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MOZAMBIQUE MOZAMBIQUE

To the land of the oriolesSofala province in Mozambique has its fair share of white beaches, but the true bounty lies inland – in the forests of Mount Gorongosa, on the teeming plains of Gorongosa National Park and on the wide Zambezi River flood plain. Come join us up front in the Landy.

WoRDS & PICTURES TOAST COETZER

LIFT-OFF! Janco Scott jumps into a pool at Morrombedze Falls, on the slopes of Mount Gorongosa. From the community campsite it’s a 4 km walk to the falls, which cascade from a height of about 80 m.

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MOZAMBIQUE

E ver since I read about it in a prescribed novel in school, Sofala has intrigued me. The name conjured an exotic place where the living was languid – palm trees,

porches with screen doors, gin and tonic…But that was fiction. Janco Scott and I are

driving along the real-life main road of Sofala, past simple low-roofed houses, a church where the hands of the clock are stuck at 4.30 pm, a green mosque, and baobab after baobab. There’s something musty in the air, as if the town is encased in resin like a fossilised insect.

Sofala, once an important harbour, entered the history books around 700 AD. With the rise of Great Zimbabwe, 400 km inland, Sofala was used as an export port for gold and ivory.

We’ve been camping rough since we entered Mozambique four days ago via the border post at Pafuri. Today we’ll see the sea for the first time.

I met Janco, a wilderness guide, during my previous trip to Mozambique; he guided a paddling trail down the Olifants River (see go! #60). We made a plan to meet up again and explore this central part of Mozambique: Beira, Gorongosa National Park and the Zambezi Delta.

Suddenly the town disappears. Where did Sofala go? Was that it? There’s not a guesthouse, a neon sign advertising a prawn special or a tar road in sight – the glory days of this port are long gone.

The Portuguese built their first fort on the Mozambican coast here in 1505, but they soon realised their mistake: The bay was good for light dhows but too shallow for ships. Also, the trade route had moved further north – now it was Beira’s turn to shine.

Janco stops where the sandy track peters out and where the GPS indicates Sofala’s main beach: a windblown promontory with the ruins of an old holiday resort as a spooky backdrop. I get out of the Land Rover and walk into the shallow surf. A warm, powerful wind blows; it shuts my mouth, makes me think on the inside.

This is a good place to start exploring Sofala province – tomorrow we head for Beira.

SOFALA TO BEIRA

Up the coastAfter our breakfast ritual of coffee and instant Oats, Janco starts to follow a track on the GPS that indicates the ruins of the old fort.

He stops when he can drive no further and we go for a walk on the beach.

Friendly guys cruise past on a Chinese motorbike, waving at us. Soon we come to the ruins: a few rusty cannons, half-submerged blocks and a neat wall that might have been a jetty. The sea is busy reclaiming the fort, erasing it.

I take photos and then we drive back along the same road we came in on yesterday. At the Buzi River we turn north and stop at the ferry that crosses the 120 m expanse of water.

We’re concerned about this “short cut” to Beira, as my Tracks4Africa map says the 69 km to the EN6 tar road will take eight hours to drive. It’s December, but luckily we’ve dodged the rain so far.

“How long do you think it will take?” Janco asks the ferryman.

“Three hours,” he says. Then he steps back, evaluating Janco’s mud-splattered Landy. “You are traveling with this car? In that case, one-and-a-half hours only.”

We pay Mt170 (R50) to use the ferry, and the road on the other side turns out to be perfectly fine. The Tracks4Africa guys probably drove it when it was muddy. Two hours later we approach the outskirts of Beira. >

BEFORE BUILDERS WAREHOUSE. The Portuguese erected a fort at Sofala in 1505 – this wall formed part of the old harbour.

HEAVY LOAD. All over, you see cyclists transporting charcoal. Drive carefully. MOULDY SENTINEL. The Macuti Lighthouse has guarded the Beira coastline since 1927.

CROAK. African bullfrogs are common in Mozambique.

TURN UP THE HEAT. Rui Ernesto Bello with fresh chillies at Gorongosa Community Camp.

BIG TICK. A male narina trogon at M’phingwe Lodge. STEALTHY. A vine snake (venomous) on Mount Gorongosa.

40 go! July 2012 www.gomag.co.za

MOZAMBIQUE

In 2011, about 450 000 m³ of logs and sawn wood were exported from Mozambique to China. Some studies estimate that the country’s hardwood reserves will be exhausted within five to ten years.

Hardwood trees grow very slowly. A panga-panga, Mozambique’s national tree, takes 60 years to reach maturity, a mutondo tree 40 years and a zebrawood as long as 120 years.

