after a few tries I think Im onto something… After a couple of false leads and
a couple more blocks I find a place that can help. I buy the special little
screw-driver off them (since I figure I may need to do this more than once!) and
then we go into the back room and start tearing the GPS apart…On a grubby bench
covered with the carcasses of a dozen or more dead cell-phones and innumerable lithium
batteries and assorted dead electronics bits. Its not too hard to get the GPS apart
and I see the connector that I think is the problem. The little cell-phone shop
has a nice soldering station and the technician/manager/salesman… aka “the guy”
…fires it up and we do a bit of a re-flow solder job while trying not to melt
any of the nearby plastic parts (involves blowing a small stream of air heated
to several hundred degC over the connector). That done, we carefully
re-assemble the GPS cabling and try it out while it is still dis-assembled… It
works Yay! So I reassemble it and do up
all the screws and try again… No Go, still broken… Bummer! Looks like the connector is not the problem…
it’s the touchscreen wiring that has an issue and it will need to be replaced
to fix it… But Im in Mozambique! And Im kinda using the unit at the moment!
OK, so I
at least know what the problem is. For the time being Ill program the next days
destination into the GPS in the evening when its cold and working correctly. I
will also try to undo the unit again and add some “wedging” to try to hold the
cable in a way that makes it work better. So, I say thanks to the cell-phone
guy and I start walking back to where I think the guest house is… Its quite a
long way and there were several twists and turns in my route to find the fix-it
place… It takes me about 45min to walk back and I head up to my room and “take
stock” of things.
By now its
about 6pm and the day is done, but Im feeling a lot better about things now
than I was when I arrived at lunch time… hmmm food… I haven’t eaten anything
except half a pack of cookies and a can of coke all day (that was at about 9am
and qualified as breakfast J)… Maybe its time I did something
about that! After a half hour rest, I head back out to the street and walk in
the direction of some street food vendors… I know what direction this time from
my previous expedition J
Its only a couple of blocks away. But by this time, its completely dark
and there are only some streets that have street lights and even then, only
some of them are working. Well, if there is one way to figure out how you feel
about a new city/town, its to go for a walk alone at night for a few blocks…
You will soon know if you are comfortable or not J… And a bit surprisingly, I have to say that I felt
very comfortable here! No Really!, I felt completely safe. There were quite a
few people about and plenty of them were school age kids heading home or out
for some after school friends time. Also lots of single young women walking
their way home after work etc. And lots of young guys (15 to 25 yo) wandering
along or in small groups on corners (these are the ones you would normally
watch out for)… And I would have expected it to feel just a bit worse just
because the people have black skin… not because of any racist attitude of mine
but because in the darkness Im unable to see any facial expressions… But I have
to say, the demeanor of the people here makes me feel completely safe… Its even
better than in SAf/Bots/Nam/Zim and I thinks its because the people here are so
polite… They don’t stare at me at all… A glance is all I get and then they look
away… There is no doubt that I am “different” because I have not seen another
white face since I started walking, but the people here just refuse to stare at
me J
Anyway, I
find the street food zone and get a really good burger, with cheese and egg and
all the other fixins (including a good amount of grit… possibly from the
lettuce or the bun, or just from the street J) and a cup of some tropical
fruit juice/ water and I eat it there on the street seated on a lump of broken
curb with the other patrons… We don’t speak cos I cant speak their language but
there are a few exchanged smiles and a napkin when needed… It all feels good J
So, I
still think this place is one of the dirtiest cities Ive ever been to (though
its mostly good clean dirt and not filth so to speak) and its definitely not
got much in the way of “facilities” or “convenience” going for it, but now that
Ive let my expectations of “city” slide, and got some of my stresses dealt
with, I find I kinda like it, and Im not sure why J
There is
definitely no charm left in the place (I swear there cant be more than a dozen
buildings in the entire city that have seen a lick of paint since independence
about 40 years ago!) so it must be in the people J
p.s. That street meal I had may well prove to be a
really good way to get myself a great case of “gastro-intestinal entertainment”, but it felt
like the thing to do at the time… will keep you posted. J
