Day 55 – Nelspruit to Johannesburg and Home

A Veld Fire between Witbank and Pretoria

Commercial Farming near Nelspruit, something you do not see a lot of in the rest of Africa

We had no intention of hurrying home although we had committed to being back by lunchtime as we had asked Michael and Elisma to prepare crayfish for lunch; he said they were thinking we should have salad as we need to go on a diet with all the talk on the blog about the food we had enjoyed.

We ended up staying at the Town Lodge instead of the Road Lodge as they only had smoker’s rooms, we had a fabulous breakfast and they certainly made no profit out of it as we had a lot and when I say a lit I mean a lot.

We went into Halls in Nelspruit and the Groen Stall on the way out to stock up on fruit, jams and avos. At Millie’s there was another stop for shopping, now we have a car full of coconuts, avocado pears, cashew nuts, marmalades and jams to name but a few.

We make home at around 01h00 and Elisma had prepared a seafood chowder, which was very nice, as well as having baked some delicious strawberry and chocolate muffins.

The stats of the trip are as follows:-

Kilometres Travelled: 12933kms

Off Road/Dirt Roads: +/- 4000km

Average Speed: 32kmph

Days: 55

Countries: 6 (Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique)

Lodgings: 30 (Self Catering, B&B, Hotels, Lodges and Resorts)

National Parks and Reserves: 10

Breakdowns: Zero

Punctures: Zero

Stuck: Twice (Thick sand)

Photos & Videos: Over 6000 photo’s and videos

Planning the trip: Nearly 2 years

Lessons Learnt: You can travel alone, people are great everywhere friendly and helpful, low average speeds so allow more time or less mileage, some accommodation web sites are photo shopped, take US $ in large denominations 100,50, & 20’s, know the exchange rates of each country.

Would we do it again?  most definitely, prior planning is critical with as many inputs as possible I used 4x4 Community web site and people were so helpful so we were well prepared and there were few surprises en route. You must take out a carnet de passage, very reasonable with the AA and definitely assists when crossing so many borders.

We hope you have enjoyed the Blog - Africa Safari 2013 at least you had some idea of how things were going and approximately where we were.

We had a great deal of fun and I have to commend Denise, Claudia for their resilience, patience and support and sharing all the chores including driving and above all Sinead who was fantastic in every possible way, I will not miss her screaming with excitement I am now more deaf in my left ear than before the trip, but I will miss her in so many other ways. All the nursery rhymes are coming back to me and I have learnt new ones, she taught me all the sounds of the animals including pigs, hippos, dogs, cows, sheep, goats, lions as well as what one should do if you see a crocodile – SCREAM!!! It is a pity she will not remember this trip, but there are lots of photos to show her in the course of time.

I have to thank my car Salama (Safe in Swahili) which performed so well in some hairy and difficult circumstances at times and gave us all a comfortable ride for nearly 13000kms with no hitches whatsoever, you will not go wrong with a Toyota Prado Landcruiser, which has been there done that and got the proverbial T Shirt.

We are feeling a bit lost right now, but we will come right once we start planning our next trip.

If you are thinking about getting away don’t procrastinate DO IT you will not regret it, for us there is still much of South Africa we have not seen or experienced and we will be doing it.

Bon Voyage

Day 54 – Praia do Tofo, Mozambique to Nelspruit, South Africa

The Great, Grey-Green, Greasy Limpopo River near its exit into the Indian Ocean

Denise negotiating another dicey bridge

A really rickety bridge over part of the LImpopo flood plain

The intended early start was slightly delayed. Perhaps everyone was reluctant to start the trip back into South Africa, even the car’s compass told us we were going North instead of South.

We have been warned of several speed traps by John of Casa John one he says does not indicate where the lower speed limit changes to the National speed limit of 100kmph after passing through a village some 20 minutes the North side of Xai Xai you are well away from all pedestrians and you think you are OK and the Police are always there, have to confess we did not see this trap that smacks of the Tanzania police speed trapping strategy, perhaps we were lucky, but I am pleased to say we had no problem with the Mozambique police or army, we were not asked for our “Tringles” (Warning Triangles), safety vests, or any of the other paraphernalia not that I am against it one should have the right safety equipment, but it is ironic that nearly every Mozambique vehicle when they breakdown or have an accident just cut down some trees and strew them up the road in both directions, which is quite effective and is used throughout East, Central and Southern African Countries so an axe should be a compulsory safety accessory.

