Beach bumming Mozambique
- Thread starter Xpat
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Wow Martin, what an awesome trip :drif: :ricky:
And the way you describe it, and all the beautiful pics, it's like I am riding alongside you...
Thank you :thumleft:
And the way you describe it, and all the beautiful pics, it's like I am riding alongside you...
Thank you :thumleft:
Xpat said:
:imaposer: :lol8: Hoooooh Boy! Loved that bit! But then I enjoy your RR's! Thank you very much! :thumleft:
The next day, rest day number 2, I opted to change the oil. Originally I wanted to do it at the halfway point in Vilankulos, but there wasn't anything else to do apart from chilling on the beach and by now I was already super cool and chilled up the wazoo. So nice little oil change - which with my mechanical abilities has always potential to turn into melodrama - would help to keep me real and grounded.
So the first order of the day was to go and get the oil. I rode up to the garage with little strip mall about 10 km outside Tofo. They had some Catrol 10W-60, which - at least in terms of specs - is even better than required 10W-50, but only in big 4 liter container. I needed only 1.5 liter, so I headed out to the next major town Inhambanne about 30 km away, confident to get what I want there.
Well my confidence was not rewarded - I tried everywhere, but couldn't get anything close to the required specs in Inhambane, only heavy duty car and 4x4 oil. The lack of sidestand made parking often tricky around the oil shops and I had to make an ass of myself couple of times leaving the bike on the pedestrian walkways leaning against random stuff:
Unsuccessful, I rode back to the first garage, bought the 4 liter cannister of 10-60 oil and headed back home to the Casa Barry. At the lodge I asked their mechanics for a bowl to drain the oil into, took the bashplate off and run into a problem straighaway. No matter how hard I tried with my little T wrench, I couldn't losen the 13mm drain bolt at the bottom of the engine. After many attempts in vain and seeing that the bold is getting slowly chewed up, I headed back to the mechanics for a rescue.
They couldn't find bigger wrench in their tool box at the lodge, but the head mechanic had one at his home, so we jumped into his minivan and drove to his house about 5 km out of town. The house was right by the main tar road, with noone around and completely open. I don't mean unlocked, I mean with doors left ajar all day and with his - I'm guessing - quite valuable tools laying about for everybody to see. No, he wasn't worried that somebody it going to steal something. I have seen this lack of concern for one's property many times in Africa and elsewhere, but it is always a good reminder of how safe the world actually is outside the paranoia of modern media (and outside of South Africa with it's undercurrent of racial tensions).
Back at the lodge I was able to losen the drain bolt, but run into another problem straight away - I couldn't get the oil filter out, as it is sitting snug in the oil casings and there is no easy way to grab it (and of course it is oily). Yes, I have changed the oil and filter before few times, but forgot the wire I used to get behind the filter lip to be able to pull it out. So the head mechie came to my rescue once again (luckily he kept straight face and I couldn't read what he was actually thinking) and with a little piece fo wire he got somewhere was able to get the filter out.
After that I was finally able to finish the rest of the procedure on my own. Feeling that I might have lost a little bit of the coolness in this botched attempt at mechanicking, I retreated back to the beach and restaurant for the rest of the day to re-chill a bit again.
The credit card snafu still wasn't resolved by the end of the day, but I was too chilled to care anymore, so I just exchanged contact details with the lodge manager to be able to deal with the matter remotely and packed up to continue push north towards Vilankulos early next day.
So the first order of the day was to go and get the oil. I rode up to the garage with little strip mall about 10 km outside Tofo. They had some Catrol 10W-60, which - at least in terms of specs - is even better than required 10W-50, but only in big 4 liter container. I needed only 1.5 liter, so I headed out to the next major town Inhambanne about 30 km away, confident to get what I want there.
Well my confidence was not rewarded - I tried everywhere, but couldn't get anything close to the required specs in Inhambane, only heavy duty car and 4x4 oil. The lack of sidestand made parking often tricky around the oil shops and I had to make an ass of myself couple of times leaving the bike on the pedestrian walkways leaning against random stuff:
Unsuccessful, I rode back to the first garage, bought the 4 liter cannister of 10-60 oil and headed back home to the Casa Barry. At the lodge I asked their mechanics for a bowl to drain the oil into, took the bashplate off and run into a problem straighaway. No matter how hard I tried with my little T wrench, I couldn't losen the 13mm drain bolt at the bottom of the engine. After many attempts in vain and seeing that the bold is getting slowly chewed up, I headed back to the mechanics for a rescue.
