Day 60, I have come to think of Mseleni as quite a rural place. The hospital is the largest development in town and we don’t really have any shops to speak of. It does however have a good network of tarred roads leading up to it. These roads are fairly new and I’ve heard many a tale of the bad old days with dirt track roads. It was hard to imagine until this weekend.
That is because the past few days have been spent in the little Mozambiquan town of Ponta do Ouro. Just across the border it is remarkable how different it is from what we have here. Going through the ramshackle border should have prepared me but as our transport drove us through the undulating mounds of sand, Mseleni by comparison was positively urban.
Once in the town the vibe was similarly quaint. The main strip consisting of a few restaurants, an ATM, a supermarket and a smattering of surf shops. Just beyond it however lay a magnificent bay onto the Indian Ocean which for the most part was devoid of human traffic. I was there with my brother and his wife and we had rented chalets on the hillside. These were comfortable log cabins sat on stilts with verandas from where you could hear the waves crashing.
As with any family visit much impetus was on the food. Whilst the Zulu people are not fans of fish, their cousins to the north are much more indulgent. The restaurants are brimming with various types of seafood and their lust for it is perhaps exemplified by the serving of prawns by the kilo. My months requirement of seafood was satisfied in the mere long weekend.
Of course it isn’t an island but it certainly feels like one, probably this accentuated by the abundance of water based activities. Surfers, both kite and traditional, and divers are aplenty. Not being qualified to dive I was restricted to the ocean safari. This is essentially a boat trip around the bay looking for sea mammals, the twist being if conditions are optimal then one can interact. With the weather being temperamental our boat failed to find any whales but we did encounter a group of dolphins. Within a few minutes with snorkels and fins on we dived in to swim with them. To my chagrin in the excitement of swimming amongst the dolphins I started to gulp the salty water and by the time I had recovered my composure they had moved on.
The portugese influence is clear to see with the Mediterranean style houses, the language and even the pasteis pastries being sold. But the colonial infrastructure building was clearly not a priority. In some ways the wilderness feel to the town gives it its uniqueness, an idyllic weekend getaway.
Mmmmm.... salty water....
ReplyDelete