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19th - 24th january

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Mozambique

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 13:45:58

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- seeing manta rays, turtles and a very large, unidentified, predatory looking shark - we drove south over some more pot hole riddled roads to the capital, maputo. on the way we encountered the legendary enthusiasm of the mozambiquan police. something we'd been surprised to have avoided so far. there are tales of them trying to fine people for wearing the wrong type of sunglasses, having three warning triangles instead of two and other such nonsense. presumably what they're after is a bribe in exchange for dropping the fine.

the officer who flagged us down tried to pull a few tricks, but he didn't try too hard. perhaps it was the heat. the conversation went something like this:

'you were speeding.'

'no i wasn't.'

'you weren't?

'no.'

'ok. but you couldn't see when you overtook,' he gestured down the long, perfectly straight road.

'yes i could. i could see clearly. the road is straight.'

'you could see clearly?'

'yes.'

'ok. but ...'

and on it went, in calm, polite, matter-of-fact tones. but it ended amicably, him still smiling, even when we told him that no, we hadn't brought him any presents from england.

maputo is quite a pleasant capital by african standards. the boulevards are wide and treelined, a legacy of the portugese colonisation that shaped the city. it has even been described as looking european, a comparison i can understand, but ultimately you could never forget you're in africa. though it's safe to walk the streets, the larger houses are barracaded behind high walls topped with razor wire, sometimes the windows and balconies are barred too. but we enjoyed the opportunity of strolling through a city, something we hadn't been able to do for quite a while.

from maputo it was just a few hours drive to south africa. we were a little surprised to find ourselves already at the bottom of the continent, but we looked forward to the shopping malls and supermarkets. a smooth fast toll-road ushered us towards the border, a taste of things to come. just one last police check, though the officer faltered in her ability to make up fines when she realised we didn't speak zulu.