They couldn't find bigger wrench in their tool box at the lodge, but the head mechanic had one at his home, so we jumped into his minivan and drove to his house about 5 km out of town. The house was right by the main tar road, with noone around and completely open. I don't mean unlocked, I mean with doors left ajar all day and with his - I'm guessing - quite valuable tools laying about for everybody to see. No, he wasn't worried that somebody it going to steal something. I have seen this lack of concern for one's property many times in Africa and elsewhere, but it is always a good reminder of how safe the world actually is outside the paranoia of modern media (and outside of South Africa with it's undercurrent of racial tensions).
Back at the lodge I was able to losen the drain bolt, but run into another problem straight away - I couldn't get the oil filter out, as it is sitting snug in the oil casings and there is no easy way to grab it (and of course it is oily). Yes, I have changed the oil and filter before few times, but forgot the wire I used to get behind the filter lip to be able to pull it out. So the head mechie came to my rescue once again (luckily he kept straight face and I couldn't read what he was actually thinking) and with a little piece fo wire he got somewhere was able to get the filter out.
After that I was finally able to finish the rest of the procedure on my own. Feeling that I might have lost a little bit of the coolness in this botched attempt at mechanicking, I retreated back to the beach and restaurant for the rest of the day to re-chill a bit again.
The credit card snafu still wasn't resolved by the end of the day, but I was too chilled to care anymore, so I just exchanged contact details with the lodge manager to be able to deal with the matter remotely and packed up to continue push north towards Vilankulos early next day.
wilfwalk said:
You have to be very careful to just follow information spread on the internet and in the media - at least if you are actually into adventure riding, not just holiday-making. I'm not saying it is all wrong, but it tends to be heavily skewed towards negative because that is what grabs attention, and - quite frankly - the average Joe who just wants to go on holiday with as little hassle as possible, is not the best benchmark to look at when looking for proper juicy adventure riding.
Quite frankly if you want to go explore areas off the beaten track in Africa (but not exclusively to Africa), some level of hassle is to be expected - if a little hassle bothers you, then quite frankly you are not into exploring and hence adventure in my book. However in my experience the hassle can be minimised or in many cases even eliminated by staying off the beaten track. The scum of all walks of life - including corrupt officials - are not going to be waiting for you along some remote path, where sometimes no tourist ventured ever before (or at least for very long time). They are going to wait for you in the natural choke points where tourist converge - airports, border crossings and along the main roads where their chances to shake you down are the best. I.e. slap bang on the most beaten track there is - which is exactly what I would expect an adventure rider to avoid anyway.
All those beaches I have visited, can be also easily visited in family 4x4 or even on big adventure bike (less so than on 4x4 as one has to be willing in some instances ride km or 2 of deeper sand). The only difference is that most people in 4x4 or on big bike will stick to EN1 and that makes all the difference. EN1 as the only main thoroughtfare through Moz (at least in the south) is a natural choke point at which all the traffic as well as local population and their settlements converge. So even without any corrupt officials EN1 is a bit of nightmare with 60 or 80 kmh speed limits for very long sections of the road as you are most of the time crossing some kind of town or village. That on its own is a recipe for frustration. Add the local officials - (they don't even need to be corrupt at all, just sitting there as they do with speed traps every few km) and you will most probably hate the experience very quickly even if just caught up actually speeding, and not shaken down for some other trumped up nonsense. And you will probably let people know about your frustration somewhere on the forum. Leaving aside that some of those tourists attract the wrong kind of attention by flashing their wealth way too much - some people just lack common sense.
Now, with just a little change - ridding mostly off the EN1 (but sometimes only 1 - 2 km away) like I did on this trip and like I believe anybody who actually aspires to ride off the beaten track should do, the picture changes completely. Apart from the border (and police roadblock in Xai Xai where they just waved me through as I was pretty dirty after 2 days of sweating in sand already), I don't think I have seen single policeman on this trip. Quite frankly - what would they want to do on those little footpaths that nobody but locals use? And as a result I had a fantastic ride among friendly locals for most of this trip. So just little change in approach like staying off the beaten track, will affect your perception (and actually your reality) of the trip fundamentaly. As suggested by CT, you can use some other border crossing like the one in Pafuri (though you are not guaranteed not to get in trouble there either - I have done Namaacha twice before without any issue), or just do what I did and just come mentaly prepared for a bit of hassle.
