When planning Chris’ and my recent holiday to Mozambique, everyone told me that the roads would be a total disaster and that travelling and getting places would be real nightmare!
So once we had crossed the border to Mozambique, Chris and I prepared ourselves for roads in dreadful conditions and bumpy rides. However, we were pleasantly surprised that the first 100km in Mozambique were on roads that could make South African’s jealous... Nice tarmac, excellent condition, well lit and with not a soul to be seen … a very pleasant drive! After a few hours on excellent roads we finally hit the potholes that people had promised us! Fair enough, they were annoying, but in decent condition so that we could still go 70km/h! So far off from the disaster we were expecting. The further north we went, the more tropical became the scenery and palm trees replaced bushes, the vendors slowly started to sell pineapples rather than tomatoes and houses were build out of palm leaves rather than wood.
And then after a few hours drive listening to John Mayer and Jason Mraz, we had our first glimpse at the ocean and forgotten were all the tiny potholes (or the bigger ones that actually came further up north)!
II. Hotels want to make money – of course you can reach the, by 2WD!
When Chris booked all the hotels, he asked whether they were accessible with a Ford Fiesta – my lovely little car, not generally known for being amazing off-road. The overwhelming response was that it would be no problem at all! Turns out … they were lying to trick us into staying with them! Sometimes it worked, like the one time when we had to spend three hours at an (admittedly, much nicer) lodge because the road to our hotel flooded every day between 3 and 7pm! Of course, the owner had not bothered to tell us this minor fact! Once we managed to get to the hotel, we had sundowners or “moonrisers” on our balcony overlooking a deserted beach under a million (seriously, I know I say this a lot, but it was incredible!). Perfect peace and silence with only sound that of the waves … certainly a trek well worth doing!
But the next hotel, we quickly realised, would remain out of reach no matter what!
III. The prawns are gigantic and you’ll only need one to be stuffed!
People talked to me a lot about the dreadful condition of the roads, but they talked even more about how fantastic the food would be: Lots of different types of fish, gigantic prawns and delicious crabs fresh from the sea onto our plates!
So on our very first evening, after a long drive, we could not wait to stuff our faces with huge prawns and all the other delights the ocean has to offer. And that was when reality hit us… all the fish in Mozam is grilled in peri-peri or lemon butter, crabs are stuffed, prawns average size and everything is always served with rice, salad and chips. No matter where we went, the menu was always identical… so even though the fish itself was divine, I got slightly bored of it after enjoying my fourth seafood platter and waved goodbye to my dreams of mega prawns and exotic flavours!
Ironically, the best seafood we had was on a deserted beach on a beautiful little island off the coast. Together with another couple, Chris and I took a sailing boat to a “deserted” island.
IV. Take plenty of supplies, because you won’t be able to buy anything out there
Before we left, Chris went on a shopping trip to stock up on water and emergency pasta since everyone told us that once we crossed the border, it would be impossible to buy anything! I got slightly scared and pictured us stranded in the middle of nowhere without any food or water … condemned to starve by the beach! Obviously these worries were completely unjustified and the advice well-meant, but terribly wrong! What my colleagues and friends tried to say was that there are no fancy air-conditioned supermarkets where chicken is frozen, coke chilled and the apples sparkly and crisp. Instead Mozambique has good old-fashioned markets. Along the main streets, people set up stalls and sell everything that a stranded tourist could possible need – food, drink, sun lotion, clothes, music and alcohol! Getting out of the car and bartering with them for a good price, makes the whole process so much more fun than the stroll through a supermarket. Chris quickly saw the appeal of markets: He bargained a straw hat down from M150 to M75 and got us a discount on ridiculous quantities of local rum.
V. The roads up north are so bad, I don’t think you would manage in your Ford Fiesta … If I was you, I would consider staying here!
This advice was given to us by one of the guesthouse owners at the beginning of our trip. She said the north was beautiful, far too touristy these days, but the roads terrible and the whole trip really not worth it!
We set off anyway and I think I would have regretted it all my life had we not! What was described as touristy was the least-developed little town I have seen in many years! There were no signposts, no shops, nobody trying to convince us to stay in their hotels – in fact, there seemed to be no hotels! In short, the town itself really had very little appeal! But all this was just deceiving because the real beauty of Vilankulo is not the dusty little town, but the beautiful islands just off the coast! A chain of largely uninhabited islands with the most beautiful white sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and spectacular views from huge sand dunes. On one of our trips, Chris and I climbed a dune and the view that we had from the top could have been taken from any travel brochure advertising honeymoon islands in the Pacific! The tide was slowly going out and revealed lots of little sandbanks, the waters were shallow and shone in hundreds of shades of blue and tiny little islands lay in front of us! It was absolutely spectacular!
Especially, since the other side of the dune resembled a rain forest! Palm trees were growing high and little rivers and waterfalls were flowing through the island – the contrast could have not been greater! Just to sit on top of this dune, I would have travelled much further on much worse roads in a much smaller car … once again I am incredibly happy that we did not listen to other people’s advice…
VI. Seafood is really cheap!
Mozambique is still a developing country and I was told and expecting things to be significantly cheaper than elsewhere. From travelling experience I know that this is often not the case for imported goods, but local products such as fruit, vegetables and fish would be fairly cheap … or would they?
In most little towns, tourism was still so underdeveloped that there were only a handful (and by that I really mean no more than three) restaurants or places to enjoy a drink. As an economist I cannot even blame them for putting the prices up sky-high: A normal lunch would easily cost us M300, which is R100 and probably about £7. This may not seem a lot in the UK, but for South African standards it is incredibly expensive especially when adding drink and a possible starter or desert!
So to spice up our fish-rice-salad diet, add excitement to our trip and save a bit of money, Chris and I bought some fresh prawns at the market one day. The fishermen had just brought their catch in and market women sold them out of rather dodgy looking cooler boxes… For something like £2 we got a kilo of lovely fresh prawns and went back to grill them on the beach! Some garlic, a bit of butter and a loaf of fresh bread and we felt like god in France! Life can be so beautiful …
VII. You must stick to all the speed signs - There is police everywhere!
Before we left for Mozambique, friends and colleagues once again tried to scare me (and got very annoyed that it didn’t work) with horror stories about corrupt police, who were just waiting around every corner trying to catch you speeding, breaking any minor or made-up road rule and even set up traps for you. So Chris and I were incredibly careful upon entering the country and were prepared to be stopped by all the time. After a few hours, however, and hundreds of cars speeding past us, we had not seen a single police man! Where were all the police men for whom I had certified tens of copies of our passports and driving licenses? Well, fortunately it seemed like they were all on holiday as well and we had an incredibly smooth (maybe not quite the right choice of word given the potholes along the way…) and speedy ride all the way up north and back!
When coming back down however, we did have a brief encounter with the police who pulled us over and wanted to see our papers, claiming we had broken some non-existent rule. Apparently we would have to go to the next village unless we had some cash on us to settle the issue straight away … we happily agreed to go to the village, the police station or wherever else he would like to take us! The police men soon realised he was not going to get anything from us and let us go. Lucky or clever – either way, we managed to cruise thousands of kilometres through Mozambique without encountering any serious problems at all!
And the moral of the story: Don’t let people scare you or even put you off you well deserved beach breaks!
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