Illegal exports are a huge problem, and logs are usually shipped whole to China, where they are processed, which means that very few Mozambicans are employed in the industry.

Sources: www.globaltimber.org.uk; www.saiia.org.za

BEATS E-TOLLS. If you’re driving from Sofala to Beira, you can cross the Buzi River by ferry and give the long detour back to the EN1 a miss.

THE VANISHING FORESTS OF MOZAMBIQUE

PALM BEACH. Taking dip at Rio Savane Lodge. BABOON PLATOON. The welcoming committee at Gorongosa National Park.

Beira is Mozambique’s second-biggest city, after Maputo. All along the main road you drive past “Chinese yards” – massive fenced-off timber yards where tree trunks are processed to fit into shipping containers.

Truck after truck rumbles past, loaded with logs. Almost all the trees are indigenous hardwoods, not exotics like wattle or pine. I begin to wonder whether there are any trees left in the interior.

Like most other Mozambican towns, the only buildings to have seen a fresh coat of paint in decades are the red and yellow cellphone shacks.

Janco steers us into the city centre. We draw money and follow the guidebook’s directions to the Praça do Município (City Hall Square), were we flop down in the comfortable wicker chairs at Café Riviera.

We order coffee, peri-peri chicken, chips, savoury rice and salad. It’s the first time in days I’m eating from a proper plate. I love this feeling, when you’ve been roughing it for days, and suddenly you’re back in “civilisation”. You appreciate the small things,

like a metal teaspoon and a salt shaker.After lunch we cruise through town, past

the imposing Catholic cathedral, towards the beach front. The Grande Hotel hasn’t been grand since about 1963 – it’s now a squatter settlement. During the Civil War it served as a refugee camp.

We drive along the beachfront next to the grey ocean fringed with palm trees and casuarinas.

Janco stops at the Macuti Lighthouse so I can take a photo. The weather vane is imprinted with a date: 1927. A couple sits on the front steps, fingers intertwined, cheek-to-cheek, gazing out over the sea.

Nothing in Beira has looked promising accommodation-wise, so we drive on to Rio Savane, 40 km further up the coast, where the map indicates a campsite.

The road ends in a parking lot next to an estuary – the lodge is on the other side! Soon a boat is sent over to pick us up.

Rio Savane is a popular holiday spot for Mozambicans, but tonight there are only a handful of guests. After dinner and a couple

of tall Manica beers, we hit our sleeping bags. Tomorrow we head inland again.

GORONGOSA NATIONAL PARK

Surprise, surprise!On a road trip through Mozambique, things don’t always turn out the way you planned. After wrestling with logging trucks and potholes on the EN6 to Inchope, Janco turns the Landy north onto the EN1.

I’m excited. Gorongosa, Mozambique’s most famous national park, is close by. But when we take the turn-off to the park, I’m dismayed to see a sign that warns that the park’s road network is closed.

Confused, we carry on driving, only to be told at the gate that the park shuts down for the summer rainy season – usually from mid-December until things dry out again around March/April.

We’ve just driven 2 000 km of tough roads from Nelspruit and I really want to see the park, even if it’s only a glimpse. Eventually the officer at the gate lets us in so we can explain

ourselves at Chitengo Camp. (Chitengo’s name has since changed to Girassol Gorongosa Lodge & Safari. – Ed.)

The staff members are surprised to see us – they’re packing up for the Christmas holidays. Apparently only anti-poaching rangers stay behind for the rainy season.

As a special favour, Director of Conservation Carlos Pereira gives us permission to camp for the night and he asks guide Adolfo Macadona to take us on a quick game drive. He points to the dark clouds in the distance and suggests that we get a move on.

Gorongosa is different from the parks further south. You actually see animals here – lots of them. Money and manpower have been poured into conservation, and it seems to be working.

The Eastern Rift ends here, and the park boasts extraordinary biodiversity. On our two-hour game drive, Adolfo points out reedbuck, waterbuck, impala, oribi, kudu, sable antelope, bushbuck, warthog, hundreds of baboons and a lone lion.

Amazing! >

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MOZAMBIQUE

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK. A herd of waterbuck in Gorongosa National Park, in front of the Casa dos Leões (Lion House) ruin, where a pride of lions took up residence some time in the 1940s.

AH, CUTE. Toast’s drawing of two green-headed orioles still hangs in the living room of his parents’ house.

MOUNT GORONGOSA

Where’s that oriole?It was December 1990 when I saw my first picture of a green-headed oriole. My father used to get pamphlets in the mail advertising the latest bird book and for some reason one of these had a picture of a pair of green-headed orioles on it.