Suspension Bridge over the Limpopo River

We cross the Limpopo River one day short of our first day of our 8 week journey when we crossed it at Martins Drift/Groblers Bridge and stayed at Kwa Nogeng alongside that river in Botswana, it really does not feel like 8 weeks, time has flown by.

Attention Cashew Nut Buyers

We then see a whole lot of Africa’s national flags flying (plastic bags) in the trees and are a little puzzled then realise that it is just to draw your attention to the Cashew Nuts for sale, we have to stop and start another round of negotiations to get the best price for the roasted cashew nuts, we end up stopping twice when we find out how delicious they are and I might add very “moreish”

I think this vehicle had between 30 and 40 people on board just outside Maputu

We make good time and it looked like we would be at the Border by midday, how foolish and Maputu the Mozambique capital upholds the African cities reputation for being chaotic and you do not even go into the capital, you circumvent and go through their industrial area.

We ultimately get to the border around 03h00pm and it turns out to be one of our quickest crossings were it not for me needing to get my carnet de passage stamped and signed by customs on the SA side, it seemed that they only had one person who knew what to do so from under 40 minutes it eventually took us one hour and fifteen minutes.

There are masses of trucks hauling coal into Maputu and the road is very busy from Komatipoort to Nelspruit added to which you have a couple of one way sections due to road works, but we are lucky and do not suffer the average 20 minute wait.

We book into the Road Lodge and arrive there at 05h00pm a 10hour journey to do 694kms, which is a good average speed compared with the rest of our safari. We freshen up and have dinner at “The Stoep” restaurant and I can tell you we could have eaten hippo we were so hungry.

Once again Sinead has been a little gem, but I think Claudia is going to have some difficulty in getting her back into a hum drum routine, she will probably have to find a 4x4 track nearby to get her lulled off to sleep, let alone all her other exciting distractions she is used to.

Tomorrow is our last day and we are already thinking of planning our next trip into the unknown, watch this space.  

Day 53 – Praia do Tofo, Mozambique

The beautiful Indian Ocean

I never tire of sunrises and sunsets

Today we are chilling sun tanning, drinking and eating in no particular order ever conscious of a long trip tomorrow back into South Africa. I re-organise the roof rack to enable us to fit in a large Marimba and a smaller one along with other goodies the girls have bought and what they expect to buy on the way home.

Spoke to John Youens the owner of Casa John who had done a similar trip up North but taking in the Gorillas in Rwanda and some of Uganda in 2011 and he shared the same opinion about viewing game in Africa and the fact that Kruger still is the number one place to see the variety of wildlife in Africa.

I have an article from the East African newspaper which states that Tanzania had been voted the Best Natural Tourist Destination in Africa in an International Survey of 276 specialised safari operators in 8 major safari countries, 139 wildlife parks and reserves, 2324 user reviews and 756 expert reviews with a score of 4.8 out of 5 with Kenya and Botswana scoring 4.7 followed by South Africa and Zambia with 4.6. I am afraid I would dispute this; perhaps in the 60’s and 70’s this would have been the case, but not today. You would also have to dispute the value for money as the cost of entering Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Masai Mara, Tsavo and Selous is exorbitant.

We had Grilled Rock Cod for dinner and lamented that we could not enjoy a few more seafood meals in Mozambique as the taste is so different to the frozen seafood that we get in Johannesburg.

The whales and dolphins are in fine form again to day coming close to land with the high tide.

We would definitely come back to the Mozambique coast for a gourmet holiday. 

Day 52 – Praia do Tofo, Mozambique

Claudia and Sinead Singing Rock a Bye Baby

We had a problem capturing some of the whale displays

This Pod of 8 Whales

Casa John is probably one of the best equipped self catering units we have ever stayed in and the daily servicing is excellent, including fresh seafood on your doorstep, I gave one such vendor 10 out of ten for perseverance when I did not take his king tiger prawns he offered to bring me crayfish, calamari, rock cod, or red roman for the next day.

