My story and how Covid-19 changed things
I had been working semi remotely for a year before 2018, running and managing recruitment mostly from my apartment in Cape Town, after visiting Mozambique twice, in 2015 and 2017, I decided to drive from Cape Town along the coast of SA with my final destination a small beach village in the province of Inhambane, called Tofo.
That trip through remote parts of South Africa was the most incredible 6 weeks of my life, meeting people from all over the world and also experiencing out of reach places in South Africa that will simply take your breath away, most notably the Transkei, its people, culture and energy all can make one pause and reflect on what is truly important in life.
I returned to Cape Town after a few months, to live the city life once more and get back to work so to speak, grand plans to visit Sri Lanka were scrapped and instead, I stayed in the Cape till March 2019, to inevitably return once again to Tofo. It is a place that has that ability, it draws people in from all over the world, a place that many ex-pats call home, from the US to SA, Europe, the UK and further afield.
Heading back to Cape Town in November 2019 to spend some time with family and loved ones and maintain the relationships I had worked hard to establish in the tech ecosystem. Roll around February 2020 and I committed to making Tofo and Mozambique a more permanent home. Covid struck shortly afterwards, or at least locally it did in Southern Africa. My decision although vindicated by the pandemic, all of a sudden made me feel trapped in a place that I had so longed to be in permanently. I believe that lots of the world felt that anguish or similar. Uncertain times, an unstable future. However, having been in South Africa for periods of the pandemic I have a feeling of being incredibly lucky to have chosen to be off the beaten path in this crazy time we have lived through and still live in.
My love for the ocean, surfing, and nature, has made Mozambique a simple choice in terms of a base. Practically speaking it has cheap internet, high-speed connection for the most part and the most incredible vistas in the world. If you are into sunrises and sunsets, it has mind-blowing ones almost every single day.
Even with some exposure to a digital nomad style setup and remote work experience, adjusting to the new age of work has taken some doing. We find ourselves in my opinion on the cusp of something great as humanity in terms of the way we work. More energy than ever before is being put into assisting people to work from anywhere in the world and allowances are being made for good mental health management as well as flexibility for employees and all involved in building businesses.