Maybe I had nothing better to do that holiday, but I decided to draw those birds using colour pencils. My mother framed the drawing – to this day the picture hangs in the lounge of my parents’ house on the farm. Now, 21 years later, I might finally see one of these birds in its natural habitat.

Mount Gorongosa is outside the park. First we drive back to the tar road and stop in the town of Gorongosa to top up the beer crate, draw money and buy vegetables. Then Jaco turns onto an obscure track that leads towards the mountain.

The mountain reminds me of Namibia’s Brandberg, just greener and a little flatter.

We drive to the community campsite in the foothills. The people who welcome us there – Sylvestre Braga (the local chief) and Rui Ernesto Bello (a young guide) – don’t speak much English, but all I need to say is

sit back to watch an electric storm out west in the direction of Zimbabwe.

We’re up early on oriole day. Rui suggests we drive closer to the mountain so we can enter the forest earlier. The lower slopes of the mountain have mostly been cleared for maize and cassava fields. There’s a project under way to reforest the slopes, but the trees grow very slowly and it will be many years before the results are visible.

Once we enter the mountain forest, the giant trees close their canopy above us and with in five minutes we hear it: the unmistak-able, melodic call of a green-headed oriole.

Now the serious searching starts, because the orioles like to hang out high in the canopy. Janco and I eventually lie down on our backs to rest our necks. But the dis-comfort soon makes way for excite ment – I spot an oriole, then another!

The green-headed oriole isn’t the only special bird in the forest. Square-tailed drongo, narina trogon, Livingstone’s turaco and eastern bronze-naped pigeon are ticks that any birder would like to see in his Roberts guide.

We leave the forest three hours later. Just before we reach the Landy, the heavens finally open. We saw the orioles just in time! >

“green-headed oriole” and they know exactly why I’m here. Rui explains that early morning is the best time to find an oriole, so he’ll show us Morrombedze Falls this afternoon.

Once our tents are up, we set off along a footpath. It’s hot! The thunderclouds that threatened yesterday are approaching from every direction, but above us the sky is clear.

After a hike of about 4 km we reach Morrombedze, a series of falls from a height of about 80 m. At the base of the main fall there is a deep pool. I haven’t had much chance to shower in the past week and a swim in the pool offers cool relief.

Back at the camp I buy delicious pineapples from Sylvestre (and a handful of small chillies for our pasta later), crack open a 2M beer and

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MOZAMBIQUE

2012

R40 (VAT included)

Mozambique2012

The beach beckons...• Ponta do Ouro • Inhaca • Bilene • Inhambane• Tofo • Barra • Vilankulo • Bazaruto • Quirimbas

SPEC

IAL ED

ITION

MO

ZA

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IQU

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your HOLIDAYGUIDE

YouR jouRneY staRts heRe

Dive with the Big 5Whale sharks, manta rays, turtles...

48 hours in Maputo

• Border info • Road conditions • Maps & GPS points

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100• Top places to stay • Best restaurants • Fun things to do

Toast visited other national parks during his trip. Read all about Limpopo, Banhine and Zinave national parks, and get comprehensive border and logistical advice in the go! Mozambique holiday guide, on sale soon!

ON THE WEBFor a video of Toast’s adventures

in Mozambique (he got stuck in the mud near Casa Banana), visit www.gomag.co.za/multimedia

LOOKING FOR A LIFER. Janco Scott scans the canopy of the forest on Mount Gorongosa for green-headed oriole.

FAR AND WIDE. At this viewpoint south of Sena (GPS S17.50247 E35.04912) you’re high enough to see the Zambezi River and its flood plain in all its glory. On the horizon lies Mount Morrumbala.

THE ZAMBEZI VALLEY

You have to turn around… eventually Mid-summer weather in Mozambique is unpredictable. At the sea the rain might spoil your sun tanning, but here in the interior it can derail your entire holiday, especially if dirt roads turn into rivers.

We stick to tar for now, playing it safe, driving north along the EN1 through pouring rain, dodging potholes. By afternoon we reach M’phingwe Lodge. Janco has stayed here before and knows the owner, John “Ant” White. John is originally from Zimbabwe. He runs the lodge and a sawmill next door, where wood is used in sustainable fashion. He also teaches people how to work with wood, making beau-tiful bowls, plates and chopping boards.

If you look at his concession you won’t even notice where trees have been taken out – whatever is chopped down is replanted many times over. There are timber concessions all over the country – Ant tells me that very few are managed properly. It’s all about fast profit, trees felled without foresight.

