Daring to take on Africa: Heaven meets earth in Mozambique

Mozambique is often better known for its exports; its people, its cuisine, and its beer, than it is for what lies within its borders.

Indeed, there’s often a tendency to see the country as a bit of a basket case, a morality tale for what South Africa could become if we let go of the rope with bucket – if we haven’t already.

And yet, there are plenty of South Africans who will tell you that Mozambique is actually close to heaven on earth for them. If you get a chance to go there, you begin to see why.

As the Thais would say, it’s a case of same, same, but different.

What is different is the language, Portuguese, but there is enough English to see you right. What’s also different is the need for documentation if you’re driving there.

Documentation

You need your car’s papers – and a letter from the bank, which is financing it, if you haven’t paid it off.

You need those blue and yellow triangle stickers for your bumper, fire extinguishers and reflector jackets because there will be cops on the road, in fact, there will be a lot of cops on the road between Ressano Garcia (the Moz side of the Lebombo border post) and Maputo.

That’s different because we don’t often see cops on our roads, outside of the Easter weekend or after pay day at month end.

When the cops are out, there’s a better than even chance if they are from the JMPD you might be asked for a “cooldrink” to salve their thirst.

If you’ve actually broken the law, there might even be a suggestion that the cooldrink be more of a case or a fridge load, figuratively speaking.

 That’s apparently the same in Moz, except it never happened in the vehicle I was in. Then again, the potholes I noticed, mostly the further north you went from Maputo, past Xai Xai, wouldn’t even have challenged the average blight on a northern Joburg suburb.

In truth, when you consider the amount of traffic on those roads, they are in a helluva better condition than ours.

Maputo is an eye opener too: far cleaner than East London or Gqeberha and streets ahead of neighbouring Durban, there is a sense of incredible development; from the towering 3km long Maputo Katembe Bridge in the south to the developments and mall strips from the promenade to the Costa do Sol on the northern part of the city.

SA companies

There are a lot of South African companies there, cheek by jowl with local investors; same, same but different, once again.

 It’s as you move north out of Maputo that the differences start getting bigger, Vodacom jostles with the ubiquitous 2M beer for roadside coverage, losing out but still valiantly trying to hold its ground as the road unwinds up to the town of Xai Xai and then 70kms later to Chidenguele and the lodge where we overnighted.

There is no dual carriageway, and the speed limits drop precipitously near towns and villages, often with little warning – and little mercy for the unwary with the white hatted traffic cops, just beyond; their bikes parked on the side of the road and one of them operating the speed camera – or just a simple roadblock to check the red tape; the stickers; the jackets.

It all helps to slow down the journey. You remember very quickly that road travel in Mozambique is very different to road travel in South Africa.

It took us six hours to do the 490km trip to the Lebombo border post, albeit in a convoy of four Navara bakkies and an X-Trail and then two-and a-half hours to do the 96kms from Ressano Garcia to Maputo.

The next day it took 6 ½ hours to do 280kms up the coast to Chidenguele. But maybe that’s the point when you get to Moz you’re not supposed to rush and the multi coloured 2M pubs, much like the old Cuca shops in northern Namibia subliminally start stoking that thirst.

When you do go off road to the lodges, it does get real. Anything less than a 4×4 is going to be problematic, but then again that’s precisely why this expedition dubbed Daring Africa and organized by Nissan to showcase its Rosslyn built Navara was chosen in the first place.

The drive

The Navara is a great vehicle, as rugged as hell but also exceptionally comfortable and highly specced, and it handled everything that was thrown at it, including a 30km beach drive the next day up to Inhassoro and from there overland to Mutare in Zimbabwe on the second leg of an eight country odyssey that will eventually end in Egypt, where Nissan has its Passenger Vehicle assembly plant, linking it with its Africa LCV manufacturing hub in South Africa.

Nhambavale Lodge, situated on the banks of Lake Nhambavale, is absolutely idyllic.

It’s rustic, because that’s what the PR brief was for, pitched somewhere between medieval and missionary, but the Pregos (chicken and beef) are plentiful and the 2M comes in two different types 550ml bottles for the thirsty and 250ml for the discerning.

That night there’s prawns and piripiri chicken with a host of side dishes as you sit back and look out across the lake on either side of a blazing fire and talk about Africa.

There’s no swimming pool at Nhambavale, you just dive off the deck into the lake or you can let the air out of the Navara tyres to about 1.2 bar, buy a beach permit and hit the beach, which is less than a kilometre away.

Nhambavale Lodge has family-sized four room huts all the way to single room huts and even serviced camp sites.

There’s free Wi-Fi, friendly service and the kind of food that feeds the soul. There’s fishing – from the lake, off the rocks or even out at sea on the lodge boat.

It feels a little like the Hotel California, you can check out, but you’ll never leave.

There’s a compressor too so you can re- inflate your tyres after your beach drive, otherwise you might really never be able to leave.

The next day as the expedition headed north, we headed south to Maputo to fly out from Maputo International.

My original thoughts about the capital weren’t wrong. Heading past the iconic Eduardo Mondlane University campus, there was a hustle and a bustle of things getting done.

The airport has recently been revamped and is well serviced by multiple airlines, including three (Safair, Airlink and LAM operated Cemair) offering direct 45-minute links to OR Tambo International.

ALSO READ: ‘Work together to fight malaria’ in SA, Mozambique and Eswatini

Expensive Mozambique

So, what’s the downside? Mozambique can be expensive.

The airport is a case in point, you don’t want to eat at the only restaurant or buy cooldrink (unless it’s a 2M) and you’ve got to keep your wits about you; you can change Rands for Meticais in Komatipoort at 3.5 to the rand, only to get fleeced in Ressano Garcia where the touts will offer you 2.5 to the rand.

But apart from that, what a pleasure – and when you get home to Joburg, you can get yourself a case of those 250 2M bottles (they’re more expensive on this of the border) and crack one open as you look at the pics on your smartphone gallery and then google which lodge you’re going to visit in Moz when you next get a chance.

NOW READ: The magic of Mapungubwe: Africa’s ancient civilisation

Ritchie was a guest of Nissan Africa on the Mozambique leg of the Daring Africa 2024 expedition