Yes sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don't. Our plan was to
leave Malawi east into Mozambique at the Milange border and then head east
and south to the ferry across the mighty Zambezi at Caia. Well that was not
our plan of choice but it seemed like a better option than west via the
Mwanza border into Mozambique and then south via Tete. The route of choice
however was out of the southern most point of Malawi at the Marka border and
then cross the Zambezi via the Dona Ana bridge between Mutarara and Sena
thus avoiding the ferry further east at Caia. We would head then to Caia on
the south side of the Zambezi river and continue south thru the country from
there.
The only thing between us and our plan of choice, the Dona Ana bridge, was
it open for vehicles? Now our guide book said 'yes', a German guide book of
some fellow travellers said 'ya', so we thought excellent! For backup we
tried to get some info via family off the web, but the info never arrived
for some reason, we know where you live!
Our decision made, we would go for it and aim south out of Malawi and the
questionable bridge, what the heck. It was quite a drive to the border and
as luck would have it lunch time when we got there so the immigration man
was back at his house having his 'lunch'. We managed to find him and
persuade him to help us out and shortly after he arrived to process us.
Customs was cleared easy enough so over to Mozambique it was.
The only problem, everyone we asked at the Mozambique border gave the same
answer to our question, 'No!'. The question, 'is the Dona Ana bridge over
the river open to vehicles?'. Bugger! We did not fancy a long back track up
thru Malawi and then having to choose an alternative border exit so we
ploughed on with a now unavoidable date at the ferry across the river at
Caia ahead of us! The border on the Mozambique side was easy, apart from the
very officious police who wanted to examine the contents of the truck. After
an interrogation over my grease gun, I think they thought we were
international grease gun smugglers, we were on our way. Apparently the Dona
Ana bridge closed to traffic last October, it is being reinstated as a rail
bridge!
Our next obstacle would be not the ferry across the Zambezi but a crossing
of the Shire on the way there. Now we had read somewhere that the little
ferry there was not working, gulp, but the guys at the border assured us it
was, one of them even said there was a bridge, hmmm!
So on we ploughed knowing that the Zambezi ferry stopped at 17h00 and time
was slipping past. To our great relief the ferry across the Shire was
working, a hand cranked ferry, and we were eventually across with no
problems. Time had however slipped too much and we would not make the
Zambezi ferry in time so a bush camp would have to be found for the night
somewhere, not an easy task in Mozambique where there is constant habitation
along the road even out in the sticks. Thankfully just as the sun was
setting we came across a spot not far past the village of Sabe and hid away
for the night (S17 39.760 E35 30.231). There was no way to become invisible
but no one that found us bothered us in any way.
Up early the next day and to the ferry before it started operations at
07h00. There was a long queue of trucks but only a few small vehicles so we
thought no problem. As the ferry arrived so did several buses and this being
Africa they got loaded and the cars got left behind despite having been
there for ages! We managed to get across on the next trip and we off and
away. The 710km ahead was daunting but the road was good tar all the way,
even the last 50km before Inhassoro that was badly potholed on our way up,
and we made our destination of Vilankulos late afternoon and in time to get
money diesel and beers! The campsite of Josef e Tina (S21 59.870 E35 19.433)
was average but we just needed a place to rest our tired bodies before the
next long leg of our route thru the country across to Pafuri and back to
South Africa.
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