MOZAMBIQUE 1979 TO 1982.
Also known as Lourenco Marques. This was the most exciting of all my postings overseas. I faced many awkward and sometimes dangerous situations and visited many towns with historical pasts.
I was the Engineer in charge of an major aid project funded by the UK Government for upgrading and returning to service all the telecommunication and landing aid equipment in Maputo where I stayed, Beira and Tete airports and the installation of a transmitter station in Manica. The project included the planning and procurement of spares and equipment as well as the installation, commissioning and maintenance of high powered transmitters ,associated receivers and control systems. The main language in Mozambique was Portuguese and before going I took a 2 weeks course. I learned Latin at school and in addition had private tuition with a lady teacher in order to stay in the A class. This helped a lot because the Portuguese language is grammatically similar. Once again I had a lady teacher. Hyde Park was very close and I would go there every day during my lunch break. It was entertaining listening to the speakers on their soap boxes.
For this posting my wife Danie did not come with me. It would have been too dangerous. I was stationed in Maputo the capital where most of the new installations would be. It was the biggest and hardest contract in all my overseas postings. The first most noticeable sight was most of the cars had huge dents in their roofs and bonnets and in some areas which had glass roofs noticeably the shopping arcades which had great big holes in them. This was due to a natural disaster a massive Cyclone which hit in January 1978.
On arrival I with 2 engineers all stayed in what had been in Portuguese times the Ritz of hotels the Polana. It would have been full of South African tourists in those days. We had no transport and the first thing we did was fly to Botswana to pick up my new Peugeot Estate and 2 land rovers for general use and drove them back to Maputo. They were the only vehicles with BZ number plates in Maputo. Firstly we had to find accommodation. Most of it had been taken by the Russians who were everywhere. After 4 months I managed to get a high rise flat. One of my staff was sick, and being told the hospital was not very good I took him to Nelspruit in South Africa. Later on he had a nervous breakdown(he was in the RAF) and I sent him back to UK. IAL always preferred to employ ex Royal Navy because they were used to being away from home. This proved the point. Another engineer replaced him and eventually we all housed. At this time the Russians were controlling the country. There were no fish in the sea because they had taken the lot and sent them all back to Russia, consequently for breakfast, dinner and supper we always had prawns and more prawns. Leo our youngest son would have been in heaven he adored them. After we left the hotel we all said we would never eat prawns again. All the main roads in town were rutted and full of pot holes caused by Russian tanks driving up and down. I had to drive to Manhica to survey the site where we would be installing new equipment. A lot of the road was made up with coal which was abundant in this area. When I arrived at the old site there were hundreds of empty bullet shells on the ground giving you a scary feeling The airport owned a house near there where I stayed for 2 nights but I had to share with 5 Russians. It was a difficult situation especially at meal times. They were a solemn group and never smiled.
Because the project was sponsored by British aid I had to visit the Embassy and give them updates as to how it was progressing. Outside there was a plaque saying Winston Churchill took refuge here during the Boer war.
On December 22nd 1899 he was imprisoned by the Boers and famously wrote. How unhappy is that poor man who loses his dignity. What can the wide world give him in exchange? No degree of material comfort can balance the hateful degradation of imprisonment. Before he had been in captivity in Pretoria for 1 hour he resolved to escape and the defeat of the British at Stormberg clinched the matter. With another officer they discovered that the sentries walked about on their beats and at a certain moment were unable to see the top of a few yards of a wall. At this point therefore they made their escape on the 12th December 1900. For 6 days they hid in a garden near the railway station patiently waiting for a train to Lorenzo Marks. On the 6th day they boarded a goods train and hid under a pile of clothing expecting it to take 36 hours instead it was 2 ½ days. The historical town of Tete in the far north had links with Dr Livingston and Stanley. There was nothing there but for some reason I don’t know why I got to like it and enjoyed staying.
