Day Trip to Maxixe and Inhambane

We (4 boats; Gromit, Rhythm, Leu Cat and Solar Planet) were anchored in the river at Linga Linga, Mozambique. We were watching the weather and no favourable winds were making their way our way.

Fresh food was getting low, so we were trying to figure out a way to get to the town of Inhambane or Maxixe (pronounced Masheesh ). We wanted to take a couple of the boats 8 miles to town, but had heard that we would have to check into Mozambique which can be a big event with possible bribes to be paid. We didn't want to check in as we were just sheltering in the country waiting for the next good weather system and we certainly didn't want to pay bribes.

The next option was to get some sort of local water craft to take us to town and maybe even stay a night or two. That didn't work because if you check into a hostel/hotel, you must show your passport, with a valid tourist visa. While discussing other options, a local Mozambican suggested that we take the bus! Oh, that sounds easy! Ok, let's do that. Taking the bus wasn't apparent from where we were in the river. We were told to dinghy to shore, climb the hill, find the road and wait for the bus.

At 6 am the next morning, Michael and I dinghied to the opposite shore to a small resort to exchange some dollars for local currency so that we could pay for the bus. Around 7 am, the other dinghies joined us and we made our way to the far shore to find a place to leave the dinghies. We had taken low tide into account, but hadn't realized just how shallow the river was along its shoreline. We could not get into the shoreline without having to drag our dinghies at least 500 metres over sand and mud. We had to abandon our expedition.

The following day, high tide was at 4 am, so we all raced to shore just after 5 am and were able to get almost completely to shore.