Re: [Overland] Moz-Zim-Bot trip-30/5/2024

[Joao Felizardo]

Summary and highlights (cont) 

Trip from Santa Maria to membene (to collect the trailvan)and futi gate  fortunately without major issues other than slow and some vehicles coming the opposite way (lots of hooting done) we arrived at Maputo after 8,5 hrs.

From Maputo we moved to pandane resort a trip of about 12,5hrs arriving at the resort at 8,30pm ; we reached lindela at 5,30pm so it got dark quickly  and soro  we caught lots of  on coming  traffic on the n5 - what a dangerous  narrow road  with lots of pot holes and damaged edges! It got  very sandy as we got near pandane and the resort  ;We stayed at Casita 6 ,rustic but self sufficient and situated  on the top of the dune(very sandy ) with stunning view of the beach  and sunrises ; massavana the village about 10km from pandane has a petrol station and dry compressed air and a good shop and cantina /bottle store across the road; fresh bread and some fruit and veggies at the barracas of the local population ;

We had learnt earlier and prior to the trip about the passing of Andre van Rooyen the owner of the resort .

We bought excellent fresh fish from the fishermen  @ 300 to 350MT/ kg ; ditto for river prawns @ 500 MT./kg

We had good service from Jaime the resort manager and his staff ;regrettably I did not go on any ocean safari trip since I  did not have any pre planned arrangement so that will be for a next opportunity.

Conditions were good but not ideal but I had not arranged anything with the resort or the guinjata bay diving crowd; we left for vilankulo after a few days of fair to  good weather and a few light showers ; the scene along the way to the taurus settlement and surrounding areas of the massavana village is in some cases of abject poverty ;I had a school boy asking me for 20 MT and in another case a young adult said " Dad please give me 10 or 20Mt - it is better asking than stealing !

The trip to vilankulo took us another 8,5hrs ; the access road from the en1 town is in a terrible state of maintenance (1hr towing for the 20kms); we stayed  at baobab beach at 500Mt pppn (courtesy of a booking from bazaruto incoming agency)and dinned in most evenings  at their restaurant ;  we had a most accommodating service from the manageress ;also had good food and meals at Samara and Lemmon beach; Vilanculo imo is more crowded ,dirtier and with a damaged beach road (after cyclone Freddy );worse the beach in front of the baobab beach is now more polluted and in about 10 minutes we collected lots of broken glasses ,bottles and plastic - however no one in the municipality seems to take the initiative to employ labour roaming the streets for a beach clean up !  next port of call was inhassoro. (Tb continued)

On Thu, 23 May 2024, 17:11 Joao Felizardo, <jmjfel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes ; quite right Mike ! But  imo  it can be nerve  wrecking ;in a way  like going to tembe reserve at home or  moremi mopane bush areas in botswana ;I think the whole of that ellie population is still part of or offsprings from  those that were shot during the civil war ; the late  romanian communist dictator shot ellies from a helicopter (I read the story years ago accounted by an ex Portuguese pilot who witnessed the hunt ); we saw a few times  fresh spoor when they  crossed at the sandy road ; we saw a cow with a calf meters from the road at a muddy water pool but in 2022 we saw many next to the road ( direction membene > futi  gate) ; there is an account at least in the not so far past that an ellie came at guy in a white bakkie ( I saw that video clip myself ) and caused serious  damage : but the real danger imo were the 4x4 drivers ( specially maputo registrations ) coming at you with speed and NOT wanting to stop despite one's efforts by hooting or hand signs ;they are normally  late for the  gate close time or just speed and bash thru the bush  narrowly missing you when their vehicle starts sliding side ways towards one's own vehicle ;crazy ! I left a letter of concern with the management of membene lodge and cc'd the ppf and anac ; Rgds!  JF

On Thu, 23 May 2024, 11:33 Mike Slater, <mozg...@gmail.com> wrote:

With regard to towing in the Maputo National Park, the possibility of an encounter with a grumpy elephant should also be considered.  Although this has become less of an issue in recent times, and we saw just one elephant on the far side of a lake during our drive to and from Membene.

"Alla fin del gioco tanto va nel sacco il Re quanto la pedina."

Best wishes
 
Mike Slater

Join me in amazing Mozambique: 
http://www.mozguide.com/

On Thu, 23 May 2024 at 08:58, Mike Slater <mozg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Joao,

Interesting and very informative trip report.  I agree with you regarding the difficult tracks and local traffic hazard in the Maputo National Park (formerly Elephant Reserve).  Towed a light trailer (14 inch wheels) to Mucambo and Membene this January, and no real problems so long as you are willing and able to take it very slowly.

"Alla fin del gioco tanto va nel sacco il Re quanto la pedina."