The only hotel was awful as was the food. Mosquitoes were everywhere and the room walls were often covered in blood where the residents had swotted Mosquitoes. I would often find ladies panties in my bed. On my first UK leave I went to the market and asked for an anorak. The vender asked me what colour and I replied that doesn’t matter, give me one with the most pockets On my return I would fill all these up with goodies making my stay at the hotel more liveable. On the road down there were telephone cables and sitting on these you would see these huge spiders eating small birds. An amazing site never to be forgotten.
The Airport Director was Mohamed. He was a proud and jolly person whom I liked a lot and we got on very well together. He invited me into his home to meet his wife and children which is unusual for an Arab. We spent a lot of time together and on one occasion spent almost a week looking for a site in the fields to install a navigational aid. He said when it was installed it would always be called Mr Mikes field. The locals would always called me by this name. Sometimes when I had finished a job early and wanted to get back to Maputo I would go to the control tower and ask if there was a small 6 seat plane with a spare seat arriving. Often I was lucky and when it landed would asked the pilot if I could hitch a lift. There was never a problem and it was nice to get back home earlier than expected even as I often was sit on the floor. The airport was very small and when you looked out of the control tower across the runway there were crumpled remains of the old tower which had been bombed by the Rhodesian Air Force. Painted on many of the walls around the town were pictures of Samora Machel the president but under these you could still faintly see written in Portuguese down with Smith, the president of Rhodesia at that time.
When we had all settled in it was necessary to drive across the border to Nelspruit in South Africa for food. From Maputo to the border at Komatiport there was a long smooth road hardly used and I would do 100 MPH nearly all the way but on my first visit I was almost at the border when soldiers armed with rifles jumped out of the bush and stopped me saying Onde ir(where are you going)Africa de Sol I replied. I felt sorry for them, their uniforms were torn and their rifles were in a bad state. However we chatted and I realised all they wanted was bread, boot polish and tooth paste. This I did and would always include 15 loafs. I was always greeted with smiles and even got to know some of their names. On my way back they would say Onde Vir (where are you from) which was obvious the border just down the road. I would go often go to Nespruit near the border and stay in a beautiful hotel the Drum Rock. It had this name because they would beat drums to let you know it was evening meal time. In winter it could get quite nippy and in the bar there was comfortable lounge with log fires. Looking back I realise how dangerous this posting was and find it hard to believe that I carried out such risks. Maybe it was for excitement but for 2 years I helped out the SADF(South African Defence Force) who somehow knew a lot about me. My contact was an Africana called Jan who lived in the border town of Komatipoort. He was a very likeable person and we got on well together. He introduced me to the dentist as another contact. There were no good dentist in Maputo and I visited him on two occasions free of charge. I was given a top of the range SMC Asahi 47/300 telescope and a Pentax K1000 camera which I still have today.
I took photos of Russian complexes throughout the country and high transmitter masts on their base next to the airport which they specifically asked for. I was given street names and numbers of houses in Maputo belonging to ANC (African Nation Congress).SADC commandos would cross the border and the houses would disappear. On the net see umkhonto wesizwe mocambique
On one occasion Jan advised me not to go to Matola about 12 miles away. I said not to worry because I had recently taken my family there for the ferry ride. I learned later the SADC had gone there and destroyed many buildings. An advantage I had was I could go straight through customs without any delay. There was a customs officer nicknamed Smudge Smithy because he always had black ink pen marks on his white front pocket. He was a jolly rotund character and I would always stay and have a good chat. If I had photos or had made up some maps and Jan was not around I would put them in his post box written in Africans BUS 1.I didn’t ask for it but he insisted in paying me in South African Rands. This transaction would be in the Wild Live Sanctuary one of the local game parks and no receipt was given.