We see a feast of whales going past daily, I do not know what it is about whale watching, but it seems to become quite addictive. In the evening we went for a walk down on the rocks and we had a show of waves pounding the rocks, whales and dolphins frolicking together offshore and a perfect sunset and later we enjoyed our sundowners.

We did some wheeling dealing for everything from eggs to carrots to fish and carvings and went to find the Deli, Karen told us about, but alas Karen it has closed down, but we did get bread and a couple of other essentials. You buy vegetables here by the single item like 3 carrots, 6 potatoes, 1 paw paw and so on and it is very expensive even after some fierce negotiations, if anyone comes down this way bring all your food with you except sea food.

There is no doubt about it seafood fresh from the sea as opposed to frozen is so deliciously different.

Today we have grilled king prawns with lemon butter sauce and garlic butter sauce and Portuguese rice; I am drooling just writing about it.   

Day 51 – Vilankulos to Inhambane

This Vehicle Had Just Been Through a Police Check
Driver Shook hands with Policeman and continued on his way
Nothing Wrong with his Load

View from Our Accommodation in Tofo

We are in no hurry today, the sun, sea and sand must be going to our heads, we have breakfast at the Casa Rex and I try and use their Wi Fi area, but for some reason I cannot get the Internet so we go down to the Kilimanjaro Café, which has Wi Fi and is owner/managed by a South African couple who moved to Vilankulos just over a year ago, he tells me there are about 400 ex patriots in and around the town and they are enjoying the place.

I was able to update you somewhat and it will probably be the last “post” until we get home on Sunday when I will finish the Africa Safari 2013 Blog.

We take nearly 5 hours to do the 345kms due to the increased number of villages where the speed limit drops to 60kmph and our vow not to pick up anymore speeding tickets.

Thanks to Karen we are able to find Casa John in Tofu Beach, which is 25kms past Inhambane itself and Inhambane is on a peninsular so you actually end up going back on yourself circumventing a huge inlet between Maxixe and Inhambane if you approach from the North.

Day 50 – Vilankulos

View from Golden Sands over to Bazarutu Islands

Another Wonderful Sunrise in Africa

The day was spent relaxing on the beach and battering with some curio sellers all in all a very relaxing day in a great place. Mozambique must be unique in as much as you get millionaire mansions and next door is a thatched hut some of, what we would call prime sites with the best view in South Africa are occupied by the very poor and everything seems to work well.

I can imagine these coastal towns up as far North as Vilankulos are extremely busy in the RSA holiday months, like December, but I believe the potential is unlimited between Vilankulos and Beira and Beira and Pemba on the other hand probably that is not a bad thing to leave some of Africa unspoilt.

We get so mixed up with the exchange rate for the country you are in when you have visited 6 countries in the space of two months and one should carry a calculator and the exchange rate for the country you are currently in, all it is for is to get some sort of benchmark to ones home currency particularly when you are negotiating. I saw a South African lady agreeing with a vendor that she would buy the goods on offer for R300 and pay in Rand instead of in Meticais and he was asking for 600 Mets which is the equivalent of R200, needless to say he snapped up the deal and probably could not believe his luck.

Tomorrow we head for Inhambane or to be exact Tofu Beach, the girls want to do some more shopping and I need to send a few days of Blog posts.    

Day 49 – Vilankulo in Vilankulos, Mozambique

View from our Abode

Les Girls on Vilankulo Beach

We were in the bottom floor of this Villa

We have decided to stay here for 3 days before we move on to Inhambane and our first priority is to get some Meticais and some provisions plus we have to see if we still know how to cook.

What a morning the banks are packed it is almost like there is a run on the banks I go to two others before I decide that Barclays is the least busy, I will never complain again about SA bank services I stood in the queue for over an hour with one teller and 15 clients or should I say mugs waiting in a line.

The girls have done a little shopping and they say we should get some Portuguese rolls at the bakery, but there is another queue there as well, I decide it cannot take that long, but I get to within two of being served when the rolls run out, 5 minutes the shop assistant says, which runs to 30 minutes and I am getting the hell in with others getting the two in front of me to buy their rolls now I am not talking a dozen or two, but 4 to 8 dozen. I cannot speak Portuguese, but hell I got my message across. I have now spent the whole morning in queues at the Bank and the Bakery; there must be a lesson in there somewhere. By the way the rolls were really good.