After a visit to the sawmill, we hike the short Suni Trail among magnificent trees that look like they want to pull their roots

free from the soil and float like leafy hot-air balloons above the miombo woodland. We see a samango monkey and a tiny suni antelope dashing through the undergrowth.

At dinnertime Ant strolls over to our table and asks if we know that African pitta is often seen around M’phingwe in summertime. We almost fall off our chairs. “Yes,” he says, “to be precise, you might find it on the large anthill between chalets 20 and 21…”

Janco and I get a bit carried away with the whole African pitta thing. It’s a beautiful bird, every colour of the rainbow, about the size of a starling but with a short tail. We scour every anthill, but to no avail.

The next morning we drive to see some-thing much more straight forward: the Dona Ana Bridge at Sena, a railway bridge over the Zambezi River. To get there we drive north along the EN1 to Caia and then turn onto a gravel road that runs alongside the river.

The rain comes and goes, but at Sena it’s clear. We cruise through the market, looking for the 3,7 km-long bridge. It was originally built in 1934 as a railway bridge, blown up during the Civil War, repaired and adapted to be used by vehicles, and finally modified to carry trains again in 2009.

Pedestrians and heavily laden bicycles also use it – the bridge is the shortest route to the town of Mutarara on the other side. For a small fee you can take a bicycle taxi across.

When you stand next to the bridge you don’t get a good idea of its size, so we drive up a hill behind Sena, from where we can clearly see the 40 steel arches across the wide Zambezi floodplain. Malawi is only 30 km further north.

This is where we’re turning around to make our way back to Nelspruit. It’s quiet in the Landy as Jaco drives us back to M’phingwe. The car has become our home over the past 10 days: the big container of trail mix between us, the trusty GPS, the handwritten note from Janco’s daughter stuck to the dashboard that reads, “I love you Daddy”.

Mozambique has taken a hold of me, reawakened the explorer spirit that you feel when you visit new places. The sea is nice and the beaches will always draw the bulk of the tourists, but I like this less-visited central region more.

With the huge Tracks4Africa map open on my lap I also realise something else. Today, at the Zambezi, was the first time I turned the map over. There’s still half a country up there that I haven’t set foot in.

During the long drive back to Nelspruit over the course of three days, via Inhambane and the Giriyondo Border Post, Janco and I start cooking up plans for a return visit. Next time we’ll head further north. And we’ll ride those cheap Chinese-made Lifo motorbikes that you see all over Mozambique. We’ll print stickers with our names on and paste them to our fuel tanks: Coetzer & Scott. It has a good explorer ring to it, like Lewis & Clark or Stanley & Livingstone.

Maybe this heat is getting to me… Home, Janco, and don’t spare the Landy!

In 2008, the US-based Carr Foundation signed a 20-year agreement with the govern ment of Mozambique to facilitate the recovery of Gorongosa National Park. Before the Civil War, the park harboured large numbers of animals and birds, but as much as 95 % perished during the war.

The 4 000 km² park started out as a hunting con cession, until con servation became a big ger priority. In 1960 the colonial Portu guese govern ment declared it a national park.

Gorongosa survived the War of Inde-pendence relatively unscathed, but was hit hard by the Civil War during the 1980s. The park was closed for a number of years and the numbers plummeted as game was shot to feed soldiers and civilians.

Things began to change in the late-1990s; and with the money now being invested here the park is slowly regaining its rightful place as one of Africa’s finest.

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT GORONGOSA?

46 go! July 2012

MOZAMBIQUE

Best time to visit. From May to October it’s not as hot as in summer and your holiday won’t be washed out. Remember that Gorongosa National Park (not the mountain) is closed from mid-December until the roads dry out in March/April.

PaperworkVisa. South Africans don’t need a visa, but make sure your passport is valid for six months after your intended departure from Mozambique. Third-party insurance. This is compulsory. It costs R150 per car and you can buy it at most border posts. If you’ll be crossing at a small border post, buy it in advance from any Outdoor Warehouse store. Vehicle documents. You need to show the registration documents for your vehicle. If you are still paying off your car, you need a letter from the bank that authorises you to take it across the border.

