Lurio river and Yamaha underwater experience

Mozambique, October 2011

After twelve days long stay in Pemba I'm getting a feeling that I need a stronger adventure. Early in the morning I start driving from Merrebue south to Mecufi. Some 15 kms after Mecufi I find some village and ask people where to turn left to find pathway to lead me to Rio Lurio banks. After two or three tries I find it. I ride around 4 kms on a very narrow pathway, sometimes through the bush. I arrive to the river banks in around 40 minutes. Low tide starts at around 8 am and now is already 9.50 am. I decide to start riding my motorbike accross on a sandy riverbed anyway. The sand is very wet and I can feel my chain is very tense while driving. I have to speed up to 70 km/h because of the sand is wet but at the same time I don't want't to break the chain. I am slaloming between water channels for next 2 kms. I can see water from the sea coming up very fast. Suddenly I stop and realize that I am trapped on a small island. Water is all around me. I can't go anywhere only straight into the water. I quickly start my motorbike and start driving directly into the deep water. First it's 30 cm deep, vut not for long. Soon I fall into 100 cm deep water. I think it is all over. I am aggresivelly splashed over my face and body. I think I will have to swim together with my motorbike. I can't feel that my wheels are touching the bottom.  In a second when I am scared to death I just accelerate aggresively and start flying on the water as a jet-ski. I come out of the water on the other side. What a relief. My eyes are wet, I squeal of happiness.:) I did it, Yamaha did it, we did it! :)

I continued my trip on a dirty but beautiful empty road to Memba which is around 150 km south from Lurio. In next few hours I didn't meet not even one tourist, just locals everywhere. And that's what I love. To meet locals and only locals. :)

Later I spoke to the Italian guy who lives and works on a historic island called Ilha de Mozambique where I arrived two days later. He was showing me his two KTM motorbikes in his garage. When I told him about Rio Lurio experience, he couldn't hide his excitement. He told me that he tried the same with his KTM motorbike but both times failed, as water entered through his exchaust system so engine stoped in the water. So both times he was literally swimming with broken motorbike and then repairing it for hours on the river banks. I couldn't hold my tongue and I kindly suggested him to buy Yamaha. :)

True colours

South of Pemba

Rest

Mecufi peeps

Indian ocean at Rio Lurio mouth

No signs of paradise

Road from Mecufi on

End of the road

Pathway to river banks

On the way to the banks

To do or not to do

Wow, it was 1m deep water! :)

My GPS

Safely on the other side

Bush on the other side

Lurio children

Kind of bridge

Road to Memba

Youngsters came to see me

Youngsters came to see me

Youngsters came to see me

Youngsters came to see me

Models

Road to Memba

Helping local community

Nice rock

Beautiful girl

Memba locals

Golfinho resort Memba

Tired but happy

Obrigado

Memba beach

Delicious fish

Amigos from Avenida bar

Time to rest

'I need holidays' woman :)

Bom dia Pemba

I eat breakfast next to the guys from Schlumberger company. They dig 5.000 up to 15.000 metres deep holes into earth below the Indian ocean and pump out gas and oil. It's about 200 km out in the Indian ocean, east of Pemba. They fly out each day with helicopters after breakfast and come back in the afternoon. So like normal 8-hour working day. If somebody is interested into this kind of job, check their web page.

Schlumberger team

Russels place, Wimbe beach

Entering Mozambique

Walking on the banks of Rovuma

Boys

Boats

Paddling

Other side

Elephant tracks

Elephant tracks

Deep sand

Crossing Rovuma river at Kilambo, a border between Tanzania and Mozambique.

One of the highlights of my trip. :)

Ready to enter Mozambique!

I am sitting in Mtwara town, southern Tanzania. Tomorrow is D-day on my trip. The task is to to drive to a small Kilambo border around 30 km south of Mtwara and cross two kilometer wide Rovuma river on a small boat. The river is normally full of hippos. After crossing the river there is wild ride waiting for me. First through the bush and then into one of the deepest sandy roads in Africa. I've heard it's like 30 cm of sand, I think I will drive and fall and drive and fall all the time... That will be one hell... I will need about 5 to 7 hours for that 45 kms... But when I come to Palma, definatelly relax with a beer...:)

Hotel in Mtwara

Mouse conspiracy in Mombasa

On my third visit of Kenya, I run into an interesting condition of my motorbike's engine. I am happy that after five months of non-use the engine still starts in seconds. But shortly after ignition I notice dense black smoke. I remove the covers and notice that 20 cm of rubber tube is missing. That was the tube which connects the oil tank and the engine. As I look further I notice mouth teets imprints. "Good work", I say to myself. :) Later I notice also most of electrical wires were eaten. But no problem. I decide to repair everything. I buy new tube in the village and repair electrical wires with insulation tape. It looks it works. I am ready to go south.

Mouse ate the oil tube

Eaten electrical wires

Bad condition of wire

New oil tube

In the house of James

With James and his daughter