It is very windy today, but it is certainly a slice of paradise, warm to hot days, long beaches, calm waters, the Bazaruto Islands in sight, the vibe in the markets all in all a great place to be.

We have bought some giant tiger prawns for around R130 per kg and we have them for supper in garlic butter, excellent fare and we have not forgotten how to cook, certainly no one will want to speak to us tomorrow. It is the land of barter and one never knows the going rate until they refuse to negotiate any further. One should always bring old shoes and shirts to this neck of the woods as they are great barter items. 

Day 48 – Cahora Bassa to Vilankulo

The Haze that lasted the whole journey from Cahora Bassa

One of Many Rivers we Crossed

We skipped breakfast and are on the road by 06h00am as we know what ever our decision is we have a very long day ahead of us, the first leg is 518kms and the road is largely straight and we are travelling through featureless countryside made even more boring by the haze that seems to cover the whole country with visibility at around 4kms, but the road was good and we made good time getting into Chimoio at 12h00 midday. I promised the girls a good Sunday lunch, but I needed to first go to the police station and see what they have to say about the security situation and also get some money changed for petrol and to pay for the lunch.

I call at the police station and found it locked up and the 4 officers outside shooting the breeze, only one could speak a little English and thought I was asking for directions, only when I said what was going on with the Renamo and Frelimo problem did they click, but they said it was all good and I would have no problems on the road and they knew nothing about police accompanied convoys.

I call in at the smartest hotel in town to enquire about changing money and the receptionist tells me she cannot help, but I could get at the market, but be careful as I could be conned out of more than the exchange rate, I get back to the car and suddenly this guys drives up flashing Mozambique Meticais, I ask him how did he know I was looking for some, which avoided asking, I am sure it could only have been the hotel receptionist. Well I have been forewarned and I change US$100 at a reasonable rate, but I want to check the amount he has given me and I and Denise count and find he has short changed us by Mets200 by his slight of hand as immediately we confronted him he fished out the missing 200.

We then have one large pizza two fresh orange juices between the four of us and that was the slap up Sunday lunch and Denise got some snacks at the local Spar, which was poorly stocked, but we had chocolate dessert and some crisps for the pad.

We have another 460kms to travel if we are to get to Vilankulo and we do not know what to expect, Denise is driving this leg and we are 100kms on the Beira side of Save and she has just commented on how quiet the road is with few trucks or any other vehicles when around the corner comes a bakkie with flashing lights and a guy dressed in green in the back with a gun, Claudia thought it was a pistol; and behind was a convoy of over 40 vehicles including the missing trucks. Now this has us worried, but we have been through at least two army road blocks and they just waved us through.

We get to Save and go through another road block with no hassle and over the Save River and 120kms to go and still no convoy, I must say talks of convoys took me back to the 70’s in Rhodesia when you had to travel some roads in a convoy, but I think they were much better protected than the one we saw, if indeed it was a convoy.

We get to Vilankulos at dusk with the last 100kms badly pot holed, which were difficult to detect until you were in 10m of them, but Denise did a great job zig zagging her way down the road with an occasional bump. We put the Casa Rex into the Garmin, but heavens knows where she wanted to take us we eventually find it after 976kms covered in 12 hours at an average of 81kmph which is the best time we have made in the whole trip to date.

The Casa Rex can accommodate us for one night, but they tell us they have some villas, which are self catering and we can eat at their place if we want, we find the villa’s some 5kms further on, which are great, if not, the best accommodation we have had the whole journey and we felt we deserved it as well as the belated slap up lunch, now dinner.

Sinead has once again been well behaved and we were very grateful for that on this tough leg of our travels. So after a day of concern especially with the mixed messages we were getting we are pleased to say that Plan A is still in play and we should get home either on Saturday or Sunday, but will phone Michael once we know what we are doing. It is going to be tough going back to our city way of life because all you want keep going or at least planning for our next trip.

