If you’ve made it far enough through Mozambique and you didn’t get the right visa or you’re South African then you gotta do the ‘thirty day Moz run’.

Basically, you have to leave Mozambique before your 30 days are up and then you can re-enter if the Moz officials are happy with your country’s passport.

Mozambique has very recently (late 2022) extended most visa lengths to pick the tourist industry up after Covid but this still doesn’t help the South Africans. After some research, I believe the reason South Africans are penalised is that they weren’t willing to allow Mozambicans more than ninety days a year in South Africa. This resulted in a fail-safe option of thirty days at a time with technical but not necessarily guaranteed multiple-entry ability on both sides of the border for both sides of citizens (tbc).

The situ has South African tourists, and some other nationalities on the Mozambican side gunning for the border every few weeks and then returning after picking up a Steers burger, biltong and various other SA delicacies. Some also spend a few nights in Kruger National Park before entering Mozambique through a border post in Kruger and into Limpopo National Park on Mozambique side.

It is over 600km from Tofo to Mbombela in South Africa, which includes a border crossing. It’s possible to do it in one day if you wake up real early. However you don’t want to have to rush on the Mozambican roads for safety plus you want to enjoy the scenery along the way. Speeding is not really possible as there are guaranteed accidents, insane buses, speed traps and traffic police along the way, not to mention a fair few potholes to dodge.

We have finally found the perfect stop along the way at a place called Chidenguele. A large freshwater lake separated from the ocean by only a large set of dunes. Decent camping options at Sunset Beach Resort and Nhambavale Lodge, as well as some cheap thatched hut options at Nhambavale. Both do decent enough food and both have spectacular views from the deck in the evening, with requisite cold 2M beers.

We are yet to do an alternative route from Chidenguele up along the Limpopo river and then into Zimbabwe just north of the South Africa – Mozambique border. This is the area of the fabled tri-park area between Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. Since ages ago, the three countries have been looking to link up their three national parks to create one big super-reserve. The three parks are Kruger (South Africa), Limpopo (Mozambique) and Gonarezhou (Zimbabwe). It is still possible to do all three but you have to exit and enter both countries and parks systems to do this. At the least, we want to one day enter Zimbabwe through the Sango border post and explore South Gonarezhou. Another adventure to look forward to. Any new area of Mozambique to explore is always a bonus also!