Cyclone Filipe Road trip to PapaPesca and beyond!
Cyclone Filipe Road trip to PapaPesca and beyond!: Thank you Duarte for catching us up with what you are up to…
Literally out of the blue and with no serious forecast in sight two months ago we got severely hit by Cyclone Filipe which did some serious damage to Vilankulos, Inhassoro, the bazaruto Archipelago and all surrounding areas.
As we normally do that time of year, we were watching it closely but even when we went to bed that night the highest predicted wind on all forecasts was about 45 knots – so off to sleep without much concern in mind!
At 2pm the wind was howling at least 70 knots and when at 3am it switched to the east it went up a notch, we guess about 90 knots and when the roof started to collapse half an hour later, we knew we were in for a rough and intense night!
Having coincided with an extremely big high spring tide did not help matters and many had much worst damages than we did. Still, we had to sort out all the debris, broken piping, swimming pool and collapsed retaining wall –. Still, the worst was definitely the roof which we had to rebuild, and seeing it would take about 6 weeks to do so, we had to be out the house for at least three and the kids where on School holiday we thought it would be a good excuse to go on a road trip!
And so, we did and it was the most beautiful family time with a month on the road in the most diverse places starting a in Tofo beach, then Maputo (to sort out some paperwork), the off to the Mountains in South Africa in and around Graskop, to experiencing the bush and some wildlife in and around Kruger, back to Mozambique through the Gyriando border and sleeping at Covane Lodge in Massingir to finish it off doing some amazing and very diverse freshwater fishing at PapaPesca.
Papa Pesca is an Aquaculture and Polyculture Farm close to Chokwe owned by Pieter De Klerk who was an exceptional host and who I would like to thank for the privilege, great time, food and chats over the three nights we were there.
Another friend of ours, Dave Charley has teamed up with Pieter and they have stocked two dams, one with tigerfish and the other with Carp (and they both got massive tilapia) so as to develop a sustainable freshwater fishery which I foresee as a great success. They are now in the process of building accommodation etc…
It was a thrilling and exciting event – with ten minutes to go I was on the lead with 13 fish, Duarte with 9 and right behind Dave with 7 – but the little shit had to have something up his sleeve and managed to make a great comeback and win with 15 fish!!!!
…so, watch this space!
Here are a few more pics and stories from the trip!
First and foremost, some of the amazing wildlife we experienced!
Duarte , first of all I’m glad that everybody was OK, I’m sorry for your damages, I’m glad you got through it ok, the best thing is you turned lemons into lemonade you had a great family adventure good for you guys, good times, great pics,
Take care
MD