Montepuez is vibrant with colour and sound and a beautiful back drop of moutainous rock. It doesn’t take long to find the market under cover from the hot sun. There are stalls selling watermelon, potatoes, spinach, tomatoes. Bottles of oil hang with a beauty like liquid gold, glinting from the bands of light cutting through from the sky above. We ask someone where the internet is.
“Vamos” (Lets Go!) He says and he’s off through zig zagging paths wide enough only for one set of feet to pass through at a time.
Left, then right, then right again, then left or may be it was right; past the pharmaceutical stores, selling anti-malarials and antibiotics in the warm shade; past cloths and clothing brushing us as we go by; through the bread area and the smelly fish market; to arrive at the internet. He leaves us there.
Amazingly, we have paid more attention to our inward journey than we thought. After uploading photos to the world, we work our way backwards past the landmarks, buying food and supplies, emerging with pride into the sun.
It’s lunchtime and we are advised to try a local Somalian restaurant. The food is delicious. I highly recommend “Restaurant Jubba”.
We head back to Emma and Mike who are looking relaxed. Robert tastes coconut for the first time.
The next morning sees us on our way. Emma is well enough to run and determined to reach the coast very soon.
*****
For any travellers, I definitely recommend Montepuez. Possibly my favourite town of the whole journey. It’s an international town. We met Pakistani, Somali and Japanese people there.
*****
Number of Days: 86
Total distance run by Emma: 3765 km, 2339 miles
Daily average distance run by Emma (including rest days): 43.8 km, 27.2 miles
Distance run today: 0 km, 0 miles
Head over Heels 2014 