10 days of Mozambique or: “Arrive alive!” (Sign at a South African highway toll station)

Whenever I talked to Africans about going to Mozambique beforehand, they would say that I will see the ‘Real Africa’ there. I understand their prophecy now.
Staring from Johannesburg we firstly wanted to go directly to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. But due to some serious riots with 10 people killed we changed our direction and went to Kruger National Park instead. This was in my opinion an even better idea!
We were driving during the whole night to get to the park early in the morning. With out tired eyes we successfully spotted quite a few animals. We saw many elephants, buffaloes, zebras, birds, gnus, giraffes and a sweet butt of a rhino walking away from us back in the bush. One of the elephants actually chased our car. That was a bit scary!
We continued driving until we reached the border of Mozambique. It was the most lonesome border in the whole world. One thing we realized there already: the time stands still in Mozambique. It took them more than two hours to put the necessary stamp into our passports in order to get into the country. In this whole time we were the only ones passing the border.
There we were on the road again. We continued to drive for another 15 hours on gravel roads. Once in a while we saw a little micro-open door cashew shop. Locals would pick the cashews from the trees, put them in plastic bags and hang them up on a tree and wait for customers on the road.
Our final destination Tofo was a romantic place located next to the Indian Ocean in the Southern part of Mozambique. The Bamboozi house where we had breakfast and lunch was right at the beach, so we enjoyed beautiful scenery!
It was a week of timelessness, we woke up with the sun and we went to bed right after sun set. Our whole schedule was determined to the rhythm of nature. It was very relaxing days with Ocean Safari expeditions, horseback ridings and quadding. The locals of Mozambique were super nice and friendly; it was a lot of fun talking to them when walking to town nearby. Little kids would wave at us because they must have found us white people so fascinating. We passed by many different small settlements with people making little fire in front of their round grass huts. Local kids were getting water with their buckets from a central fountain.
When we went to the ocean in our little shaky wooden boat, we saw huge pot whales coming up on the surface next to us. In our boat, we felt like Lilliputians.
We also went diving and what I saw there I can never forget: a huge whale shark right in front of my face! Whale sharks are the biggest existing sharks. But, no worries, they only eat plants!
Our exciting trip ended with going to Maputo. That was definitely an experience. We have never seen such poverty in a city. People also weren't so friendly anymore. Instead of usually waving at us they threw stones at our car. Especially driving through the suburbs to get to the city center was really mind-changing and completely transferred my perception of Mozambique.
Visiting Mozambique will always stay in my precious memories. I have seen things I have never seen before. This inviolate African country really opened my eyes!