Great Places
TO EAT A STRINGY MANGO
Aah, yes - a bit of an oddity this one. The idea is pinched from the crazy guys on Lonely Planet's Blue Lists, but with a local spin. If any of you have indeed tried to eat a stringy mango before you will realise that you require two important things to complete the task:
1.) Copious amounts of water (stringy mango = sticky juicy messy yummy orange gunk) - hence the water-biased selections below
2.) A perch/setting to enjoy said mango from that is so wow it makes you forget all about the abovementioned sticky juicy messy yummy orange gunk running down your chin, shirt, stomach, knees, etc...
p.s. Don't forget to wipe your chin...
On the shores of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania is one of the coolest places you will ever know - where else in the world can you enjoy your stringy mango with a troop of wild chimpanzees? The lodge is great, the setting is straight out of a Tarzan film, and the chimps... well you'll have to go see for yourself!
Err, that is a 350-foot drop just behind you isn't it? You do realize you have to be crazy to do such a thing? Forget what the sane people back on the riverbank are saying, wade across to the pool at the top of the Falls, jump in, peel your mango, look around you, take a deep breath, and get eating...
If you take one thing with you over the 4 or 5 days it takes you to trek to the top of Mount Kenya (apart from your camera to capture a sunrise like this one) - make sure it's a stringy mango. There is plenty of ice/snow to wash you face & hands with - and you can spend a little longer appreciating the view/eating your mango than you would at her busier, more controlled sister-summit, Mt Kilimanjaro...
When the winds and storms are just right, on very few occasions each year, the pier at Kalk Bay gets hit by the most awesome (& perhaps pretty scary if you happen to be under them at the time) waves ever - what better place to eat a stringy mango than under such a wave? p.s. Don't forget to pop across to my favorite waterhole in Cape Town at the end of the pier - The Polana - for a wee drink afterwards to warm up and dry off!
If elephants enjoy the surf off the beaches of Nuarro, then you certainly can enjoy a stringy mango or two whilst exploring the underwater wonderland that occurs on the reefs here in northern Mozambique - not sure how the snorkel & BC would react to stringy mango juices... but there's only one way to find out...!
A second waterfall choice in one category I know - but if you ever get the chance to stand under this ice-cold falling cascade of mountain spring water you will know that there are few more breath-taking (literally) places to eat a stringy mango... and not have to worry about sticky fingers or chin at all!