Money Cash. You need meticais (Mt), so draw from an ATM at the first opportunity or exchange money before you leave South Africa. I drew money in Beira, Caia and Gorongosa. My Absa card worked at branches of Millennium BIM bank.Road tax. We paid R10 for the Land Rover at the Pafuri Border Post; at bigger border posts an extra processing fee is often charged (about R15 per person). Toll fees. At some of the bridges over big rivers you are charged a small toll fee, for example, at the Save River it costs Mt20 (R6) per car.Park fees: Gorongosa National Park entrance fees for SADC citizens: US$10 (R80) per adult per day; US$5 (R40) per child aged 10 – 17; free for under-10s. To use the park’s game-viewing road network in your own vehicle, you have to buy a permit for US$45 (R360). If you’re just driving as far as Chitengo Camp you don’t have to pay this fee.

Fuel. Fill up whenever you get the chance, even if the tank isn’t empty. Ensure you have enough local currency with you; cards aren’t widely accepted. We found fuel in Beira, Inchope, Gorongosa (the town) and Caia. It cost anything from Mt37 to Mt43 per litre for diesel (average R11,40 per litre).

Malaria. The mozzies are mean; take precautions.

guided tour. Contact Janco Scott’s company Eco Adrenalin – he leads tours through Mozambique and elsewhere in Africa. To find out more, call 082 491 2056 or e-mail

ecoadrenalin@vodamail.co.za

HERE’S WHERE WE STAYEDYou’ll note that some prices are indicated in US dollars, the preferred currency at certain establishments. We were charged different exchange rates in different places. In general we got Mt3,50 for R1 in the bigger towns and Mt3 in remote towns.

Sofala gPS: S20.13969 E34.77986 (ruins of a resort)This is not an official campsite and there are no amenities. We camped where we wouldn’t bother anyone.

Rio SavanegPS: S19.67739 E35.13347 (safe parking area)From Beira, allow at least two hours to drive to Rio Savane, north of the city. It’s only 40 km, but the road is poor and there are many cyclists carrying heavy bags of charcoal to watch out for. You need to be at Rio Savane before dark to catch the ferry to the lodge. It costs Mt25 (R8) to leave your car in a guarded parking area. The ferry ride costs Mt75 (R25) per adult and Mt37 (R12) per child under 12. Rates: Camping US$10 (R80) per person; tidy twin-sleeper huts US$100 (R800) per night.Contact: 00 258 332 3555 or 00 258 82 385 7660 (These numbers could not be reached at the time of going to print. – Ed.)

gorongosa National ParkgPS: S18.97961 E34.35241 (Chitengo Camp – now called Girassol Gorongosa Lodge & Safari) The camp is managed by Girassol, an independent tourism operator. There are nine bungalows, six rooms, a campsite with hot water and flush toilets, a swimming pool and a restaurant.Rates: Camping US$12 (R96) per person; two-sleeper bungalow US$163 (R1 300) per night; four-sleeper bungalow US$267 (R2 100) per night. Enquire about the

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

(pricey) Explore Gorongosa Safaris, where you sleep in special bush camps.Contact: 00 258 82 005 0253;

www.gorongosa.net

Mount gorongosagPS: S18.511798 E34.05036 (community campsite)The community campsite is small – two vehicles will fill it up. Bring your own drinking and washing water. There is a long drop and an enclosure where you can wash.Rate: We paid Mt800 (about R250) for two people to camp for one night. This fee included the guided walk to the waterfall and into the forest to find the green-headed oriole.

M’phingwe LodgegPS: S18.04030 E35.20254The bungalows are neat and affordable; there is no camping. Make sure you visit the sawmill about 500 m from the lodge, where you can buy great wooden products at factory prices, and walk the Suni Trail to look for samango monkeys. There’s a restaurant and swimming pool.Rates: Mt850 (R280) per night for a basic twin unit with a communal bathroom; up to Mt1 990 (R660) per night for the six-sleeper family unit. Rands and US dollars are accepted. Contact: 00 258 82 301 6436 (Yvonne);

mphingwe@dalmann.com

All Toast’s expenses were covered by go!

Sofala

Manica

BuziNova Almada

Chiboma

Beira

Dondo

InchopeNhamatanda

Semcueza

Muanza

Chitengo Camp (Girassol Gorongosa Lodge & Safari)

Gorongosa

VenduziInhaminga

Inhamitanga

Maringué

Caia

MutararaVilla de Senna

Canxixe

Mount Gorongosa

50 km

Indian Ocean

MOZAMBIQUE

Gorongosa National Park

Zambez iM e p u s e

Pungwe

B u z i

EN1

EN6

EN6

EN1

EN1

Casa Banana

M’phingwe

Morrumbala

RSA

ZIM

S a v a n e

M u t o b e z i

to Maputo

to Zimbabwe

to Malawi

to Pemba

Pont

Rio Savane

Tar road Town

Dirt road

Accommodation

Point of interest Route

Gorongosa Community Camp