Before I start the story about my family visiting Mozambique my wife has always kept a diary from the age of 16 up till now apart from 1973 when it was stolen in Somalia. Without this my story could not be fully told. On the 29th March 1980 she came out with the children. I drove to Jan Smuts airport and we spent the next two days in the Kruger National Park This was first established in1898 to protect the wildlife. It is the largest safari park in South Africa taking up the same area as Israel. The first day we spent in the Lower Sabie. There were very high sycanmore fig trees which unusually produced fruit twice a year for the birds and insects. One could also see in the distance stretching for miles and miles the Lebombo mountains a wonderful sight. Six years later the President Samora Machel plane crashed killing all on board. Later there was talk this might not have been an accident. The next day we visited the Sabie river seeing many crocodiles and hippopotamus. On the banks there were many different animals and birds drinking but the herons and kingfishers were much bigger than in UK. There were the usual vultures. The next day we went to Roodewal Bush Lodge. There were zebras and impalas everywhere. We also saw giraffes and one who just stood in middle of the road., a family of elephants and lions who I did not see at first but they saw me.(see photo).In the evening we were taken out in a covered vehicle with a camp guide and saw 4 leopards. On our return they had laid on a huge barbecue very tasty but far too much. Probably they cooked for the Boers whose appetites were huge.
The next visit was in December 1980 . I drove up to Johannesburg to meet them. We stayed over night in the Holiday Inn and the next day drove to Swaziland and stayed for 2 days. Micaela had a school friend who lived there and she and Leo went to her house. She was delighted to see them and they spent the afternoon riding horses. We then went back into South Africa and drove down to Maputo. There was a lovely beach and restaurant which we often went to in the evening at the Costa De Sol. It was ideal for swimming and sea shell hunting. We found some very beautiful ones which our son Marcus still has. We would also feed the monkeys who lived in the palm trees which is unusual as was feeding them on the sandy beach. Further down the road there was another lovely beach at Marracuene I remember the tide going out a very long way and finding more shells. On the sea front directly below our flat was the Naval club. You had to walk down a hill to get there but had to be very careful and always carry a stick because there were many snakes. Most of the Portuguese went there. They were very untidy people and when they left would always leave behind a load of rubbish.
On the 10th January 1981the family began their journey back to UK .On the road from Komatipoort to Nelspruit we picked up sugar cane that had been dropped by lorries. This along with biltong which we bought in Nelspruit was Micaelas favourite and she would take them back to school with her. I visited a gift shop and bought a second hand wind up gramophone in excellent order which I still have plus many records including many hit records Perry Como, Louis Armstrong and the Ink Spots. The next day we went into Swaziland. On the border there was a big market which sold everything. We bought a lovely wood carving and 2 batiks which we still have hanging up in our lounge. We visited the famous Sudwala Caves in Mpumalanga which are set in Precambian dolomite rock. They were formed about 240 million years ago making them the oldest known caves in the world and were used for shelter in prehistoric times. They were first discovered by Sequa a son of the Swazi king Somhuza. In 1900 the Boers used them to store ammunition. The main attraction is a massive underground cave 70 metres in diameter and 37 metres high. It has a constant temperature of 17oC and is used as a concert hall. We also visited the nearby pre- historic Sudwala Dinosaur park with many life-sized dinosaur models looking exactly like the real thing. A wonderful experience They also gave you very interesting literature in which several aspects of pre-historic and evolution were covered. There was also a Peacock farm and the children all picked up the beautiful feathers which had blown out of the enclosure. The next day we were in Johannesburg and spent the afternoon in the Snake park. There were an unbelievable 150 species of snakes, reptiles and amphibians mostly in cages inside. Outside in fenced areas there were crocodiles and a wide variety of tortoises. They would bring out various snakes for you to handle and we all had go. Another memorial day. It was then goodbye and they all flew back home in the evening.
Clive Stringer and his wife Mareka were both South Africans and a lovely couple They were very good friends and we spent a lot of time together. They had a bungalow about 50 miles away in a small town of Bilene and a nice cabin cruiser. The fishing was great and we always came back with lots to barbeque in the evenings. On one occasion Danie trod on some nasty hooks which imbedded in her left foot. One often mentions chance encounters, here we were miles from any hospital when out of the blue a man said let me have a look. It was Seagio a surgeon with his wife Val who were good friends of ours in Somalia where he was working on a Italian Aid program. He was doing the same in Mozambique. He had an emergency kit with him, stitched up the cuts and covered the foot with a bandage saying come and see me in Maputo in a weeks time. They had a lovely big house with a swimming pool and two dogs Sheba a Doberman who was obsessed with chasing butterflies and Toska a big white fluffy creature. They had 2 servants, a cook and a gardener who also looked after the pool.
