Southern Africa OOOH YEAH!!

[houbie]

Hi all


After some planning and looking at all the POI of the countries we are going to travel through, my mates and I have completed our suggested route. We start/finish at the green dot in SA and ride in a clock wise direction. We are going to do the trip in August this year and we have planned to do it in 42 days.


Can someone who has traveled Malawi to Mozambique or vice versa give me some comments on our choice of border between these two countries? (we are using the border at Nayuchi Malawi)


I saw on Tracks for Africa that more than half of your route in Mozambique will be on gravel or sand. Can someone please tell me if the roads from Mocambique to Beira are made up of sand or is it normal dirt roads. We had a look on Google maps and Google earth, and the roads are white of color so not sure what to expect. The maps we have used just state that it is secondary dirt road. Can anyone also give comments about the availability of fuel North of Beira?


As this will be our first big trip any comments will be great full.

[AliBaba]

Originally Posted by houbie

Hi all

I saw on Tracks for Africa that more than half of your route in Mozambique will be on gravel or sand. Can someone please tell me if the roads from Mocambique to Beira are made up of sand or is it normal dirt roads.

From Maputo to Beira it's all tarmac.

[kuntushi]

We are travelling that similar route west to east in Mozam. We are crossing the border just north of Nayuchi, up at Chiponde. I know crossing at Chiponde is not a problem, but can't help you with Nayuchi. But I thought I'd let you know about Chiponde, as it's not that far from your current choice.

I think most of your stretch in Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa will be sealed. From photos I've seen on Google Earth (Flickr photos uploaded), that east/west bit in Mozam is hard dirt. From what I've heard, heavy rain can make these roads very hard to go on.

[jimr]

Regarding the Malawi-Moz crossing the road you are thinking of taking (via Cuamba / Namwera) is apparently a right bugger. I say 'apparently' 'cause every time we asked anyone (in Nampula, the closest biggish town to the route) they just laughed at us.

It is marked as a major highway on official Moz maps but DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.

We met a couple of people later who had taken that road and they said it was hell and took three days. Apparently though it has a certain 'remoteness' to it though which is nice if you like that sort of thing.

There is also a train that take that route, so if you definately want to enter moz by that border crossing it is an option. Pretty shoddy train though and you would need to provide everything to secure your bike yourself..and keep an eye on it.

We ended up going south via Murrupula, Mocuba then up to the Mulanje border crossing. The road is tar, and varies from decent to appalling potholes. If you take this route then fuel up whenever you can, even if it's from drums (which it is likely to be) The last 200km is dirt (but ok) and there is very little chance of fuel. It is still an 'adventurous' ride/drive but probably not as arse-breaking as the Cuemba road.

On a side note, if you have the time then crossing into Tanzania, and heading down the coast to the Mtwara crossing with Moz then it is well worth it. Classic border crossing, deep bush, remote, fantastic.