The rich colourful views fill up our hearts with happiness. Friendly people wave as they cycle by. As we travel, my favourite spot is on the top of the car, where I can feel the day’s warmth and see miles of trees whenever we crest a hill.
We stop for lunch, yards away from men burning the undergrowth, its a hunting technique. The flies come back crowding round our eyes and ears. I do admire them, they are tough if very tickly. However, once I put on Incognito Mosquito Repellent I don’t find them much of a problem.
After lunch, whilst the rest of the team sleep, Woocash and I take a walk through the burnt ground collecting snail shells bigger than my hand and discover strange termite mounds.
Back on the road we come across beautiful mango trees. They are not indigenous to Mozambique but they are very popular and grow well. It’s tempting to help ourselves but all mango trees belong to someone, we might be stealing from people who live on pennies.
And we pass Baboons waving at us, then we realise they are as bothered by flies as we are.
We shop for dinner, buying something in each village we pass: enjoying moments of connection with the people we meet.
At the end of the day, Robert cooks us his favourite dish: Sadza with fish in fresh tomato and onion sauce. Sadza is the main carbohydrate across southern Africa. It took a little while for some of us in the team to get used to the texture and flavour and if it isn’t correctly cooked it can make you ill. Robert is a master at cooking it and now we will happily eat it every day.
*****
Number of Days: 79
Total distance run by Emma: 3371 km, 2094 miles
Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 42.7 km, 26.5 miles
Distance run today: 67.28 km, 41.80 miles
Head over Heels 2014 