DAY 41 – CAPE MACLEAR TO BEIRA, MOZAMBIQUE – 1002 kms (15,401 kms total)
I’m up with the sun again, but the tree over my tent provides a bit more shade and I stay until the ten until almost 08h00. I clean up and feed myself before packing up and I’m finally off by 09h00. Later than I had wanted (especially since this would be the longest single day of my trip).
I hadn’t seen any fuel south of Nkhotakota and hear it isn’t much better for a while. I press on and hope for the best.
I get lost somehow making my way to the Dedza border crossing. What should have been 130 kms became 160 kms. It was a mix of dirt and road, so who knows what happens – maybe I was flinging that much gravel behind me the whole way?
The Dedza road is beautiful as Sam had promised. Just gorgeous mountain roads and twisties the whole way and well tarred. By 12h30 I clear the border.
The road that connects Dedza to the 103 and onto Tete remained great. There just was nothing around. Every once in a while I’d see a few people, a cow or a goat, but that was it. Just me and some beautiful mountain roads to ride through.
About 160 kms outside of Tete, the fuel light comes on. There hadn’t been any fuel since I had entered Moz and I doubt there would be any before Tete. I had seen the black market stuff being sold on the side of the road here and again, but didn’t want to use it if I didn’t have to. I just don’t trust it won’t have water or something else in it.
I push on towards Tete. 5 km before fuel (according to my GPS), the engine begins to sputter and lose power. I pull over.
Within a few minutes I was able to flag down a bakkie. With my Spanish and his Portuguese, we were able to understand each other. He towed me a couple kilometers down the road to an intersection where I could purchase two liters of black market fuel. Somehow, I had managed to change a little money at the border and could pay the 3x markup.
There is no petrol before the Zambeizi bridge, so I move on to cross it. This bridge is perhaps the largest infrastructure mess I had seen in my entire trip. It was pure chaos. They had never finished building the thing before opening it, but instead opened one side at a time. Now, they switch from one side of traffic going and then the other. But the heavy loads do so much damage, that they are constantly repairing the bridge. Also, this is Africa, so when traffic switches it is quite often a matter of who is bigger, cares about their vehicle less and more fearless than the other. If I hadn’t run out of fuel 2 kms before, I shutter to think what would have happened to me if I had run out while on that bridge. Oh, and did I mention it was over 40 degrees Celsius? Yup!
I am able to grab fuel shortly after crossing to the other side. It is now 16h30 and I have no interest in staying in this place.
I push on for another few hours and fumble with my sun glasses as it gets dark. I end up popping out one of the lenses at 120 kph. Despite retracing the road, no luck finding the lens.
With a few more hours riding in the dark (bad idea, but it was a full moon) I made it to Beira. My GPS didn’t seem to notice the difference between tar and sand roads as I searched for a place to stay.
Eventually I find Biques, which is little more than a sand lot on the beach with a restaurant next to it where they let me camp. They were closing up, but offered me a few slices of pizza and a beer before they were off.
I am extremely happy to put head to pillow that night.