Tofo Tofo

We felt so happy to be back in Tofo Beach again! It is a special place with a great vibe and probably one of the best beaches in the world. It was much less busy than expected - perhaps all the other South African holiday makers were still getting through the border!
Casa Lou and Flavio welcomed us as before. Thanks Daryn and Louise once again for the use of your house.
The beach at Tofinho has changed completely in a year,as nature intended I guess, so swimming near the house seemed a little dangerous, with all the rocks exposed. But a swim on main beach followed by drinks and a bit of Super 15 rugby at Casa Barry is a good way to spend an afternoon.
We did 3 dives with Diversity Scuba and although the Mantas and Whale Sharks eluded us this year, we still enjoyed the dives and saw a great deal.
And we ate like kings. Tommy's menu plan was organised with spread sheet precision and complemented by all the fish, crayfish and prawns brought right to our door by the locals. Not to mention the wonderfully fresh-baked bread and rolls delivered daily.
We spent a day picnicing and snorkelling at Pandane and drove to Mango Beach for sunset drinks one evening.

Mozambique Travels

We only had a day and a half in Joburg, before setting off for Mozambique.Carol and Jane travelled with us. We left early on the Wednesday before Easter, to avoid the long weekend rush at the borders. This turned out to be a very good plan and we breezed through both sides of the border at Komatiepoort in about 40 minutes,with no hassles, despite the fact that the Moz Customs form is only in Portuguese and we had filled in the wrong details in the wrong spaces. Why pay the tout R50 if you don't have to?
We spent the night at Casa Lisa about 40 kms north of Maputo, an overnight spot we can recommend with a good pub and a hearty dinner.
We met Tommy and Mandy at the pertol garage in Xia Xai the next morning, before trekking north to Inhambane. The road was amazingly good all the way - the new road is finished thanks to the Chinese - but we think you probably have to travel it soon if you want to see it in such good condition. It seems to be about 5 cms of tar slapped onto the sand.
We listened to Keith Richards' biography while driving, which was highly entertaining, but it's a weird to be listening to anecdotes about growing up in post war England while watching rural life in 21st century Africa pass by. I had the same discombobulated feeling listening to Nelson Mandela's book in France.

Wet in Phuket

Life is so easy in Phuket. Madeleine and Lynn visited for a week and we shopped and partied up a storm. It rained and rained though for about 5 days. We thought the monsoon had come very early, but luckily the weather cleared and our last 3 weeks were glorious. It was good to catch up with Dave at his villa and we had a wonderful braai at Patrick and Jill's place too.Denise, Craig and Steven joined us for the last 10 days, so we had to really get the party shoes on. Neil discovered a few new bars to add to our pub crawls and an all night massage place just off Bangla road, so we had a couple of 1.30am Thai massages,with a background of night club music to help us relax!
We spent 2 very wet days celebrating Song Kran, the Thai water festival. In Patong, this means participating in a huge 48 hour water pistol fight, usually from the cover of a street bar. It's hard to describe how crazy this is and we did'nt get any photos because no camera would survive all that water being thrown around. As always, we were sad to say good bye and we hope to be back, same same, next year.