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Published: January 15th 2009
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Welcome to Mozambique, as usual my border shirt (the Liverpool one) did the trick by giving me something to bond with customs officers over. Football truly is a universal language. Entry to Mozambique was smooth despite a disorganised border post, the SA side is pretty well laid out, the Mozambique side, well it’s a couple of sheds and lots of people standing about. The only exits from the border post were two sand roads one heading east and one north, no signs, but asking 3 different people identified that Maputo was the main road (that’s the sand road north to you and me). We are now truly in Africa, no tar, no signs and pretty soon a police stop, quick check for papers and a very friendly direction that Maputo is ‘straight straight’. The road however has other ideas and keeps splitting into 3 or four different routes, however the all seem to join up sooner or later.
After a couple of hours we hit the main road from Ponta D’Ouro, this is a series of serious mud filled dips which look quite daunting but proved ok, we stopped to give advice to a couple of Dutch guys who were attempting
the road in a normal saloon, glad I didn’t have to watch them get stuck. Arriving at the gate of the elephant park at about 3pm I used my Portuguese skills to arrange 3 nights camping and park entry, ok I just managed “campismo” and 3 fingers, still it worked. The Reserva Especial Maputo (or Maputo Elephant Reserve) is about 8,000sq. km of grassland and forest, with a long coastline. During the war (which only really ended 10 years ago) it was the scene of fighting and much mine laying. As a result game is scarce and the elephants (which number about 400) are not happy to stick around if they see, hear or smell people. We were lucky enough to see about 30 in the middle of a large swamp area, not a great sighing but pretty special if you consider how shy they are. The birdlife in the park is spectacular with loads of rollers and many different bee eaters. Saw a tree full of Carmine Bee Eaters which shine blue / green in the sunlight, beautiful.
The campsite (Ponta Milibangalala) took a while to find and in the end we stopped to ask a local woman who
was walking in the opposite direction. She was actually walking to the village by the campsite (communities live in the park as well as the animals) so we offered her a lift if she showed us the way. 15km’s later after she had directed us basically across bush tracks that involved deep sand, step inclines and a swamp which I had to walk through first. After a brief stop at her village where her husband was roundly remonstrated for sleeping (guess he wasn’t expecting her back for a while!). She led us to the campsite road and suggested we ‘hamba straight lapa Milibangalala’. The campsite is remote and the roads are at best undeveloped the only way in is by 4x4 but there were still a few people about mostly South Africans on holiday with their boats, generators, full size fridges and even an ice maker! We chose a site a long way down the dunes. There are no ablution blocks or power so you can see some pictures of our toilet and shower set up! The beach makes up for it though, miles of white sand and the sea is bath temperature, plus there is almost no one about
so it feels like the real wildness. Great unless you get stung by jellyfish (see pictures) but no problem for us as we now know what plant to use to cure ourselves!
Being Africa you need to be prepared for anything, I was however most unprepared when our drivers rear side shaft broke on the way up a steep hill. Effectively this means you can’t drive in high or low range. Luckily because Land Rovers have centre diff-lock it still drove in front wheel drive with diff lock. However, a 2 ton vehicle does not do 2 wheel drive on deep sand so we were stuck. I asked around the campsite and got lots of useless advice from Toyota drivers (usual stuff you should have bought a Land Cruiser not a ‘Rand Lover’). All very funny but the only guys who offered any useful help were Paul and his son Torn who were staying at the camp to map the roads and develop a Park Management Plan as part of the Transfrontier Parks Programme which aims to link MSR with Temebe Elephant Park in SA via a corridor along the Futi River. Incidentally they were also Land Rover owners. Not
only did Torn come and have a look to advise us what to do he also offered to help us get to Maputo as he was going that way in a few days. So we were stuck for a few days but I can think of worse places to wash up, we had a nice campfire each night and Sandra even perfected ‘beer bread’ in a ground oven which we filled with hot coals (you can see the results but believe me it tasted great with butter and crushed garlic!).
Good as his word Torn helped us get to Maputo, this involved a 5 hour drive to the gate,40km away, during which time we had to tow, push, use sand ladders and dig the Landy through the deep sand, but we made it and got to Catemebe to catch the ferry to Maputo all in around 8 hours ( 150kms in total!!). After a short search for the Land Rover dealer (a Nissan garage!); Paulo the garage manager assured me he could fix it and suggested we get a hotel and bring it in the morning. We found a nice hotel near the Marginal (front) and spent a comfortable night
in air conditioning with a hot shower, unfortunately with white towels - even a 10 minute shower doesn’t rinse of the dust and grime of 5 nights. It was a luxury to have running water!!! (We both felt very sorry for whoever had to wash them!!!! And usually we like places that have white towels). Finally, nice restaurants and cold beer, again I can think of worse places to be stuck. Maputo is a fast growing city and its expensive even for Africa, meals cost double SA and the car cost a fortune to fix, but at least it runs smoothly now. The city itself is all Flamboyant Trees, Mango’s on the street and markets, its hot dusty and everything you expect of an African capital, while its not particularly beautiful the ferry ride from Catembe was great, if a bit of a tight squeeze as they pack the cars in on the deck. We were hoping that they would just let us park straight on, as we have a 9 metre turning circle, but just like everyone else we were directed to reverse park into a tight spot, luckily Sandra was driving. The food might be expensive but its
pretty good piri-piri chicken. On to Xai-Xai, Tofo and beyond.
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Ina Cotton
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Hi There. When were you there? I am interested in the fact that you camped on your own far away from the others. Cheers Ina