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Adventures with Kingsley Holgate - Afrika Outside Edge 20

Adventures with Kingsley Holgate - Afrika Outside Edge 20

Author: Kingsley Holgate
Date: 2017-08-31

We're feeling the pace, running on adrenalin. Getting the Landies across the Meluli and Ligonha rivers is torturous - but we had learnt our lesson on the Lurio. This time we pay a team of about 50 men to wade into the river and stand in two lines so marking the shallowest crossing. The instructions to the men are clear: If the vehicles start to flounder, rush in like a rugby scrum and push like hell. It works and with the Zen of Travel on our side we make it down the coast from Angoch to Pebane, on to Quilimane for more mosquito nets, across the ferry over the Zambezi and down to Chupanga where Mary Livingstone, wife of the great Victorian missionary explorer lies buried.

For us as a family, Chupanga is one of the spiritual places on the river. It is here that one gets a feel for the hardship and dangers that exist for people who travel along the great Zambezi. The inscription on Mary Moffat's gravestone reads:

Here repose the mortal remains of Mary Moffat. The beloved wife of Doctor Livingstone. In humble hope of joyful resurrection. Your Saviour Jesus Christ.

She died in Chupanga House on 27 April 162, aged 41 years. Although this was our fourth expedition to Mary's grave, we are still overcome by the sadness of the place, the neglected graves and the war-torn mission station. Fortunately the beautiful church has now been restored and the sound of the bell rings out across the banks of the Rio Zambezi. Singing softly a group of local Sena women join us at the grave. Mashozi places a bunch of wild flowers beneath the tombstone. Each one of the mums receives a life saving mosquito net. We do not want them or their children to die from the same deadly bite of the Anopheles mosquito that killed Mary.

Then it's down the Pungue River, massive crocs and mud banks, village to village, distributing nets and education to mothers with babies. A fierce incoming tide, strong winds and the twists and turns of the river makes the Pungue a real challenge with the rendezvous at Biques near the old Makuti lighthouse only taking place in the dark with just a table spoon of boat fuel left in the tanks. Will keep you posted.