Today started out a tad late as these beds at Fatima’s really do little to recharge you at night, they simply allow you to lie back, close your eyes and wake up just as sore and tired when you went to bed.
We set out to get notaries of our passports as Lonely Planet advised due to police checks. The whole process was about 30 Mts for both Alisa and I and was done on Vladimir Lenin just south of Mao Se Tung where Fatima’s is located.
Costa do Sol is located a ways out of town, but is worth the trek (it cost 300 Mct. To taxi from Fatimas).
The restaurant has a large indoor seating area & bar as well as an outside deck that looks out over the Indian Ocean. The menu was simple: salads, seafood & meat. Although there were minimal food categories there were plenty of variations in the preparation. Costa do Sol is known for its prawn dishes, but neither of us ventured to try them.
We ordered a Greek Salad, grilled calamari, & a mixed grill (beef, chicken & sausage).
— The Greek salad had feta, onion, green pepper, cucumbers, tomatoes & olives. It was a wonderful combination of flavors and an excellent way to consume some vegetables.
— Grilled calamari came in a butter garlic sauce with rice pilaf, potato, and cucumber on the side. The calamari was a little fishy tasting and could have used a different sauce, but overall it was good.
— The mixed grill was delicious. The beef was tender and juice and the chicken was moist. Alex wasn’t a fan of the sausage; I thought it was fine, but nothing special.
The staff was mostly stoic and not very attentive, despite the lack of costumers.
Overall I would give Costa do Sol a 7 out of 10.
We woke up this morning with clouds in the sky and a fair amount of wind. Today was the day we had planned to do research on ticket/ bus costs and make the decision on whether to just go north as far as Tofo or go up to Pemba, however we forgot it was Sunday. Everything but the restaurants & Internet cafes were closed. We should have gone to do our research on Saturday but we got a late start & I was focused on visiting the cultural/ historical places listed in Lonely Planet.
2105 29 May
We crossed into Mozambique this morning around 4 am on a uneventful bus journey from Joburg. I was surprised at how well the management of the bus went, as they handed us tickets for our bags that went in the bag carriage and did counts of people on the bus at each stop. When we were here before we had only rode Intercape once or twice, but they have upped their performance since.
The border was just as rowdy as many other African borders we have crossed before. However there was much less cohesion as a bus group than er have seen at other borders. Usually we can just follow the crowd and get through but this time i had to enquire and i actually lead the entire group to the out-processing point on the South African side. Afterwards we trekked on foot across the birder but again this wasn’t marked out very well nor was there a steady stream of people doing the same. We were stopped by the military/police as Continue reading
The African File 