We had a long weekend ahead of us, but just one day to travel because Andy was absent. We reached a consensus of four possible options: Inhaca (beach), Xai-Xai (beach), Bilene (beach) or Namaacha (mountains). I opted for the last one due to particular circumstances.
My essentials to this short voyage were: water, book, CDs, pen, paper, sunglasses, two cameras and a comprehensive husband. Namaacha is around 100Km distant from Maputo, a short travel turned pleasant thanks to a local radio station that was playing a mix of old tracks. So, at least the CDs relaxed from the start…
When we left, painter Naguib was already at the mural site with an enthusiasm worthwhile to register. A Naguib paint was one of my best investments in the last years, because I offer it to my husband on Father’s Day and its value has been growing at a rate of almost 100% per year.
After Naguib and the oldies on the radio, when the car was starting to roar like it is supposed to roar on a highway, and to be coherent with what is becoming usual, the police stopped us. This always happens with a certain type of speedy car, but I am glad to tell that the rest of the voyage was fine. The fields are still very green and the mango trees full of fruits for this summer.
We had a couple of reasons to pick Namaacha, but the main was my restlessness since the first days of November (just like October, by the way). I can tell you that, from time to time, my body fights with my heart, and my mind seems to be incapable of intervene to put some sense on both. The body has been victorious most of the time and had reasons to celebrate.
So the body, who has been in command, decided to give a break to the poor heart and picked the healing mountains again, this time in Mozambican territory, and even put a small heart on a bracelet just to remind himself to be kind with the little sensitive fellow.
We went straight to the hotel and casino, had a simple lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing (husband), reading (body and mind) and dreaming (heart). No gambling today, just rest near the swimming pool.
I took a lot of double pictures with my digital camera and another camera that I was using until 2001, when I went digital. I am pretty curious to compare the results.
Namaacha is on the far side of Lebombo mountains, serving as natural border between Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa. It is a simple restful place, where we intend to be back prepared to swim due to the perfect weather and the water temperature.
When we left our swimming pool chairs, we saw that we had been for almost two hours under a nest of vicious African bees, but we were lucky because they ignored us. I had just finished to write about the subject that was disturbing me, and during the process my mind could finally settle both contenders.
I hope that next time I won’t be so divided, because I can tell you this: it is hard to feel this way. I also protest against power lines all over the mountains making impossible to take a decent photo. What is the problem of humankind and cables? Body and heart type? Can’t live with, can’t live without?
