Ilha de Mozambique and a loose brake - Mozambique

Tuesday-Saturday 21-25.05:

We continued south to Ilha de Mozambique the next day. We started off too late from Pemba so we soon had to drive in the dark again. Suddenly the car started making horrible sounds when I tried to brake. It got worse and at one point the left front wheel blocked completely. I managed to steer the car to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We were shocked. As it sounded like the car had some major problem and there was no way to move it any further. Was this the end of our trip? Tired and exhausted we decided to sleep and hope for the next day to bring us luck.

In the next morning we took off the left front tire and found out that the brake saddle had lost both screws causing the wheel to block completely. An angle was send to us in person of a truck driver who knew immediately what to do. He gave first aid to the broken brake and told us to carefully drive to the next repair shop in 25 kilometers. There they managed to fix the problem within half an hour. We were relieved that it was such an easy fix. We could continue our trip without much time loss. Soon we arrived at the 3 kilometer long bridge connecting the mainland to the Ilha de Mozambique. On the other side we were picked up by Chinnenha. She owns a beautiful old colonial house where she offers rooms and delicious food for little money (250 Mts per pers/ tel. 824545960). The remaining afternoon we walked through the narrow streets of the old fascinating stone town. Back at Chinneha’s home a delicious seafood dinner was waiting for us on the stone porch overlooking the Indian Ocean. After a long adventurous day we went to bed tired and grateful for having the privilege to be on this trip.