Warriorbern on the Move

Since it is now high tide early in the morning and when we finish work for the day and there is not much beach available, I have had to resort for taking a small run along the road outside the hotel. It was an interesting change! I had to dodge the mud and the vehicles who drive all over the road but I really enjoyed it despite regretting having just had a couple of slices of cake for afternoon tea! No beach! Talking of afternoon tea, yesterday while I was munching on those pieces of cake I gazed across the water to Maputo and saw the MSC Opera. It really stood out against the city. The MSC Opera docked in Maputo for the day. This morning, after breakfast, I returned to my room to tidy myself up for the workday and as I walked in the door I put the key into the lock and turned it. What a mistake that was! When I came to leave my room I found myself locked in with a malfunctioning lock that would not open. I harassed the lock a bit, then looked out the window to see if

My lack of communication over the last few days has been directly related to the quality (or lack there of) of the internet connection available in the hotel. We finished work on Saturday afternoon at about 2 pm and I was struck down with a severe case of laziness. The long work days had taken their toll and it was not possible for me to do anything more than spend some quality time with my Kindle. It was so good on Sunday not to have to wake up to the alarm clock but I did still see the sunrise and it was worth seeing! After breakfast, the internet disappeared and that would be the end of that until last night (Monday night). The hotel staff were not particularly keen on Sunday to investigate the problem despite most of the workshop participants complaining about it and even when they apparently did "something" to it on Monday morning, it did not return. I decided that the best thing for Sunday was to just forget about the internet and to go for a nice long walk

The trouble with long trips is that at some point I have to do laundry. The decision is then whether to wash my clothes by hand in the, mostly inadequate, facilities in my room or to fork out the cash for the hotel to wash them. My decision on these choices tends to vary quite a lot depending on my levels of laziness, the fee the hotel charges, how dirty the clothes are, etc. This time I chose to wash the clothes myself. Why I did this I have no idea! My options for where to wash my clothes were: the leaky bath or the tiny basin with a malfunctioning plug. I decided that possibly the leaky bath would be the best option because I could at least get a puddle of water together to dampen the clothes completely and hopefully the leak would not be too bad. So in went the clothes and the soap and I started to fill the bath with the drip drip tap. Since the water was running in really slowly, I wandered off to do something else while I waited for enough water to actually wash the clothes

It is yet another beautiful day here today and a real pity to be stuck inside. On the other hand the work is progressing well and it has been interesting to see how differently people collected their survey data. Everyone had the same instructions to start off with but the interpretations were, in some cases, quite novel!. So today there are only photographs again as I have not done anything much worth writing about. The breakfast restaurant - I really do enjoy sitting out there having my breakfast and listening to the sound of the waves washing under the jetty The beach where I run every morning The early morning entertainment - beach seine fishers hauling in their net Some more entertainment - these guys took their cows and goats for a beach walk this morning.

Yesterday afternoon there was a small break in the rain and Maputo was bathed in the late afternoon sunshine. It looked really pretty against the dark rain clouds hanging about above the city. It was good to wake up early this morning with the sunrise and to get up and go for a run along the beach. There were only a couple of fishermen along the beach so it was a very peaceful run. There were no cars spewing out fumes or noise and no pedestrians to have to dodge around. I did, however, miss having my dogs along and I know they would have thoroughly enjoyed the beach. The hotel seems to have gotten its act together today and breakfast was served on time and out on the jetty. It was really lovely out there. I ate my breakfast while watching some beach seine fishers hauling in their catch. Our group also got on with the work straight out the gates today. I think everyone has realised the enormity of the task ahead of us! That of course means that I have had my nose to the

The first trip of 2013 is underway! After spending 5 weeks at home my travel bug was really starting to itch! This trip is to Mozambique, to a small town called Catembe which is across the bay from Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The purpose of the trip: to analyse fisheries research survey data which were collected for the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project. The trip started well. I could not get a direct flight from Durban to Maputo so I had to take the long way round going via Johannesburg. I had thought the flights would be quite turbulent due to all the heavy rain clouds over South Africa and Mozambique but it really wasn't too bad. On arrival in Maputo, I managed to get through immigration very quickly. There is a huge advantage to sitting near the front of the plane! I waited for quite a while for my suitcase and was even beginning to suspect it might have gone on a little side trip of its own when it arrived on the carousel. Maputo is one of those unusua