Another Victim of Africa's Road's

Day 47 – Ugezi Tiger Lodge – Cahora Bassa, Mozambique.

The Dam is between mountains on the East Side

One of the very few inhabited Villages on the side of the dam

Sweet Baby Angel

View from our Room

The Pangolin

Denise and I have the best nights sleep in a long time not sure if it is the beer, air conditioning or sheer exhaustion. We hire a boat to go into the dam and see Hippo, Crocodile and the dam wall. This is an amazing dam the part we see is right at the Eastern end, I do not have the stats, but it is at least 200kms long and at its greatest width it is +/-30kms wide. It has Tiger, Bream, and I saw a photo of a Barbel that was all of 1.7m long and they have caught 11kg tiger in the dam.

We do not see many Hippo and the croc count was zero, the dam wall is quite small and it seems incredulous that it holds back all this water, anyway we had a pleasant 2 hours out in the open and the temperature has risen to the upper 30’s again and for the first time on this trip we looked at some sport on television.

Our skipper tells us that the village headman got a licence to shoot a hippo as the villagers were hungry, it is very clear that game in this part of Mozambique has got no chance and for that matter neither do birds and we saw them waving a long stick that looked like there were flags on it, they were in fact small dead birds.

I then get asked at the lodge if I have ever seen a Pangolin and one of the staff takes me to see a live Pangolin that some local villagers had caught and were trying to sell it if the price had been R1000 I would have probably bought it and let it go, but they wanted R2500, which if you are in the rare creature business is cheap as they are rarely seen let alone caught. It was sad as before it was shown to us it was curled up and tied in a sack, as it lives on termites and some other ants I doubt it will survive long in captivity.

Tomorrow we will make a 06h00am start as we want to get to Chimoio where we will enquire about the route safety further south. We understand that they have an escorted convoy from Save on the Save River to Vilankulos +/- 100kms, but we will make our decision whether to continue down Mozambique or cross over into Zimbabwe. From what we can gather from all those we speak to we will most probably continue with our original plan.

The food at Tiger Lodge is not much to write home about although my whole grilled Bream last night was very nice and tonight I plan to have Peri Peri Chicken – Portuguese style. 

Day 46 – Monkey Bay to Ugezi Tiger Lodge on the Cahora Bassa DamCharcoal & Wood for Sale Everywhere

Charcoal & Wood for Sale Everywhere

Another ten Trees

Result - Devestation

We get an early start and after a full breakfast we are on our way at 07h00am. Our route today on the advice of our hosts is to cross the border at Dedza and go down to Tete and even with the need to get a Visa for Sinead we were through there in less than an hour. It was Sinead’s turn to have a wobbly at the border and so out of character, we put it down to tiredness, but it is so out of what we have come to expect from her that we give her some paediatric Panado just in case it is something else

  

Although there is a lot of trucks at the border there are very few on the road so we make good time until we reach our intersection with the M6 16kms West of Zobue on the Tete to Blantyre road. We had be warned of the state of this road and although the descriptions were a little exaggerated like “watch for the other 4x4 coming up out of the pot holes” or “they are so deep you could meet up with a donkey at the bottom and he will be standing up” well they were deep, but I have to say we had seen worse on this trip and at least there is an effort to repair in progress, you do have to virtually stop and ease your self into the hole and the ease your self out the other side.

We had over 80kms of this intermittent pot holed road, which is a problem on its own as you cannot relax your concentration for a second. We see some huge activity around Moatize and Tete with some massive coal mining projects on the go and there are a number of South African companies doing business there amongst which are Group 5, WBHO, and a number of mining service companies. They say that in 5 years Tete will be as big as Witbank.

The suspension bridge over the Zambezi at Tete is really impressive and the city has clearly outgrown any maps we have of this once sleepy town, we were told it is a bit like the Wild West. We change some money have some lunch and hit the road again and at least the road is good, we turn off after 22kms heading North West for Songa and the Cahora Bassa Dam, pleasantly surprised by the good tar road so we make good time still not knowing what the speed limit is. The Roadside is sparsely populated with the odd village dotting the landscape, it is very dry and more like the bushveld of the Limpopo.