The children’s last visit with Danie was December 1st 1981.I drove up and met them at Jan Muts airport and then to Mbabane the capitol town of Swaziland for shopping staying at the Holiday Inn then on to Maputo. Clive had asked us to look after his house whilst he was away on holiday. We obliged and for 2 weeks lived a live of luxury. Danie didn’t have to cook a meal, wash the dishes or clean the house etc this being done by the servants. There was also a gardener who also looked after the swimming pool which the children spent most of the day in.When we first arrived we were having our evening meal and by accident I trod on a button under the dining table and a bell rang quickly followed by a servant arriving from the kitchen asking for my requirement. It reminded me of the comedy Upstairs Downstairs and the saying (did you ring my lord).During our stay we were invited by the Ambassador Mr Stuarts to his birthday party, not an exiting evening. The family returned home at the end of December. In the diary I noticed the Falkland war started 29th April and HMS Sheffield was sunk four days later killing 30 of her crew.
Soon after this I became very ill and realized it was serious. Brian Horn drove me to Jan Smuts airport phoned my wife and I was on a plane in the evening. I saw my doctor and he immediately sent me to St Mary’s Hospital Portsmouth. After a quick examination I was taken across the road to the Tropical Disease Department and put in an isolation room. I was there for 3 weeks and had to wear a face mask when I was visited or had to go to the loo. Normally in hospital there are lots of patients and people to talk to but it was very boring seeing nobody. At first I was diagnosed with malaria but it turned be filaria a thread like parasitic worm caused by mosquitoes and insect bites in tropical climates.( I always get the good ones) When returning from leave I would always take the overnight train from Johannesburg to Komatipoort. Danie used this also. It was a great way to travel you would have a wash and brush up in morning have breakfast then go on your way. South Africans railways were always spot on time for their departures and arrivals. The train would either speed up or slow down to achieve this. I can remember going round the back of Komatipoort station to be greeted by the largest police Alsatians in kennels that I have ever seen. I went through Jan Smuts airport so many times the Indian waiters when they saw me would bring me spare ribs without me asking knowing it was my favourite dish. There was a nice area in the town called Garden City where a lot of senior Embassy staff lived. I was visiting a friend and we were talking in his front garden when 2 cars arrived at the house opposite. The first person to get out was Robert Mugabe. This was very fortunate because my friend worked in the British Foreign Office.
So many things happened in this country on the off chance. For example all boats by law must have radio equipment. I was out fishing with Clive when we picked up signals from Madagascar and clearly heard the airport speaking to an aeroplane. This was exactly the same situation I had in Libya where I picked up a signal and I was probably the only person with friends in Beghazi to see the moon landing. On my next leave to UK I bought all equipment and became a Radio Ham. My 12 story flat without getting technical gave an uninterrupted view of the sea giving me very good reception. I still have over a hundred cards from all over the world called QSOs (notification of having talked to me) from other Hams. My call sign was Mike Delta and when I transmitted everybody wanted to talk to me because I was the only person they had ever heard calling from Mozambique. One contact that comes to mind was with was Dave and his wife June from Perth Western Australia. I talked to them on many occasions and when I did she would always answer hang on Mike he is in the garden I will fetch him. Another amazing contact was with someone driving a car in New York city USA. It also came in useful because I couldn’t phone UK and would call Scot who lived locally and if conditions were good would phone Danie and pass a message.
I cant remember if I have already mentioned this but the saying was don’t go to Mikes postings they always have wars. As a final note there was. We had installed in Beira a new communication centre .A resistance group Renamo backed by Rhodesia crossed the border and blew it up. I left Maputo but the IAL engineer in Beira stayed. A new building was put up and new equipment was put in.