Culturally Rich Cape of Beauty - Eastern Cape

Every woman has 3 or 4 outfits for any special occasion. We just never like repeating these outfits, so we try to get more by making excuses about not having something to wear. After our dress disasters before the wedding, we had to option but to opt for plan B.

Option B dresses saved the day 

Buyiswa - my beautiful sister

Yours trully, Nombulelo

Lord thank you for the beautiful scenery before us, open spaces and very clean white sandy beaches. The wind literally blows clean fresh air from the sea, trees, mountains and rivers. I wonder if people around here realise what wealth they have. Then again if you are unemployed & have no food on your table, I guess you have more pressing things on your mind than the beauty that surrounds you.

Buyiswa & Nombulelo
Gonubie, Hemmingway - Beautiful Windy East London

Postcard picture perfect

Breathtaking Morgans Bay

Nyara Village where we were invited to join in a traditional Xhosa feast. Where there is a feast, there is enough food, meat and drinks for everyone. A big bowl was passed around for the ladies to take a chunk of meat and pass on. Even though it’s unhygienic, I was too hungry and too tired to care. I dug in...

Traditional Xhosa Feast, Nyara Village

Too Gorgeous to resist, talk about ageing gracefully

Kei Mouth

The wedding was abundantly blessed in beauty, joy, wealth, health and love. Congratulations to Mr. L & Mrs. L Mateza (not sure if I am allowed to post up their pics though ;-). I can safely say, this is one of my best weddings ever, it was very genuine, filled with laughter, all the faces present at the wedding were honest and happy to share in this occassion. Simple treasures are hardest to be found, but they found each other...

Psst.. snuck in one pic, shhh your lips are sealed...

Gorgeous graceful soul. Beauty with brains and a big heart

24 – 27 Sept 2009

Fun begins at 30... (Catembe & Maputo - Mozambique March 2008)

You forgot your passport?! How! Even after I reminded you 20 times? Thembi!!! "Oh Nombies, I’m sorry. Relax, we’ll have to go home and fetch it. These things happen…" She responded in a  soothing and calm voice. Thembi discovered she forgot her passport at home as soon as the InterCape bus  pulled into Joburg Park Station (train station) from Maputo, Mozambique. What happened afterwards was a grand prix race to get to Thembi’s house to pick up her passport and back to catch the bus*crossed fingers*. Thank God, the bus was slightly delayed due to maintenance checks. Even after a thorough maintenance check, we had an oil leakage and the bus broke down at the border.

Thembi & I both wanted a local feel to Maputo versus a tourist one, that’s why the choice to stay in Catembe which is accessible via a ferry (mapaipai). I guess Thembi eventually made up (for leaving her passport) by helping me with my forever-heavy-luggage, as we got on board a dodgy sinking looking ferry from Maputo to Catembe. Catembe is a small fishing town of old Portuguese colonial buildings with beautifully kept green and colourful gardens.

 Views from our balcony - beautiful sunrises overlooking the ocean, such a glorious way to welcome the day…

Catembe Gallery Hotel (http://www.galleryhotel.co.mz). 

Americo, our driver – what a beautiful soul. He would wait for us at Catembe while we delayed, missed the ferry, didnt observe the ferry timetable and at times even gave us Meticais (local currency) when we didn’t have loose change for the ferry ride.

Some of the must see places:

Costa Do Sol restaurant – magnificent prawns and cute waiters :-)

VIP Hotel – try their Zambezian chicken with coconut milk rice (food to live for). Great service from the staff. I even bumped into a colleague of mine.  

Local flea market, so much to choose from. Hone your negotiation skills and get ready to fend off VERY persistent hawkers

Beautiful elegant estate looking houses in BairoTriomf and Somachet 2 but situated just opposite the smelly fish market.

I would skip the fish market, it was very smelly. The fresh coconut "juice" we tasted, tasted like donkey pee. Don't ask...

Get used to seeing soldiers in streets carrying AK47s and street hawkers at every corner selling alcohol. No need for licences.

Maputo has very nice warm people, great prawns, good vibe and a beautiful contrast of old and new. Old dilapidated buildings with beautiful boutiques and imported clothes inside. Not sure why the buildings are not fixed or painted though. Maybe someone knows… Anybody...

Even though I make a practical traveller, have a list of stuff and places to see or avoid. Thembi is a great travel companion as she is easy going, more trusting, and just adds a bit of fun...

:) Thumbs up cool and safe destination for solo travel



Mapaipai - dodgy sinking looking ferry



View of Maputo from my balcony @ Catembe Hotel

Nombs & Thembi, Hotel VIP