When to go

The weather, during an African summer, is not what I want for Emma’s run. I want it to be dry and mild, a bit like a good English summer/ autumn. Warm enough to camp in, cool enough to run in and dry enough to banish mosquitoes. Given that its Africa, I’m willing to accept dry and hot in the middle of the day. But summer is also the rainy season. Mozambique will be, according to the Lonely Planet, “soggy and sticky“. And hot. Several people have now warned me that it will be hot. Very hot.

Randomly, I’m also thinking, if we do get publicity, that its not fair on Mozambique to be shown to any potential visitors in its most unwelcoming months. A bit like posting photos on face book of a beautiful friend, when she has a hangover.

We shift the departure 3 months earlier.

The current plan is to go from late August until November: Emma will have to run fast to avoid Africa’s summer.

Climate and Geography Facts About Mozambique (africa.answers.com)
Mozambique plans for vote despite boycott threat (bigstory.ap.org)
Movitel Wins Competitive Strategy Leadership Award (appablog.wordpress.com)
MER Group Telecom Division to Provide Full Turnkey Tower Site Solutions in Mozambique (virtual-strategy.com)

We had provisionally planned to go from November 2014 til February ish. But having searched on the internet, received advice and read several guides, it seems that November until February will be hot, wet, filled with mosquitoes, and some roads will be impassable. A few of the game parks are shut. And I am wondering if the lush flora, from the rains, means that we won’t spot lions, elephants, snakes, cheetahs, leopards, rhinos and buffaloes until we fall over them. On the plus side, it’s a good time for bird spotting.

I am ruminating on our options.