5th (and final!?) Island Paradise?

After the utter serenity of Lamu, the classic picturesqueness of Zanzibar and the isolation and beauty of Chizumulu and Likoma islands, Ilha de Mozambique had a lot to live up to simply because it fell into the category "island".

The chapa from Nampula dropped us off 50m from Casa de Luis, a nice homely sort oif place with camping (either in the courtyard, or on the wooden deck above the dorm room.) Relatively speaking, camping was cheap and since the upper deck had a thatched roof, there was no danger of getting drenched!

After dropping off our things and setting up our tents, I went out to explore while Pim (the Belgian guy) took a nap. Turns out that he was more in touch with the local habits than I - the whole island was sprawled out, fast asleep on mats and mattresses on the streets! Only a few old men were (half) awake, playing some strange board game. 

I immediately liked the town, though it was way too hot to see the whole thing; so I got back to the Casa and joined the rest of the island in their lunchtime seista.

When it was (marginally) cooler, Pim and I had another walk around. When the sun was just about going down we followed the promising sound of a party in full swing.

We later found out that we'd arrived on women's day in Mozambique - something they are (and should be!) very proud of. The party was just up from the only real beach and it seemed the whole island had shown up. Everyone from little toddlers to old grannies were strutting their stuff on the dancefloor. We stopped to watch and grab a couple of sundowners. The party raged on for about two hours then abruptly broke up and everyone returned to their mattresses in the streets!

We took it to be the end of the day so we headed back to the casa, stopping for some supper on the street (boiled cassava and some fried fish).

I started off sleeping on a bed thing on the deck - outside my tent (it was way too hot and uncomfortable in there!), but I had to move in after a couple of hours because of all the mozzies!

By this time I already suspected that the islanders had very strange sleeping patterns, but it was still surprising when one of the times I woke up to wring out my sheet (I was sweating bucketloads in my tent!), I heard the sound of the party once again pumping! They hadn't gone to bed after all, just power-napping to get the energy for a few more hours of crazy dancing!

Anyway we spent much of the next three days walking round the island, living off of fish, squid, bread rolls and boiled cassava. It was really chilled and relaxing but the nights in the tent didn't improve for me (Pim moved downstairs into the dorm - with fan!!). It was a constant battle between the mozzies outside the tent, and the unbearable heat inside.

After all those days of exploring, we'd pretty much covered all there was to see on the island; so after one night's luxuary in the dorm, we started off up north - before sunrise of course!