Country Living in Southern Africa

As mentioned before, Inhassoro is our closest town. It is a drive of roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes of which a large part is a dirt road, past farms and small villages.  We could get more variety in Vilanculos, but that would add an extra hour’s driving time.  Inhassoro has very limited shopping the way we, as South Africans, know it. It is such a unique experience, even to us, who have been small-town dwellers for many years. I have decided you need to get a little glimpse into what it’s like. 

When we go to town it is mainly to get fresh supplies, vegetables and eggs. These items are also our biggest challenge to find. With anything that can’t spoil, you can always make a plan or stock up.  Many things that we have freely available on every corner and turn in South Africa aren’t available here and if it is available, it comes with a special (read, ridiculously unaffordable) price tag.

The streets consist mainly of shops that look like this. They sell a wide variety of things, from food and groceries to cellphones, airtime, clothing and all kinds of unexpected items. 

We sometimes look here to see if there are fresh items that are not at the market. There is one specific shop that sometimes has pumpkins and we can’t find pumpkins anywhere else in town, not at this time of the year at least, maybe we will find them again if they come in season again. 

This is what the market looks like.

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Here we normally buy whatever vegetables and fruit we can find, which are usually, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, potatoes, coconuts and bananas. There are few more options like cabbage, but we haven’t found any that look nice, they also sell lettuce and spinach options, but those thankfully already grows in my garden.

Other than the market, we have found a nursery that sells eggs at an acceptable price and lemon and mango trees. There is a large unnamed store that sells an arrangement of plasticware, dinnerware and groceries. 

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Then there is also the Deli… The Deli welcomes us into there store with a bit of normality, a friendly chat, a cold drink and a cosy corner that currently has a Christmas tree up. They sell things like meats, cheeses and special condiments, a rare find here. 

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And that is our main places for grocery shopping, for now, maybe in time we will discover other places and hopefully, our vegetable garden will soon be flourishing with delicious fresh organic veggies. For regular updates on my vegetable garden, you can follow my Instagram account,  https://www.instagram.com/countrylivingsa.blog/