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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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chimoio - 19th january

we were looking forward to the pristine white beaches, the warm indian ocean, diving with whale sharks, and some sunshine. but first we had to get there. from malawi it's a long drive down to vilankulos. we knew we couldn't make it in one day so we decided to overnight in chimoio, a small town not too far from the zimbabwean border. after leaving malawi the landscape flattened, at intervals small wood and thatch communities appeared alongside the road but there was little else to break the monotony of the driving. the road was in surprisingly good condition, with the exception of one stretch of pot holes that peppered the tarmac so thoroughly that no amount of swerving could avoid them all.

on reaching the outskirts of chimoio, for the second time in three days a tyre blew on us. using our last spare we changed the wheel and found the guest house. as much as we wanted to relax and drink a cold beer we knew we had to venture into town as we needed money, food and patches to fix two flat tyres. we managed to sort all of the above with relative ease, however on returning to the land rover parked in the shoprite car park, we found the vehicle listing at a strange angle. to our dismay the tyre of the wheel recently replaced had also deflated. with no spares left, we drove very slowly back to the guest house, the tyre revolving on the rim. perhaps we wouldn't be making it to the beach the next day.

vilankulos - 21st january

vilankulos is the gateway to the bazaruto archipelago; a chain of low-lying tropical islands, separated from the coast by shifting sandbars and turquoise channels, and surrounded by coral reefs renowned for world class diving and snorkelling. predictably, only one of the islands offers affordable-ish accommodation for the budget traveller, but we hoped to spend a couple of days making the most of it. unfortunately, trying to arrange this was ...