Best wishes
 
Mike Slater

Join me in amazing Mozambique: 
http://www.mozguide.com/

On Wed, 22 May 2024 at 20:59, Joao Felizardo <jmjfel...@gmail.com> wrote:

So we finally started the planned trip.We started at MNP (Maputo national park) on 8/5/2024; We camped at Ponta membene for 4 nights ;the sand road from futi gate has deteriorated since 2022;it took us 4 hours towing the trailvan (gvm 1500kg) to cover +- 40km; major issue was the damage at the crest of some dunes and the watery black cotton soil around some stretches near the major lagoons ; there was also some local traffic that crosses the park from machangulo and Santa Mariaw ,and  clearly not all 4x4 vehicles or 4x4 vehicles with tyres not deflated to recommended 1.5 bar. The camp site at membene (#1B) is very good with ample space and kitchen and toilet /shower facilities; entry fees to the park were 900 MT for the vehicle and 900 MT for the trailvan ; 600MT per person ;accomodation camping was +- 5600 MT (Xchange rate @ 3.36MT to the rand); fishing at membene had two seperate smashes of take offs with the fish or whatever it was cutting the braid 30 lb line while using white squid bait at hight tide late afternoon; biggest disappointment was cost of fishing licence @ 3300MT for a week permit (new government Gazette serial I #199 of 15/10/2021 ) or 1600 MT for a day 's permit !!!   I left my concern about the fishing permit costs with the marine biologist working for an organization subcontracted by PPF (peace parks foundation );however  I am in full agreement with the new regulations of fishing daily bag limits wrt quantities and minimum sizes eg  Serra/king?/Spanish mackerel 5 a day min size 65 cm! The restaurant at the membene lodge is very good with excellent food ! Game viewing - we spotted good trophies of nyala ; common reedbuck (chango) and piva (waterbuck) ; also  ellie with calf and various fresh crossings of larger herds .

We travelled to Santa Maria and stayed for 4 nights till the 16th; we stayed at bemugis in a very comfortable and functional (self catering) casa for 2 (5000MT/per night) ;bemugis  restaurant  food and bar service always good !; travelling time from membene was 3hrs for 42km without towing the trailvan that we left behind at membene reception   (due to heavy sand and safety  driving concerns having to drive dunes with crests heavily damaged by what can only be attributed to either 4x2 or 4x4' drivers with harder tyres and driving  faster than 40km speed limit or a combination of  all these !) Fishing at hell's gate at machangulo point is always exciting and I had a strong bump for all my casting efforts  but no luck with any xareu(king fish) being landed ; had twice the visit of the conservation and reserve patrol beach guards who asked me for the fishing permit ;met again with the owner of camp carlos whom I met in 2022 and spent a lovely morning chatting and having some catembes after a tour of his camp situated on the beach  between machangulo lodge and bemugis ...;we left for Maputo after picking the trailvan at membene reception (great assistance from the lodge management !) the trip to futi gate and maputo from Santa Maria took about 8,5hours! Diesel costed  about 91.32MT a litre ..and deflated goodyear wrangler adventure (colt clubcab 2.8 TDI 4x4) and  at/sa(trailvan) tyres to 1.4bar worked very well. (We are now in Inhambane pandane and will be moving to vilankulu and inhassoro  sometime during the week... Will summarise and report back in due course of time   !Regards to all;  JF /Joao Felizardo

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[Joao Felizardo]

At Inhassoro we stayed at trusted goody villas !we were the only ones at the camp! Good value and well maintained place with individual toilettes with shower and hand basin  ! Excellent showers with space water pressure and hot water! Good service received from Sam the manager  and his staff!

We did not go to St Caroline since we have done that in previous occasions.

The main issues that I want to summarise :

1- Permit cost to drive to bd point - it is still a nice drive on the beach despite the dozens and dozens of fishermen that we encountered removing nets from the sea (assisted by their crews with women carrying babies in their backs) but the permit  cost has gone up to 2000 MT for 15 days (when originally published the memo from Mr gilberto from the maritime office stated 3400 MT then it was decided to reduce the price ) then the cost of the fishing permit - another 1680 MT for the day only ! Imo outrageous prices at an xrate of 3.32 for the rand ! NB - I complained about these costs at the komatipoort border to  the tourism officer doing a survey questionnaire)

2- Excellent fresh fish , squid , sea prawns and crayfish that we bought at 300 , 400 ,500 and 600 MT respectively.

3- Diesel was @ 98.41 MT /lt...compressed air at 10MT per tyre .....tyres worked very well at 140bar to bd point .

4-Road condition - 3 hours to travel from baobab beach campsite to goody villas !  Main en1 road and access to inhassoro bad in places ; access road to vilankulo as said before -atrocious and dangerous (pot holes and broken edges).

Note-road to Zimbabwe from inhassoro - I was given a tip by a crew from Harare that was doing service on a massive ski boat ( 2x Suzuki 200 -4stroke outboards ) : pass the save bridge ,pass the buzi river bridge turn left  and take the dombe road to sissidanga ; from sissidanga straight to machipanda border avoiding chimoio .

From inhassoro we travelled to lindela (7 hours trip ) and overnighted at Santo Antonio ; then travelled to  bilene and Maputo where we stayed at a friend residences.Praia do cossa with its white sand is a popular beach  at bilene !

Maputo remains a very busy place with trash and rubbish unremoved for months on end; restaurants aplenty and expensive cost of living ! This time I visited my former high school - built in the 1950's with some best materials imported from Europe but that is now a sore view to the eyes as it it is now in a terrible state of decay ! We left Maputo and Mozambique on the 5th of June to the Kruger and will move up to tsipisi on our way to Zimbabwe. Until then regards to all!