We have wanted to come to Mozambique for a while now, long stretches of gorgeous beaches, calm indian ocean with warm water and good year round weather. However it is not
particularly easy to reach with no direct flight options from the UK. Additionally the best of Mozambique (the north) is plagued by issues from Islamist extremism. We had
considered a trip to Malawi and then hoping the border into Mozambique, but this itinerary didn't really work due to the key areas either being in the south or the north of
Mozambique with long drives of nothingness in between. Also having looked into it, hiring the right type of vehicle in Malawi had proved to be difficult. As such we set about
a new plan, to fly into South Africa visiting the parts we'd not been able to do or afford ten years earlier and to continue on into southern Mozambique. This trip would also
enable us to skirt through two more small countries we'd yet to visit: Lesotho & Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).
Mozambique ...... the land of potholes. We'd heard how bad the roads were supposed to be before arriving in Mozambique, but having already driven some pretty bad roads in South
Africa we weren't sure how much worse they'd be. Upon entering Mozambique and the Limpopo national park we did indeed have bad roads including the infamous washboard, but We
were soon tricked upon exiting the park by gorgeous smooth tarmac. Unfortunately this soon gave way, once past the new dam to roads with huge craters even our 4x4 with oversized
tyres couldn't handle. The multiple patch attempts also made them often invisible till the last minute leading to many rapid stops from 80km/h.
Police corruption, we'd heard about how the police would attempt to extort us and it didn't take us long, five minutes in fact of being legally in Mozambique before the border
police made it clear they had been very fast for us and could make it much more difficult and long winded if we didn't incentivise them. So there was our first bribe executed,
a small amount to us but enough for a few beers or a meal for them. We thought this would set the tone for the rest of Mozambique however for the most part the only daylight
robbery was the toll booths. The only other time we had to pay a bribe is when we were accidentally caught speeding and we were shown photos of the nice beach town we were heading
to and how we were about to finance his families next trip there. With a bit of negotiation the fee was reduced, a no paperwork discount I recall being mentioned :)
Limpopo is a relatively new national park. So new in fact that people still live within its boundaries and they've not yet set about re-locating them. Road access, well thats a mix
of narrow undriven 4x4 tracks, washboarded gravel / mud roads and just well sand. Many roads and / or tracks can just be shut or one way without much warning. Additionally finding
any type of useful map is pretty much impossible. The foliage was different here, very barren but dense bush which made any wildlife viewing much trickier. As a whole I'd not
suggest coming here for the best wildlife viewing, but it did offer an alternative that was very unique, tourist free and truly off the beaten track. For us it had served its
purpose of providing us easy crossing into Mozambique from South Africa without any long queues or other issues present at the main borders.
We had wanted to take a long detour through the park, but time was not on our side so we went with a shorter 10km detour. About 1km into this route the road was shut. In a whim with
no knowledge, but a sign hand painted saying a borehole was within 5km we spontaneously took a right turn down a one way track to the borehole. This track was very narrow, bumpy with
bushes and trees protruding into the path meaning we often brushed against them with the cars bodywork or dragged a branch for a bit underneath.
Upon reaching the borehole though we simply stumbled unexpectedly onto a large family of mixed ages of elephants. We were a bit worried at first as we'd come down through the dense bush
loudly banging and pushing our way through in this big SUV and we'd surprised them at quite close proximity. While they were a bit upset at first, they soon came to accept us as we quietly
adjusted the car for a quicker escape in case needed. It was amazing being this close to approximately 30 elephants who'd all come to the borehole for a drink of water.
From here we left the borehole back up the same track before rejoining the main road and heading 70km to the park exit. As we progressed we passed through local villagers living in the
national park and lots of different road terrains. Finding the right route in places was difficult and we simply had to follow google in a few places, trusting it knew the correct way.
Eventually we exited the park and knew today would be a long day. We still had 4 hours of driving to get to our hotel for the night. 120km of this was on a single straight road littered
with potholes unexpectedly. Keen to make good progress this meant keeping the car at 80kmh where possible and simply swerved either off the road, across the road into oncoming traffic or
slamming on the brakes hard to minimise the impact. How we made it to our destination without a puncture or broken wheel I don't know. Unfortunately for us speed limit changes really aren't
clear at all in Mozambique and there are many police checkpoints / speed traps. Of course we ended up tripping one of these and were pulled over for a ticket. The officer was friendly,
but we knew we were going to get a fine / bribe. With some friendly chatting & negotiation we managed to reduce this bribe by 50% of the original ask. Eventually we made it to our hotel for
the night, pulling in just after sun set, something we'd hoped to avoid for most of the trip.
