Mozambique

What a lovely place, the family and I spent a week close to Inhaca island .we rented a land cruiser and left from SA early in the morning with a full load of food and water The family was very excited to make the long trip by road as we were planning on going through the elephant reserve to get to where we were staying. We had two vehicles with us one a full off-road vehicle and the other one a two by four with a diff lock. My family and their friends are very keen paddlers so on the roof we had two canoes strapped to the top. The trip up to the border post at Komatiepoort went off fairly smoothly with a pit stop of fried eggs and bacon along the route.

Komatiepoort is a great little town with a supermarket banks a few restaurants and nothing much else

The local golf course was great with a view over the valley river and border post we spent the afternoon with a cold bottle of wine taking photos of the surrounding countryside.

We stayed over at a local guest house which had a pool and braai facility a great afternoon was had around the pool and the boys braaied under the carport for supper the next day was an early start for us as we had been told by some of the locals that the border would open very early so at 3 in the morning we set off to cross the border

The border was chaos as most African borders are the endless lines of traffic and people when we reached the border some of the locals tried to scam us out of some money saying that we had to have travel insurance to cross over luckily I spotted the scam and warned some German tourists who were about to be taken of the situation my kids joined the long line of people trying to get their passports stamped after about an hour of getting nowhere I decided to explore and paid a protocol officer to get us through about twenty minutes later we were through the border and into Mozam which by now was pouring with rain.

It was a pretty long drive to the turnoff into the elephant reserve but the roads were in pretty good condition so no real problems getting there. We turned off onto a dirt road and into the forest we went the roads became waterlogged and full of mud with the usual bad road conditions I remember at one stage watching a local vehicle in front of me a small little Toyota bakkie that was skidding from side to side on the road most of the trip he was going sideways eventually I managed to pass him and we carried on to the gate of the reserve.at the entrance to the reserve we stopped and took photos next to a large elephant skull and had a look at the curios in a small office at the gate.

The road conditions got much worse and from here on in I handed the vehicle over to another driver who was far more experienced as the other vehicle kept on breaking down in the mud and narrow roads after about four hours of extreme forest and not a single elephant in site we came to an open plateau and lake which connected to the ocean it was great to see hippo in the water at least about eight or so enjoying the water.

We arrived at our camp just as the sun was setting just as well as travelling through the forest at night was not a great idea the accommodation was spacious with many rooms and a great deck you could walk for about five minutes and you were at the ocean what a great place to stay. We spent the next week exploring the area some of the highlights for me was a Douw trip to one of the other islands we set off by sail up the coastline to a large island which had a market hotel and a main street with markets and small pubs what a day great fun to explore and eat the local food with a cold beer or two the trip back the tide had come in so we had to wade out to the Douw on the way back our small outboard motor had a spark plug problem and as we were going against the current we would not get back without it so we all sat on the Douw and swan in the ocean while our guide swam ashore to find a spark plug eventually we were back on track and into a fierce storm everyone was wet and cold on the journey back and the ocean came up so the swells were fierce we did see dolphins following the boat

We landed at a coastal village and the villagers all swamped the boat to offload the supplies we had picked up at the other island an early night was had by all as we had had a day full of adventure

The next day we explored the local village and some of the beaches it was spectacular the beaches are pristine clear blue water and fantastic rock formations

Some of the hotels and beach homes are superb it is a great place to have a break  that evening the resort had a big fire on the beach and the folks that were staying in the area all came down for sundowners it was old year’s night and we could see the fireworks from Maputo, the town was celebrating  

The trip back was long and dusty we went through a separate border post which was checking every vehicle for pork there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease so the officials were concerned about people bringing meat back into the country.

What a trip Mozam I would love to go back this the next time I will fly to Maputo and get a ferry across to the island.