The only hassle I really had on this trip from officials was the first border crossing (and little bit on the second crossing in Komatipoort but I was more clever then and brushed them off). Yes it did piss me off like I described it. But would I rather not do this trip if I knew about he hassle upfront? No frigging way! Would I do this trip again? Of course, without any sliver of doubt. I would try to be more clever and use other border crossings like the one suggested by Swazi Phil or even Ponto de Ouro one, but quite frankly even if I knew that the kind of hassle I got is not common on all border crossings, I would just factor it into my expectations (i.e. just be ready to pay the bribe and approach the tout on the border myself just to go with the flow) and go anyway. Main part of the reason why I was so pissed of in Namaacha was because they took me by surprise. If I would have known about the hassle upfront and couldn't figure out any workaround, I would just go through the process greasing my way through and I wouldn't probably be even pissed off at the end of it, because I expected that. I'm pragmatic, not moralist puritan. If the most important thing in your travels is that that things must be done right and by the book, then I'm afraid you are limited to Switzerland, maybe Germany and Singapour. None of which make for great adventure riding.
No, I didn't send my tracks to T4A. I will post them in this thread once I'm done with the report. But I have already posted most of them (the ones I did now are more or less the same with some diversions) already in my prior report 3 years ago, and as far as I know there were so far 0 takers on them. So let's see how it will go this time.
Brucet said:
I haven't done all the way to Pafuri, but I explored quite far east from Vilankulos all the way to Machaila, but then turned north to Masangena and from there to Espungabera border crossing and onto to Zim. It is described in my prior report in quite a detail including plenty of pictures that will give you a good idea how does the area that side looks. It starts on this page;
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=188438.60
Day 9 - Tofo beach to Pomene
In the morning I set-off early to utilize cooler morning temperatures as much as possible. Objective for the day was Pomene national reserve about half way up the coast between Tofo and Vilankulos 240 km away:
First 100 km was tar - the longest tar section I was to do in Moz - because I had to circumnavigate Baia de Inhambane to be able to hit the shoreline again north of Maxixe. I hoped I will be able to cut it much shorter using about ferry running between Inhambane and Maxixe across the bay, but when I arrived I was told it is for passengers only, so I had to go long way around the bay.
After hour and a half including refuel I have made it to the point past Maxixe where my track finally turned off EN1 and I hit the sandy tracks again. It was more or less the same variety of tracks and surfaces I have ridden so far up, it was just less populated and had a bit more remote feeling:
Wonder if these were locals or some old settlers from times long gone:
Finaly after few dozen km I came to the main dirt road running between Maxxinga on EN1 and Pomene national reserve. After short break I cross the road and continued on my concoction of little tracks I have plotted at home.
In the morning I set-off early to utilize cooler morning temperatures as much as possible. Objective for the day was Pomene national reserve about half way up the coast between Tofo and Vilankulos 240 km away:
First 100 km was tar - the longest tar section I was to do in Moz - because I had to circumnavigate Baia de Inhambane to be able to hit the shoreline again north of Maxixe. I hoped I will be able to cut it much shorter using about ferry running between Inhambane and Maxixe across the bay, but when I arrived I was told it is for passengers only, so I had to go long way around the bay.
After hour and a half including refuel I have made it to the point past Maxixe where my track finally turned off EN1 and I hit the sandy tracks again. It was more or less the same variety of tracks and surfaces I have ridden so far up, it was just less populated and had a bit more remote feeling:
Wonder if these were locals or some old settlers from times long gone:
Finaly after few dozen km I came to the main dirt road running between Maxxinga on EN1 and Pomene national reserve. After short break I cross the road and continued on my concoction of little tracks I have plotted at home.
