Pemba

My next stop on the Mozambican coast was a place called Pemba. On my journey here I discovered there is a huge difference between the amount of unwanted hassle you get from men, when you're traveling alone and when traveling with friends in this part of Mozambique. So when I arrived at a campsite in Pemba, I was especially pleased to find that a couple of friends I'd made in Malawi were also there and planned to head the same way as me.

The place where we stayed had a swimming pool and even a TV, which is quite a rarity amongst the places I've been staying and so it felt quite luxurious even though I was camping. Although not as beautiful as the other beaches I'd come from, Pemba did have a huge beach and also the most amazing skys. Another addition was that of hermit crabs who were particularly cool to watch as they scuttled across the sand.

We spent time relaxing on the beach where people trying to sell biscuits, chocolates and crisps passed by, along with guys trying to sell beautiful cray fish. One day we were there was 'Teachers Day'. We couldn't quite gather what it was about but it seemed to mean that all the teachers came to the beach to drink and party and so all the children also came to the beach to play. The children are so imaginative with making toys and although I've never seen the type of football people use at home here, there are always children playing with footballs they've made themselves. In the photo above there is a particularly good example (I'm not at all sure how or why the one boy has a sand beard and overgrown mustache). When they weren't playing football, some of the children made a raised step in the sand and would run up to it, jumping of and doing somersaults and back-flips extremely skillfully.

I spent a morning doing some diving where there where really pretty corals and loads of different fish. There was also the most beautifully patterned turtle at the end of the dive, and on our way back we found a small ship wreck to explore.
Whilst we were in Pemba a few other people we'd met previously arrived and we decided to try and head north together. We all wanted to visit the reportedly stunning Quirimbas Archipelago and so thought we could perhaps hire a dhow to take us to the first in the long string of islands. This turned out to be ridiculously expensive though, and so we set off by bus to where we could get a taxi boat further north.