Mwanza to Tete, October 2022

Paradise on the Indian Ocean

We have been to Mozambique a few times in the past. It is hard not to keep coming back to that beautiful 3,000km coastline on the Indian Ocean, palms trees and white sand in abundance. The first time was around 2010 when the roads weren’t as developed and there wasn’t a bridge spanning Estuario do Espirito Santo, the estuary just south of Maputo (the capital city of Mozambique).

On our first trip we drove into the extreme south of Mozambique from South Africa down by Ponto do Ouro. From memory, Ponto do Ouro was developed for tourism to a point but not to the level it is now. In 2010 I remember a sand strewn area with some houses set back from the beach. Near the beach were some semi-permanent structures and everything was dead because it was outside of season. High season seemed to be defined as South African school holidays back then and this still seems to hold.

Since then, ever since the discovery of vast amounts of gas reserves in the north of Mozambique, a large amount of forward investment has been pouring in to fund the country’s infrastructure as well as tourism sector. A significant number of South Africans from just across the border are buying up real estate and some more affluent Mozambican people can afford a home or three also. Private holiday homes from Ponta do Ouro in the south all the way up to Maputo are popping up like mushrooms over freshly laid manure.

Mozambique’s communist roots should however be noted and while a significant amount of real estate is being built on the land, the land is still owned by the government. The land is essentially leased for periods of fifty years and these leases need to be renewed at the grace of future governments.

With the end of the Mozambican civil war in 1992 and the discovery of one of the largest gas reserves in Africa in early 2010’s, Mozambique should be on its way to fun, sun and prosperity. Unfortunately, neo-liberal greed, pocket-lining politicians as well as an insurgency in Cabo Delgado is destroying the dream before it even begins. The issues in the north are inextricably but not completely linked to the aforementioned neo-liberal greed and pocket-lining politicians . The forward investment by the Mozambicans in their infrastructure and dreams is at risk. The gas extraction is facing issues from environmentalists, human rights advocates, insurgents and the Mozambican people. If the gas extraction doesn’t go ahead soon, then Mozambique will have spent a significant amount of the expected receipts already without now having the means to pay the piper.

Our first time in Mozambique in 2010 was a zoom from Ponto do Ouro up to Tofo, where we then remained for weeks because paradise is hard to leave. To get to Tofo we had to cross the Mbuluzi River over sunken pontoon because the bridge had collapsed. We then stayed in an old colonial Portuguese hotel in Xai-Xai. The hotel was somewhere between Hotel Rwanda and Norman Bates’ place.

In Tofo we got a good 2010 out of season deal of multiple scuba dives plus a bamboo cabin under the palm trees of Tofo Beach. On that beach we found perfection and only left when the visa ran out.

We returned to Tofo for a longer stay in early 2022. Tofo has been caught up by the huge investment surge in Mozambique since 2010 but with the impact of Covid and cyclones, it is not a Vilanculos in any way. The layer of backpacker huts which sit on top of a local village center is now almost covered by a new layer of holiday homes at middle income prices. The next layer of higher quality holiday and retirement homes may happen if Mozambique survives the next decade.

Tofo is still our favourite place and even though we are usually explorers, we settle down to the relaxed beach life enjoying the scuba diving and surfing on tap at this explorer’s home. We went for the surfing more as it’s cheaper and we get more excercise from it although our skill levels are not high. Think more clumsy wipeouts than surfing, but loads of fun nonetheless.

So. What we have not yet done in Mozambique is spend more than a few days out of Tofo. This time, in late 2022, we are going to do as many of the coastal towns as possible while still being mindful of the insurgency in Cabo Delgado up north. The situation is grossly unfortunate on a humanitarian scale and minisculely unfortunate for us because Cabo Delgado has some of the best diving and beaches on offer in the world, similarly to Sipadan in Malaysia which is unfortunately also off-limits.

Tete, An African Hub & the Zambezi

Some parts of Africa feel more authentic in experience than others. Not a fair observation in most instances but Mozambique will, up to now at least, struggle to give anything but itself to you in your travels.

The drive in to Tete from Malawi drops over the rift valley escarpment which is left behind us. The rift continues south from Mwanza to just north of Beira where it will separate the Somali continental plate from the African plate starting one million years from now. A real estate investment opportunity for Warren Buffet who I am sure will still be around.

The road into the north of Tete relies on the bridge spanning the Revuboe river. The river runs into the Zambezi a little further south of Tete. You have to cross either the Zambezi river or the Revuboe river to arrive in Tete. With the Revuboe bridge down we are forced to travel further south and around which isn’t very problematic as we’re able to see our old friend the Zambezi river once again, having crossed this mighty river twice before but much further upstream.

Tete is easily described as a large dust bowl of a city with extreme heat in October. It is surrounded by mining activity and a lot of enterprise. The city lies on the banks of the Zambezi river and is an obvious hub city for trade and jobs. We need to get our insurance printed as the traffic police gave us a talking to when we tried to show the email on our smart phones. Apparently unacceptable. The printing shop we stop at for the job is run by some start-up sophisticats who “only do Design, baby”. The start-up guru kindly agrees to print a page but handles it like slime and refuses payment before disappearing on his shiny black and red scooter. It’s good to see Generation Yuck has made it to northern Mozambique also.

We are now technically in northern Mozambique. One of the many places that our moms said we can never go to because of the insurgency in the north east (Cabo Delgado). Tete is over a thousand kilometres from the insurgency but we play safe by booking a room instead of a campsite where we enjoy the additional benefits of a cold fridge, aircon, cold shower and warm swimming pool looking out on the banks of the Zambezi river flowing by on its way to the Indian Ocean.

Tete is a very useful place to stock up on food supplies also although, to be honest, all of the coastal towns we stopped at on the way down from Inhassoro onwards had some good supply options. A lot of cans of cool drink, a few beers, cold meats, rolls and mayonnaise and we are sorted along with metical cash from the ATM. We never tried to swap cash in Mozambique and nobody ever offered.