For some videos showing the off road driving tracks, sights & conditions in Limpopo, see below:
The glorious Indian Ocean. On our arrival even though it'd turned dark it had been 34°C that day. We had just missed most of the sunset due to our arrival time,
but we weren't too bothered as we'd catch another one the next night, or so we thought. At dinner that night we'd learn out fate, we had wondered why the restaurant
was trying to shut up at 8:30pm and was frantically pulling plastic flaps down, shortly after we left in our rooms the rain and howling wind began. A storm has set in.
The storm got so bad that our beach view decking furniture pillows simply vanished before we had time to save them all. The weather changed to 17°C with a wind chill of
11°C. Just our luck to come to Mozambique in the driest month with only one day or rain and we end up with two full days of rain and a storm. We never expected weather in
Africa to be on par with the UK we'd just left going into Autumn. The wind speeds were up to 50kmh and parts of the hotel were lifting off or strewn all over the grounds.
With most of the services shut down, little point in sitting on the beach and the pools (including our private splash pools) being too cold to use we had little we could do
except take the time to relax and recuperate from the endless early starts, long drives and bumpy roads. Not letting the weather stop us too much in any light breaks we did
take a walk up and down the beach. Which was tough going given the wind speeds and wet sand.
We were glad though because we'd chosen a hotel that was in a protected lagoon and not some of our other choices which were hill top and exposed directly to the ocean. While
it might not have seemed much at the time, this did mean we had some protection, food options on site and also Wi-Fi unexpectedly.
We had planned to have a slower morning on the day we left Bilene and take some time to enjoy the beach again as it was our one day with a shorter drive (around 4 hours).
However given the weather still being bad we simply made a b-line for Maputo and hoped the weather might be slightly better further south.
Our drive from Bilene to Maputo didn't have much in the way of stops so we decided to break up our drive by attempting to visit
a few other beaches on route given the weather had improved slightly. Despite our best attempts (and paying another road toll) our
access to the peninsula & intended stop of Macaneta Beach had been blocked. The path to the beach had military guards and a whole
police squadron blocking access. Rather than ask why, we performed a quick u-turn and got out of their before they found a reason
to fine, bribe or generally harass us.
Not willing to give up we'd seen another sign further up for other beach access and thought it'd be a good place to stop for a
light lunch before entering the city of Maputo. What started out well with us in two-wheel drive quickly descended into us needing
four-wheel drive. At the first entrance point for us to access the beach we'd realised how deep the sand was getting and had pulled
to the side and decided to turn the car around ready to leave after our beach visit. In hindsight we should have checked how deep the
sand had gotten before attempting this in our fully laden SUV. Disaster struck and we were stuck. The electronic rear diff lock and
low range gear box were not going to be much help in this much deep sand. The car was stuck, sideways blocking beach access.
I think there's a good chance I might have been able to get it out, but within seconds a couple of local guys had come to help out,
expecting a tip for their efforts of course. Soon afterwards a pickup truck arrived that had also gotten stuck on their way down to
the beach. With us all digging out the wheels using a spade and our hands, the 3 other passengers hoping out to lighten the load and
us letting air out of the tyres a bit we were then able to get the car dislodged with a few folks also pushing us. We decided at this
point to skip visiting the beach as we'd had enough drama for one day and the weather had again turned worse. Instead we made a b-line
for the main road & tarmac and set about using our air compressor to put air back in the tyres and enjoy a bag of crisps at the road side.
Arriving into Maputo was a bit surreal, it really didn't feel like we'd come into a large city, instead it felt more like a beach town.
Perhaps it was the coastal ring road we'd taken in but it seemed like a fairly nice city and we had a night in a nice hotel within easy
road access. Best part we had an amazing beach front restaurant opposite for diner. Usually it has fantastic sea views and sunsets but
the weather somewhat prevented the best of that. This did detract from the amazing food and us all having cocktails to celebrate making
it through the day.
From here we crossed the land border from Maputo into Eswatini. We had heard UK Gov advise not to stop along this stretch due to car
jackings and thefts, however we didn't experience anything strange during the day. But I could see why it might be an issue as its a very quiet stretch of road in places and we didn't
see any cars for some long periods of time. Strange given it was the only road to this particular border. It really did seem like not many people cross from Mozambique into Eswatini.
At the border we again had problems with Mozambique border police. This time he spoke almost no English and didn't seem to want to be bribed. Instead he had a problem as our vehicle
registration document had a different registration plate to the one fitted, despite the VIN (vehicle identification number) being the same on both documents the officer's inability to
read the English did not help. Eventually we were just waved through due to the language issue, but were worried this might become an issue at further border crossings and we hadn't
noticed it at all prior to this point.