The devastation from the cutting down trees for either firewood or charcoal is very apparent all over Africa, but none so bad as Mozambique and there you have the Cahora Bassa power grid travelling over this raped land.

We finally get to the Ugezi Tiger Lodge at 03h45pm after some nearly 9 hours on the road. We check out our rooms in 37°c and are relieved to find that it is air conditioned, we go up to the pool only to find it is empty, but it was being cleaned and they started to fill it and at least Sinead could cool down. The first two Laurentina’s went down without touching the side and came out in perspiration as fast as it went in.

Day 46 – Monkey Bay to Ugezi Tiger Lodge on the Cahora Bassa Dam

Charcoal & Wood for Sale everywhere

More trees cut down

Result - Power lines on the other side of the road  

We get an early start and after a full breakfast we are on our way at 07h00am. Our route today on the advice of our hosts is to cross the border at Dedza and go down to Tete and even with the need to get a Visa for Sinead we were through there in less than an hour. It was Sinead’s turn to have a wobbly at the border and so out of character, we put it down to tiredness, but it is so out of what we have come to expect from her that we give her some paediatric Panado just in case it is something else

  

Although there is a lot of trucks at the border there are very few on the road so we make good time until we reach our intersection with the M6 16kms West of Zobue on the Tete to Blantyre road. We had be warned of the state of this road and although the descriptions were a little exaggerated like “watch for the other 4x4 coming up out of the pot holes” or “they are so deep you could meet up with a donkey at the bottom and he will be standing up” well they were deep, but I have to say we had seen worse on this trip and at least there is an effort to repair in progress, you do have to virtually stop and ease your self into the hole and the ease your self out the other side.

We had over 80kms of this intermittent pot holed road, which is a problem on its own as you cannot relax your concentration for a second. We see some huge activity around Moatize and Tete with some massive coal mining projects on the go and there are a number of South African companies doing business there amongst which are Group 5, WBHO, and a number of mining service companies. They say that in 5 years Tete will be as big as Witbank.

The suspension bridge over the Zambezi at Tete is really impressive and the city has clearly outgrown any maps we have of this once sleepy town, we were told it is a bit like the Wild West. We change some money have some lunch and hit the road again and at least the road is good, we turn off after 22kms heading North West for Songa and the Cahora Bassa Dam, pleasantly surprised by the good tar road so we make good time still not knowing what the speed limit is. The Roadside is sparsely populated with the odd village dotting the landscape, it is very dry and more like the bushveld of the Limpopo.

The devastation from the cutting down trees for either firewood or charcoal is very apparent all over Africa, but none so bad as Mozambique and there you have the Cahora Bassa power grid travelling over this raped land.

We finally get to the Ugezi Tiger Lodge at 03h45pm after some nearly 9 hours on the road. We check out our rooms in 37°c and are relieved to find that it is air conditioned, we go up to the pool only to find it is empty, but it was being cleaned and they started to fill it and at least Sinead could cool down. The first two Laurentina’s went down without touching the side and came out in perspiration as fast as it went in.

Day 45 – Norman Carr Cottage – Monkey Bay – Malawi

Fish Eagle coming in for Lunch

Our last day in Malawi and we hope to do a cruise on the lake to see the Fish Eagles, which is quite spectacular and perhaps Claudia will do some snorkelling.

However, there is quite a swell and we are not sure we will be going out. This lake has a lot of moods when we got here yesterday the lake was like glass and today we have waves as though you are at the sea.

Lake Malawi

We eventually go out on the boat at 03h00pm in a light swell, unfortunately the afternoon does not seem to be the good time for feeding Fish Eagles as only three or four rose to the bait whereas when Denise and I went out on our last visit every pair we passed dived for the fish. In explanation we sail past the mainland fairly close and the skipper calls out in Fish Eagle language and throws a fish into the lake, tells us to focus our cameras on the floating fish and gives us a five countdown as the eagle swoops down and we have to get clicking. Now I am there with my 500mm lens and I was the least successful, I had some magic shots of the dead fish, but the eagle eluded my lens with a vengeance.

We get back to the lodge at 05h00pm and enjoy a couple of sundowner's and another fabulous meal and are ready to hit the road again tomorrow when we cross our 12^th border into Mozambique.