Northern Mozambique/Tanzania border crossing

[freeflyd]

I read a post of someone asking advice about this a few days ago, but can't find it again.

Anyway, I found this handy information on another forum:

Mike (Mozguide) posted this on the Overland Forum earlier this year, and I'm sure he won't mind me posting it here, as he is also a member of this forum:

I got this off Goodboons blog - route was from Lichinga in Niassa
Province north past Cobue and inland to Segunda Congresso
(Lupilichi). I have driven up to Congresso prev but the road (just
reopended by the Irish) became a footpath as the bridge of the Rovuma
(?) at Mitomoni did not then exist:

"Goodboons' Blog: Border crossing Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Border crossing from Mozambique to Tanzania in Songea

The border post at the new bridge in Congresso had not been officially
opened yet. The immigration officers on the Mozambiquan side were
working out of straw huts, while new offices were being built.
However, crossing the border from Mozambique into Tanzania went
easily. They stamped our passports, and suggested we leave them our
unused Mozambican airtime, before letting us go without no further
searching of Scarlet.

On the other side of the bridge a Tanzanian official working out of an
isolated snack-bar, wrote down our names, passport and license plate
numbers. We were told to report to immigration Songea, 102km away.

We arrived in Songea after 4pm. What we thought was the immigration
office was closed. “When will it open?” we asked. “Saa Mbili.” we were
told. Impossible we thought, and checked with someone else – same
answer. This was our first
introduction to Swahili time – 7am is the first hour of the day, 8am
the second etc etc. We spent the night at a Catholic abbey about 20km
out of town.

The next morning we drove back into Songea to report to the
immigration immigration office. We found it eventually, located in the
Ministry of Finance’s buildings. The officials were friendly enough.
We completed our forms and were told to go and pay the 50 US$ visa fee
(each) at one of the local banks. They would stamp our passports when
we brought back the deposit receipts. We had to admit that this is a
very good system to prevent corruption. Although, walking across town
in the heat and queuing there for an hour to pay the fee, didn’t
really seem worth it. We got our receipts, and went back for our
stamps. You can normally get a multiple-entry 3 months visa for 50
USD, but the officer told us he didn’t have the authority for the
multiple-entry, and gave us a 1-month single-entry visa instead.

We’ve now been busy for 2 hours and haven’t had breakfast yet, but we
need to go
through customs first. The customs officer normally works out of the
Post Office. We found the Post Office but the officer was on holiday
and we were directed to the TRA (Tanzanian Revenue Authority) instead
and another long queue. No-one there really knew what to do with our
Carnet de Passage (CDP).
After we had waited for almost an hour, someone from the car licensing
department came over with the necessary forms, a wad of carbon paper
for several copies, and a box of stamps, and proceeded to register our
car.

We were then told to go to the bank again (a different one) to pay a
25 USD fuel levy before we could have our CDP stamped. So off we went,
queued patiently, paid, and eventually got a receipt, and our stamp."

This is a great route and opens up many new overlanding possibilities
in this area. The Unity Bridge north of Mueda is still under
construction and ferry at the Rovuma mouth is still down.
Mike www.mozguide.com

[Peter Jacques]

Thanks for the useful info. We intend to cross the Rovuma either at the mouth;2 x Belgians did it about a month ago, cost reduced from $400 to $200 (!) and 4 boats (makoro?) tied together and planking put on top, all powered by one outboard motor! Or (money is a big consideration!) using the route suggested in your very useful and timely post.
Thanks, Peter