2011.06.06 - 10
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ONS DRA HIERDIE REEKS REISVERSLAE OP AAN
ANDREW PETER VAN ZYL
'ANDY'
ONS REISGENOOT EN VRIEND.
HY STERF STIL OP 2011.08.16 - SY LIGGAAM WOU NET NIE VERDER NIE.
HY KEER HUISTOE 1 DAG NA SY 68E VERJAARSDAG.
ONS SAL JOU ALTYD ONTHOU, ANDY, EN ONS SAL WIESKE BYSTAAN!
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This is the 1st of 5 posts of our trip from south to north up the western Mozambique border. Our whole MMZZ trip covered parts of
Mozambique (a series of five posts),
Malawi (http://mi60malawi.blogspot.com),
Zambia (http://mi60zambia.blogspot.com) and
Zimbabwe (http://mi60zimbabwe.blogspot.com).
We were a group of seven: 6 of us are 60+ and our daughter Renate joined us - what a wonderful experience sharing our bush-love with a child (who usually falls into the city slicker category!)
FLtR: Eugene, Lalie, Wieske, Andy, Inge, Mrad & Renate
This is an overview of our trip - but if you want to follow our route, please rather use the stage maps in the blog itself. We started at Sabie and travelled anti-clockwise to all our destinations.
These are the three 60+ ladies are: Lalie, Wieske and Inge. You'll meet the 60+ menfolk as you read the blog.
And here is our city slicker daughter, Renate (pearls and all!), who unexpectedly asked whether she could join us! "Of course you can!" She loved making fire and cooking over the fire and pitched her own tent (to mention a few of the things she did on the tour), never complained once and took super photos - Mrad and I loved having you along, Renate!
Each family travelled to the Kruger National Park (KNP) on their own in order to be at TSENDZE RUSTIC CAMP on 6 June.
The map shows you how we travelled from Tsendze via Giriyondo Border Post to Massingir Dam.
We started our trip at Tsendze Rustic Camp near Mopani Camp so that we would be able to reach Campismo Aguia Pesqueira next to Massingir Dam in one day's travelling. As you can see below, the Tsendze camp has a gate which is closed at dusk. The camping area is shady and flat and has the usual Kruger National Park camp amenities.
We travelled 43km from Tsendze to GIRIYONDO BORDER POST. The turn-off is well sign posted whether you approach it from the north or south.
Giriyondo Border Post is efficient, but the new rubber duck which our travelling companions were taking along on the trip, caused the Mozambicans to request "import duty" which ended in a smallish bribe being paid (1000 meticas / +-R200) - not a good start to the aquatic side of our trip. We also paid the entrance fee to the Parque Nacional do Limpopo (+-R50pp and R50 per vehicle) at the border post.
From the border post we drove 64km on reasonably good dirt road through beautiful Mopani woods.
To our surprize, the roads were clearly signposted. The perfect combination of wilderness and civilisation. Two days later we were to turn north at this intersection to drive on "unchartered" roads - at any rate they were not charted on Google Earth or on Google Maps BUT they are shown on Tracks4Africa!
These cattle were the only animals we saw on our drive. Don't they have magnificent horns?
We arrived at AGUIA PASQUEIRA - a picturesque camp on the northern side of Massingir Dam. There are also lovely wooden chalets available.
We were welcomed by Obed Maitte.
FLtR: Inge, Mrad, Obed, Eugene, Andy.
Just look at the sunset from our camp site (Nr 6) at Aguia Pasqueira.
We enjoyed camping at #6 Campissimo Aguia Pesqueira.
This is how the walls of the chalets and 'facilities' at Aguia Pesqueira are built. Really beautiful to behold!
We went for a hike down to the water's edge.
There we met locals tending their cattle. The panga is merely a tool!
The next stage of the tour was to go north to Mapai in order to cross the Limpopo. This is a photo of the map (and the road we travelled) which is given in the brochure of the Parque Nacional do Limpopo.
Just for interest's sake, I'm (hopefully) adding a Google Map of the area to the blog. Note that the road from Giriyondo (South Africa/Moz border post) to Aguia Pesqueira is on the map, but there seem to be no roads from the south of the park to the northern exit which is close to the Mapai ferry crossing.
View Larger Map
However, Tracks4Africa shows the route. We spent two days travelling from Massingir Dam via Camp Sandalo to our bush camp on Road 208. See the blue route.
This was our physical turn-off from Aguia Pesqueira to the north/Pafuri.
It took us 6 hours to cover 82km as the trailer limited our speed tremendously! The road is "slow", the scenery alternated between beautiful Mopani grassveld and Mopani forests. We didn't see any animals except cattle, goats and sheep near the villages we passed through. The recently flooded Rio Shingwedzi changed the road close to it into muddy furrows - and it had poured the previous night. The trailer got stuck in the mud too!
The most interesting encounter was a man taking provisions home to his village - see the chickens hanging from the motorbike's handlebar?
After +-82km (+- 6 hours) we arrived at CAMPISMO SANDALO where Faustino Jantar gave us a warm welcome - the camp was spotless with a lovely braai area. This is how Mrad, Renate and I set up our camp most nights: the two tents snuggled up against each other!
However, we shared Faustino's frustration and embarrassment when he had to admit that there was no water. The generator for the water pump had broken two months ago. So, obviously, the "flush" toilets at the camp site didn't work. Fortunately, we always have our own supply of water available.
Our next day's distance was 110km (7 hours). We passed several villages hidden in the bush
and saw how they stored their harvest. See the hut on stilts? It's a type of granary.
We completed our trek through the Parque Nacional do Limpopo often driving through beautiful Mopani forest.
Once through the park, we travelled quite a long distance and then we turned sharply right in order to use the ferry to cross the Limpopo. Can you see the back of the sign post? It's positioned for traffic from Pafuri (from the north).
Our next post (2 of 5) shows you how we were ferried across the Limpopo.
Click on the ddress below to see post nr 2:
http://mi60mozambique.blogspot.com/2011/08/mozambique-2-mapai-ferry-crossing.html
OR
You need to return to the blog archive (top of this blog) to click on Mozambique (2) to access the second post.
1 comment:
This was the most exciting trip I have EVER been on!! Highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who wants to enjoy a shower, a light switch and any other "every day" luxuries and privileges ;-)We are truly blessed!!
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