The tracks I have plotted got more and more remote the further north I was heading. The are was much less populated that further south with vast swathes of dunes untended and bush left alone. The sand got deeper and more coloful, ranging between white and deep reddish orange:
I was heading for a place called 'Paradise Beach Lodge' that I found on googlemaps. As I came closer to the Pomene national reserve there were number of track veering off into the dense bush and heading for the shore. I took a wrong turn (probably at the crossing at the next picture) and eventually got to little UNICEF camp, which clearly wasn't the lodge I was looking for:
Initiall the camp looked deserted, but eventually a local emerged from one of the tents and pointed me back to the right track I had to take to the lodge which was few km further north.
I was heading for a place called 'Paradise Beach Lodge' that I found on googlemaps. As I came closer to the Pomene national reserve there were number of track veering off into the dense bush and heading for the shore. I took a wrong turn (probably at the crossing at the next picture) and eventually got to little UNICEF camp, which clearly wasn't the lodge I was looking for:
Initiall the camp looked deserted, but eventually a local emerged from one of the tents and pointed me back to the right track I had to take to the lodge which was few km further north.
I had few more km of deep sand to navigate. By now it was about noon and stupidly hot, but 500 made everything much easier:
Eventually I arrived to the cringly named Paradise Beach beach. Initially the place looked completely deserted but I found some workers doing repairs on the other end of the resort. They pointed me to a bar, where a local guy told me they are open but he doesn't know the prices. I wasn't going anywhere in about 50 degrees Celsius so he made call to his boss, who told him to give me one of the thatched huts for R200 (or about less than third I usually paid) and all was dandy again. He even had a cold beer for me and promised to cook me a dinner. Score!
I was the only guest and I settled into my hut for a lazy afternoon on an indeed paradise like looking beach:
Me casa:
Eventually I arrived to the cringly named Paradise Beach beach. Initially the place looked completely deserted but I found some workers doing repairs on the other end of the resort. They pointed me to a bar, where a local guy told me they are open but he doesn't know the prices. I wasn't going anywhere in about 50 degrees Celsius so he made call to his boss, who told him to give me one of the thatched huts for R200 (or about less than third I usually paid) and all was dandy again. He even had a cold beer for me and promised to cook me a dinner. Score!
I was the only guest and I settled into my hut for a lazy afternoon on an indeed paradise like looking beach:
Me casa:
I didn't do any videos on this trip, but last time I made one roughly covering these tracks. On 690 I cut off first half or the tracks and made it on tar further to Massinga, but from there I connected to pretty much the same tracks I have ridden now. So the video gives reasonably good idea about the type of riding one can expect visiting Pomene national reseve.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/UEKHFs-VMFQ[/youtube]
Straatkat
Race Dog
Martin I just read the whole report up to here, you are living your dream my friend! These are memories like no other and you are very fortunate to have the resources and time to do all these amazing trips, but that said you are also a special kind a guy doing this all on your own (yes I know you asked me to join) but let the truth be told, not many guys have the balls to do the trips you have done, even if they have those 2 things at their disposal. And thanks again for taking the time to document all of this, awesome read! My heart is crying that I could not join you on this one!
ClimbingTurtle
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Xpat said:
Very good points made in the above - we have been to Moz (albeit in vehicles) many times - once in a Renault Scenic, made it to Zavora - but I have yet to pay a bribe - always stick to their somewhat tedious speed limits, smile, be friendly and that solves a myriad of problems. Moz is one of my favourite places ever, but the Border crossing at komatipoort is something of nightmares - but as Martin says, if you are prepared, and dont get flustered, it can be done - but there are other easier options.
Stunning pics - brilliant writing - appreciated. :thumleft:
Day 10 - Pomene to Vilankulos
This was the last day of the ride up the coast - the last 138 km before Vilankulos. The temperatures over the past few days were getting quite extreme, so I started very early to make it to Vilankulos before the afternoon heat.
Again, the tracks were of the same variety as earlier, just more and more remote. Thanks to the early start I hit the golden hour and the colors were even more vibrant than usually:
This was the last day of the ride up the coast - the last 138 km before Vilankulos. The temperatures over the past few days were getting quite extreme, so I started very early to make it to Vilankulos before the afternoon heat.
Again, the tracks were of the same variety as earlier, just more and more remote. Thanks to the early start I hit the golden hour and the colors were even more vibrant than usually:
