August 6-8: To the Coast or Bust

After leaving Gorongosa National Park, I headed south to the coast, stopping en route for a night at Rio de Gorongosa private game reserve and then on to the coast at Inhasarro and then south along the coast to Vilanculos. Note, the map below doesn’t show my actual route, as I had that big detour to Tete after leaving Malawi and then two additional one-night stopovers before getting to Vilanculos, which is shown as the destination in this map, but it suffices to show the basic travel plan within Mozambique.

My first night was spent at a random spot en route to the coast. I had originally planned to drive all the way to the coast but after battling mine-fields on the main north-south national highway(!) for several hours, I decided enough was enough. I know I keep complaining about the roads, but you can’t image just how bad they really are and it’s all I can think about when on these terrible roads. It’s so bad that you simply can’t take your eye off the surface to enjoy the surrounding scenery – not that there was much in this part of the country. In this case, I was driving on a major national highway (N1) that had probably 100 km of potholes distributed intermittantly over 250 km of highway, with holes several inches to two feet deep, and so many of them that it was impossible to drive around them. I had no choice but to come to an almost complete stop and gently drop in and out of them. It was truly driving hell on Earth. SO, what should have taken a couple hours on a decent road surface took 3 times that.

As I was cursing the government for allowing such a disgrace in their national infrastructure, I came upon signs for a lodge/campground that looked promising. So, I abandoned the highway for some much needed R&R. It turns out that this lodge/camp called Rio Gorongosa is a private ranch of 15,000 hectares (soon to double in size) owned by a rich South African who purchased the land from the government (actually, a 99 year lease) back in 2012 to create a game ranch for himself. After purchasing the lease, he then purchased and transported from South Africa 100 African buffalo and some number of greater kudo and sable antelope (can you imagine the cost of that?), and then had the ranch fenced and allowed the populations to grow. He flies to and from the ranch in one of his two helicopters. He will start killing big trophy animals this year and will invite wealthy big game hunters from anywhere to pay him to come and shoot one of these majestic animals. This is classic South African. South Africa is filled with huge private white-owned game farms/ranches all for the purpose of growing big animals for the trophy hunt. Apparently, some of these types have looked to poorer neighboring countries to purchase land for their sport. I can’t abide this practice!

Anyways, I had a nice afternoon sitting by the gentle Gorongosa River and then camped for the night. I had the entire ranch to myself, with only the ranch manager/shef and another staff helper around. It only cost $6 USD. Not a bad stopover all things considered:

Next morning I headed on to the coast and found on iOverlander a somewhat remote, off-the-beaten-path, beachside lodge/campground called Vista de Bazaruto just south of the village of Inhassoro. This involved several kilometers of driving on sand track behind the frontal dunes (picture below), but I later learned that I could have driven the harder sand on the beach for a much easier and quicker drive.

Again, as with most of these off-the-beaten path places, I was the only guest. This was a delightful place with beautifully kept grounds and facilities, despite having major damage to the grounds and buildings from the major cyclone that hit here in March. I had a gorgeous beachside setting for the Green Dragon with full outdoor kitchen and toilet facilities, and a nice covered pergola to boot. Here’s what my Green Dragon site looked like:

The I following night I moved 4 hours south down the coast to another delightful beachside campground in the small village of Morrungulo and the lodge of the same name. This lodge and campground was quite different from the previous few. The lodge reception, restaurant, bar, pool, and, yes, minature golf course (although it looked not much used, if ever) sit high up on a hill overlooking the bay and the beachside cottages and campground. The compound is huge, with something on the order of 17 large beachside cottages and numerous smaller bandas and something like 45 campsites, both beachside and behind. Apparently they can get up to 450 guests when every cottage and campsite is full which happens during their summer – 95% are South Africans on holiday. Fortunately, I chose a quite time of year to visit, as there are only a handful of other guests in the entire compound. This place would be a zoo when there are 450 guests running around. I, of course, chose a beachside campsite under dense shade trees, grassy understory and very nice ablutions – including hot showers! This was truly a wonderful campsite setting – Nancy, you would have loved this site! This was also another classic white sand, palm-lined, Mozambiqe beach with almost no one on it. Incredible. Oh ya, and it cost only $5 USD! Even though I had a leftover dinner that needed to be eaten, I splurged and got fish and chips for dinner at the restaurant – I just couldn’t resist! And did I say that after my beach run, dip in the ocean, and hot shower, I sat in my campsite in the shade next to the beach and watched humpback whales courting in the waters just off shore – mainly raising the pectoral fin straight up in the air and then turning and slapping it against the water? I understand that this is a male courtship display, and I could see a big whale doing this over and over near a smaller whale, which was probably a female being courted. These whales come 5,000 km from their feeding grounds in the antarctic to mate (for next year’s births), give birth, and nurse their newborns before making the return trip south.

Here’s a not-too-exciting composite video of my last two campsites, along with a bit of flute playing to make it more interesting. Regarding the latter, I was playing my flute while sitting under the pergola at sunset at the Vista de Bazaruto site and the owners came out and wanted to hear me play and learn something about the native American flute, and he videoed a bit of it to share with his kids. Anyways, he shared with me and I am shamefully passing it on to you in the composite video:

Mozambique south coast composite (7 minutes)

Ok, I’m off further down the coast to another beachsite lodge and campground, and with a little luck a day of snorkling on an off-shore reef. See you there!

New Species:

1. Black and white shrike-flycatcher
2. Southern black flycatcher