We are open!
After days, months and years, we can finally say that we are open! It has been the most amazing journey to get us to this point. We have learnt so much about building; the culture; ourselves and each other. It has been a huge challenge but with the biggest reward: we have built our dream (NOT the small backpackers that was the original plan!!)!
We have built something that we are hugely proud of and we want to say a massive thank you to all our friends, family, staff and guests who have made this possible!
We can’t wait to welcome you all here and share a beer with you in the best bar in Tofo!
Hut 2 and Inhambane
Hut two’s roof
Hut 2 proved a bit more difficult as we had to incorporate a new balcony as well as changing the pitch of the roof. The balcony is not at the same pitch as the rest of the roof so wouldn’t be watertight so we have laid plastic in between the layers of grass to hopefully stop any leaks. We are joining in another roof to the side for a corridor so if it’s raining, when you are walking between the buildings you won’t get wet! We’ve seen it done on other roofs in the area but designing it ourselves is a little daunting. It’s bad enough having a join in a normal roof; imagine trying to keep the joins water tight when they’re made of reed?!
Containers, grass roofs and the good life!
The Container
Who knew getting a container from London to Tofo could be so hard?
Firstly it took about 4 months to find a company that could actually do it – there are hundreds of companies that can ship the container to the port in Maputo, or use their own container but finding a company that would ship our container, get it through customs and transport it to our land was hard work. We needed our own container as we had nowhere to store anything when it arrived on our land. We had various representatives coming to the house to discuss the shipping but when it came down to it, not one of them could do the whole service. In the end we joined an expat blog page in Mozambique and found a company in the UK through a lady that had just happened to have done the same thing.
So Far…
Since we arrived in January so much has happened, both good and the not so good, so here’s a little catch up to bring us up to date.
Leaving the UK was all a bit surreal, the joint christening and farewell party was great but it still felt like we were just going on holiday. It wasn’t until we were saying our goodbyes at Heathrow airport that it all became real – Sobbing at passport control wasn’t one of our finest moments!
23 hours later, after a long stop in Johannesburg and a long customs search of our 10 pieces of luggage, we arrived in Mozambique to start our new lives, along with our 6 month old baby.
Four months in and we have had about 200 mosquito bites, a case of ringworm, some money and a car battery stolen from a hotel room, one case of meningitis (which resulted in a week long stay in a rather questionable hospital), two car breakdowns ,8 traffic stops, 3 traffic fines, one fight with a rather aggressive crab and two dog bites – by the same dog I may add.
