Once safely on the ground at Pemba we stayed in Dave's beach cottage there for 5 days before flying out to JNB. I think I should explain Pemba to you. Pemba is supposed to be a bit more civilised than the bush but I've decided it is all a facade. It was extrememly hot in Pemba far more humid than Lugenda and we spent most of our days out of the sun trying to stay cool. This is quite hard with the constant power cuts so the fans and the water don't work so you find yourself being suffocated with the humidity with no relief not even at night. There's poverty here but you don't find the people begging on the streets, which I have seen in other parts of the World and the people seem to be fairly happy and healthy. Being on the coast they have an unlimited amount of sealife to eat and being tropical there are plenty of mango and cashew trees. Most of the villages have their own fresh water well. The villages that I've driven through are all very friendly and neat and tidy. The villagers are quite house proud and several of the houses have fenced in properties with even gardens. They're much nicer than anything I've seen in South Africa.
Pemba itself is beautiful, white beaches with big palm trees onside of you and tropical bushes and trees the other side of you.
If you look out to see you get that classic image of the Indian Ocean with the light blue Ocean and the local fishermen floating on their dhows. Very idillic. There is also the Pemba Beach Hotel, which although very expensive is at least nice to go and sit and have tea at. Just as long as you have electricity!!
The hotels and restaurants in Pemba are very expensive so we tried to eat in as much as possible. On our second night in Pemba we realised we'd left it too late to go to the shops as they apparently they close at lunchtime: so we had to make do with what was in the cupboards. That consisted of a tin of sweetcorn and a tin of peaches!! Now I've never been able to get out of the habit of having three cooked meals a day so you can imagine how hungry I was. Dave who spends 8 months of his year in the middle of the bush is used to only the one meal, which would usually be beans and sausages. Not wanting to complain I excepted my tin of sweetcorn very politely. I was very relieved when Dave decided he did need a bit more than half a tin of sweetcorn to fill him up and we raced up to the backpackers for a takeaway pizza.
The next day was Sunday so there were very few shops open but we managed to find a tiny little local shop on the side of the road where we sufficiently stocked up. That night we had again our beans and sausages, which this time we tried with pasta instead of noodles and the combination I think worked much better!!
We had a small flood the next day as there was a leak from the pipe behind the sink where I was washing up. The house now stunk as we had old dish water over the kitchen and lounge floor. My resolve was starting to give by this point and I was very ready to be back in a civilsed place with hot showers and running water and constant electricity by this point.
With only one day left in Pemba I was starting to feel a bit more relaxed. Although Dave's house was sparce it was very sweet and you couldn't beat the view. I had a bit of a throw back when trying to cook Dave lunch on our last day and nothing seemed to go right. I'm quite a capable cook but I like to be in the comfort of my own kitchen. All I had to do was boil some pasta to have with a tin tuna and sweetcorn but of course in Pemba nothing is easy. Firslty I had to look for a saucepan and the only thing I could find was an old tin completely coated in lime scale but it had to do. So I go to fill it up at the sink in the kitchen and I cant get the tap to work so I have to fill it up at the bathroom sink. I then go to the electric stove and realise it's not plugged in. South Africa and other parts of Africa have about 3 different plug sockets, which can make things very awkward. I see that the stove plug is the wrong one for the plug socket so I go and look for an adaptor. After all this I then cant get the stove plug to reach the socket. I tried in vain to move the dresser which the stove was sitting on so in the end I just give up. It shouldn't be this hard to boil some bloody pasta!!
Dave came back and asked me what was wrong. After I'd told him the story, which I'd just told you he took me over to the kitchen sink and turned on the tap whilst pressing down on it and water spurted out. He then led me over to the stove and moved the portable stove closer to the plug socket so you didn't need to move the dresser. A bit of a blonde moment I'm afraid to admit to there!!
On our last day I was more than relieved to be leaving. The electricity had cut out at 6am so the fan had stopped leaving the room unbelievably hot so I had to get up. Dave had to go into town so I just packed up my things and tried to stay as still as possible so as not to make myself any hotter. I was waiting for Dave to get back so we could go across to the tap behind his boss's house to wash from. I was desperate to wash my hair as Dave had told me that morning that it looked like candy floss!! I dragged him straight to the tap and stripped off and was so appreciative to feel the cold water over my skin. I used a cup to wash my hair with and was very thankful to be leaving that day.
We then had one night at friends of Dave's family in Jo'burg and I was able to have my first hot bath in three weeks. We ate a big meal of spag bol and salad and watched television. It was even cold enough to wear tracky b's and a fleece so I was feeling much better. Ready to start the next leg of our trip.
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