Which is why signing up for a canoe expedition made little or no sense at all.
We canoed off with a group of Portuguese nurses to a spot 30 minutes away where this 2,000 year old tree is. As you can tell by the photo, old trees are fairly uninspiring. There were, however, some monkeys nearby which were fascinating to watch (until I remembered the movie ‘Outbreak’, and decided to hide behind one of the locals until we went away).
After lunch, I decided to take one of the waiters, Andre, to a nearby village to check out the townsfolk, accompanied by an esky full of water, soft drinks and Mozambican beer. The best way to get there, of course, was to canoe. Which sounded like lots of fun (and it was), but little did I know it would take THREE HOURS to paddle a few hundred metres …
… Anyway, a lot of fishermen sell their catch on the river. Here’s Andre trying to talk a fisherman down from 90 cents a fish to 50 cents … we were unsuccessful. “Don’t worry,” I told Andre. “There’s plenty more fish in the sea.” (He didn’t laugh…?!)
There was a lot of beautiful birdlife on the river …
… we stopped at three different spots along the way. The first spot was a small township where the eco-lodge had helped built a school. Pretty impressive huh? I will add ‘school builders’ to the list of people who I’m impressed with. This area is pretty remote, and yet they’re learning more biology than I can remember.
We also stopped at the town where most of the people who work at the lodge live in. These African kids LOVE digital cameras (a bit like us Asian kids really). After lots of bugging me to take photos, here’s a sample …
… it’s strange, you know? These African kids live in poverty, yet they have a great time all day mucking around in the water, 2 minutes’ walk from the beach … in many ways, I’m jealous!
Lastly, we stopped by the fisherman’s village, where they are cooking fishes to sell in the main town (great aroma!), before heading back.
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