Trip to Mozambique, July 2004

Our route included:
Pretoria, Pafuri, Mapai, Maxaila, Chigubo, Tesenane, Funhalouro, Massinga, Morrungulo

The idea to publish this page came about because, while planning this trip, we couldn't find any useful information on previous attempts. Our research included: www.gpswaypoints.co.za for GPS waypoints and maps and The Department of Water affairs for the water level of the Limpopo. We also chose to travel in winter because during the dry season the river levels are normally lower.

We left Pretoria at around 22h00 on the 28-Jun-2004. Our first destination was the Punda Maria gate into the Kruger Park. This part of the trip was uneventful with some light rain on the way. We arrived at the gate just before opening time and after paying the day visitors’ fees, we topped up with fuel for the last time. The next stint would take us to the Pafuri border post. The light rain kept falling and after about one hour, we arrived at the post without having seen much game. The border formalities were painless and after having the engine numbers checked, we crossed to the Mozambican side.

The adventure starts here! It was about 9h00 of the 29-Jun-2004. We were the only travelers at the post, which made it quick and simple. The post seems to be manned by two individuals, the immigration official and an armed man. The customs building is in ruins and they have no forms to fill in. Therefore, we skipped the usual customs formalities.

The next leg took us to the Limpopo crossing near Mapai. These 80Kms take about 3h30 to cover with many photo opportunities on the way. The road/track follows the Limpopo South and the type of surface varies. Some times very rocky and others, when next to the flood plain, sandy and bumpy. Worth mention are the many baobab trees right next to the road. About 5km from the river crossing we encountered a Mission and across the road they are building a school for the local children. The Mission is a good land mark because a few hundred meters further we turned left to the river bank.

Before our departure from South Africa, we had checked with the Department of Water Affairs for the rain forecast and river level. But upon arrival at the river crossing, we were surprised by the width of the Limpopo and the amount of water it was carrying. The Limpopo was at least 150m wide and in some places the current made it difficult to walk across. Those conditions had already claimed some victims. A 4x4 bus was stuck on the island and a Samil, a kind of a Unimog, got stuck trying the recover it.

We surveyed the river bed on foot for hours but, with off road trailers in tow, we couldn't find a safe place to cross it. Eventually the fatigue was setting in and with the sun going down fast; we decided to set camp overnight. A few km' back there is the Mission and for the sake of safety, we asked them if we could set camp there. The missionaries were very friendly and welcomed us to stay next to their vegetable garden. They are doing a great job helping the aids orphans.

At this point we were considering to follow the Limpopo down to Xai-Xai, but this would mean adding hundreds of km' to our trip, missing precious days on the beach and defeat. After a night’s rest, we decided to attempt the crossing. It was then the 30-Jun-2004 and at 7h00 we headed to the river bank. There we found a new victim. At about 17h00 of the previous day, he attempted the crossing and got bogged down. With no help in sight, the car stayed in the river and the wet passengers on the river bank. He was stuck on the best crossing place and we decided to help him.

After a couple hours of hard work, we got him out and were ready for our attempt. The TDI went first but, after it had done about 2/3 of the crossing, the trailer decided to become an “anchor” and the Landy had the four wheels spinning. On the other bank, the driver of the Samil offered to help. With his winch cable fully extended, plus the Landy's own cable, it was still about 30m short. Fortunately there was an extra length of cable to make up the difference and the Landy was freed.

I was next! Aware of all the possible difficulties and concerned that the TD5's computer box could give problems if it got bogged down for an extend period, I decide to enlist the local help. The way the locals get their cars across is quite simple and efficient. So I decided that my 1 tone trailer would go first. With no trailer in tow, my Landy made the crossing with extreme ease.

We were far from being on our way across Mozambique! The Samil which had helped the TDI got bogged down in the slippery clay. Another group of several 4x4s and a Samil were also making the crossing and got stuck too. It was mayhem! Now our two Land Rovers were the recovery vehicles. After we got one Samil out of the river and the other off the mud, we were ready to get on the way.

It was around 13h00 of the 30-Jun-2004 when we finally left the river banks. We were a day down on our schedule and decided to drive through to our destination. This was easy said than done, because we still had more than 500Km of off road to cover and most of the trip would be done at night (not as originally planned! ). But we were feeling confident, we had our route plotted from a very detailed map, the co-ordinates loaded into the GPS and the beach was calling us!


The map is very detailed indeed, it's an old map downloaded from the CIA web site, but it didn't show the landmined roads! And as it can be seen from our GPS track, the blue dots on the map, we had to avoid some mapped roads. We reached Maxaila still with day light, this was the furtherest northern point of our trip. But before we could get to the flood plain of the Aluize river, night had set in. The road then took a sharp right turn and completely by passed the mapped one, probably due to landmines too.

We arrived at Chigubo at around 20h00 in complete darkness, has there's no electricity there. In conversation with the locals, we found that we shouldn't follow our planned itinerary because the road had landmines. They advised us on a new road, I mean a new track, which was safer. This took us to a lake before Dolela and to a dead end on the track. We were kind of lost in the middle of nowhere! The main road had landmines, this optional one came to a dead end, we had been on the road since 7h00 and it was about midnight.

After some looking around, we found a local fisherman which explained to us that the road indeed ended there. He tried to tell us how to get back on track, but we decided to bring him along to show us the way out. Once we knew how to continue, we drove him back and resumed our trip. We drove for what felt like hundreds of Km, but it wasn't much more the 50km. The road was an endless zig-zag and we couldn't go faster than 20km/h. When we got to Tesenane, the track became a wide gravel road for about 50km, which brought us to the next main town, Funhalouro.
 
From there were just another 120km and because it was a main town, we were expecting an improvement on the road. Well, it couldn't have gotten any worst! The road was, some time ago, heavily landmined and as a result there are more potholes than road. Eventually I couldn't drive any more! I was too tired  and couldn't keep my eyes opened, that's when my wife took over and drove the last 60km. We arrived at the beach at about 7h00 on the 1-Jul-2004, which was 24 hours after we had crossed the Limpopo. It had been a challenging 24 hours of off road driving, but finally we were at the beach! We could have taken an easier route or even the tarred road, but we took the historical route. We went through the places where the biggest battle of the Rhodesian war was fought and when the intention is adventure, nothing is too tough!

P.S. Attention Jap-Crap lovers, the Landys didn't even get a flat tyre!

We set camp and for the first couple of days the weather was perfect, but then the rain came and spoiled the holiday. Because we couldn't work on our sun tan, we decided to make some short trips around the area. We visited a lake, went to Massinga ,shopping, and called home and hunted for a trig beacon. This was quite fun because we had the approximate co-ordinates but had to make our own tracks to find it. Making our own tracks caused some battle scrars. The TDI bent the passenger's step and the TD5 got the roof re-shapped by a Caju tree branch. Eventually the sun came out to let us enjoy the last day. The trip back was via the EN1, with a stop at Maputo before the final leg to Pretoria. At the South African border they made us throw away any animal products that weren't vacuum packed, which makes me wonder, what would have happened if we had brought ALL the fish we caught.

Some of our holiday pictures.
Pictures of a previous trip to Morrungulo, but on this one we used the tarred road.
Link to our trip to the Central Kalahari and some other fun days.