Metangula

Today we moved south to another zone of the landscape, particularly interesting as the source of the major tributary to the Rovuma River, and therefore a watershed that should be well managed. The journey took us from Metangula (pictured) on Lake Niassa to Cuamba in the south of Niassa Province, passing within a sniff of a cat’s whisker to the Malawian border.

Accommodation in towns and cities away from the capital in Mozambique can often be hideously bad value. It was a long battle to get cutlery or salt in the restaurant we frequented in Cuamba, and I had cockroaches of varying sizes scurrying on the toilet.

I am pleased that the UK has its first non-white Prime Minister, however beyond that there’s really very little to celebrate. Mordaunt was scrambling to get enough MP backers as she would have been voted in by the Tory members, who would not favour the non-white candidate (which is how we ended up with Truss, as this barely concealed racist caller reveals). So now there is a mismatch between the preferences of party members and MPs. This should create some pleasing ongoing turbulence for the party that may eventually lead to its downfall. My fear is that because Sunak is more competent-seeming and stable than Truss, the recent chaos will settle down and the general public will forget how disastrous the Tories are.