There is one thing that you need to know about the weather while on our trip…..
IT….RAINED…..A……LOT!!!!!!!
One night we had six inches of rainfall while we were sleeping….or rather while we were lying awake listening to the rain hitting the tent!! It was actually a very cool experience to hear the thunder. It would seem to start on one side of the camp and roll over our tent to the other side.
As we drove into the bush the next morning, these were the sights that met us…..
After my mud puddle experience from a few days ago, I kept expecting the Land Cruiser to get stuck again and for a spray of mud to appear over my shoulder!!
The water on the flood-plain was also deeper and the BV all-terrain vehicle even had a few problems……
I quit filming when the water started flowing over the back of the vehicle, choosing instead to think about needing to swim!!!! But, Julian was able to fishtail the BV backwards until it was on a surer footing and then head in another direction.
After he got us out of this predicament he announced that he had once sunk a BV…..NOT what I wanted to hear!!!
There was a lot of slogging thru knee-deep water….
and I finally learned to grab hold of the vegetation on each side of me to keep upright.
I did manage to find a pretty plant to photograph…..
….and, of course, I picked up a leech!! There is something about me that leeches love!! When we were hiking in the Himalayas, I was the trek champion, picking up SIX of them in two days. Fortunately, I now understand that there isn’t anything bad that they can do to me so I just flick them off and carry on!!
Speaking of insects….. while waiting in the back of the truck one day, I noticed this small insect and started taking zoomed-in photos of him…..
It truly is an amazing creature!!!
I also found this grasshopper with a red “unicorn” horn…..
Okay….I got sidetracked….back to the weather!!!
Because Mozambique is in the Southern Hemisphere, it was winter there, and we knew that it would be cool, especially at night. We also knew that it was the tail end of the rainy season so it could be wet, but we were not prepared for the multiple rainstorms every day.
The biggest problem was with our clothes. The camp staff took dirty clothes every morning and HAND-washed them and hung them on a line to dry. But as it continued to rain each day, they simply couldn’t get them dry!! I ended up wearing the same clothes for five days in a row!!
When we packed up to head home, almost everything was still damp!!
But, even with the cool, wet weather, it was still a sweet trip and one that I will remember for a LONG time!!!
As you get this post, we will be returning home from our second Mozambique trip so be prepared for more travel log adventures in the weeks to come!!!