Rodlau
Pack Dog
I really screwed up on the last attempt I did to write a report. Sorry, but thanks to Peter of AdventureMX he taught this old dog some new tricks. So here goes.
Myself, and 4 friends went up to Cahorra Bassa Dam for a few days fishing. We flew to Tete about a 2 hour flight on Airlink.
The flight was comfortable and in my opinion all aircraft are the same. Just a bus that flies and we had no “Feesh or Cheeken.” Just “Cheeken or Beeef”. But I must say friendly staff and our baggage did arrive intact although one fishing rod holder (made of a 110mm PVC drainage pipe) had the end stopper cracked. We decided to take our reels as hand luggage as that way they would not be thrown around and also not get stolen, lost or broken. God forbid my wife sells my tackle at the price I told her I bought it. Flying over Mozambique I was shattered at the amount of fires. I don’t think veldfires, but more slash and burn. This results in a haze over Mozambique which is very evident on the dam.
We landed at the mighty Tete International Airport.
https://The flight was comfortable and in my opinion all aircraft are the same. Just a bus that flies and we had no “Feesh or Cheeken.” Just “Cheeken or Beeef”. But I must say friendly staff and our baggage did arrive intact although one fishing rod holder (made of a 110mm PVC drainage pipe) had the end stopper cracked. We decided to take our reels as hand luggage as that way they would not be thrown around and also not get stolen, lost or broken. God forbid my wife sells my tackle at the price I told her I bought it. Flying over Mozambique I was shattered at the amount of fires. I don’t think veldfires, but more slash and burn. This results in a haze over Mozambique which is very evident on the dam.
We landed at the mighty Tete International Airport.
[img]https://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l585/Rodbike/Cahorra%20Bassa/DSCN2194_640x480.jpg
The customs guys proceeded to search our entire luggage. Unpacked the whole bloodly lot. Found nothing to lock us up for so then looked for something else. One bright spark saw I had a litre each of Gin and Brandy (No litre bottles of KWV at duty free) as well as a bottle of wine, but I did not buy this grog at duty free.
The brochure for customs given out at Tete Airport states you are allowed 1 litre of spirits and 2.25 litres of wine. We bought 5 litres of spirits and 6 bottles of wine (4.5litre). Duty free pack the liquor in sealable plastic bags of 2 or 3 bottles. The bag I carried had two litres of spirits and 1 bottle of wine. This character takes one look at this and says over the limit and says he must take it. Of course in the background are the inevitable gooks with AK47’s. We tell him there are 5 people in the party and this is for all of us. Nope he insists you must carry your our luggage and SA must pack accordingly. He is the only one going on and the rest of the customs people are looking on grinning. One of our party then shows him the customs brochure given to us, grabs the parcel from me and proceeds to walk off. The guy just looks on and we are off. They try the intimidation trick.
The mini bus turns out to be a 25 seater Toyota bus and we load everything and start off for the lodge which is about a 2 hour drive away.
The lodge sent a guy with the bus who could speak some English and just as we turn out of the airport he walks to the back of the bus and comes up with a Coleman cooler box full of beer, water, cool drinks and loads of ice. A life saver. So we drive along. The Zambezi is a mighty river and an impressive bridge spans that water. I sit on the engine section next to the driver with my camera and take a few pictures of the hovel hell hole of Tete. Up comes the bridge and I take some photos. The toll road you pay only in one direction. Maybe so that the guys won’t return and thus solve the housing problem. The driver stops at the bridge, pays the toll (20 Meticais) and just about to set off and two gooks stop the bus waving AK47’s. He stops; they board the bus and promptly want to confiscate my camera. The guide and the bus driver do lots of talking and eventually the gook agrees to me deleting the photos. Now he wants our passports. Lots of checking and then sees a visa for Nigeria in one of the passports and wants to know why the others haven’t got visas. More jabbering and explaining that the holder of the passport went to Nigeria last month and now we are in Mozambique. The gook finally accepts everything is OK and off we go. I crack a beer and welcome all aboard to Africa. About a km further a take a photo out of the window of the bridge!
Tete is a real scum bag hell hole. But it has very big coal deposits that are being developed. Heard from a one of the other passengers on the plane that the coal is not of the quality that was hoped for, but is OK. Tete is miles inland and I guess that a railway line will be built to get the coal to Beira. There was talk that consideration was given to using barges to transport the coal down the Zambezi. Can you imagine how the river would be stuffed up completely then. Loads of Chinese around but did see Group 5 and WBHO plant so they have been/are there. The poverty is amazing, or, the people just live in hovels. Goats roam freely and the road side market stalls are just that, right on the side of the road. This is a road side stand selling white mealies. Bags all stacked and then some mealie kernels spread out on the sail and sold by measure for smaller quantities.
The road from Tete to Songa (town about 10Km’s from the dam wall) is not fenced at all and goats, cattle and donkeys are regularly on the road. I recon to ride at night on those roads is not quite as safe as being completely pissed riding a superbike down the N1 flat out on a Friday at 17H00 in the opposite direction. Loads of real pondokkies all the way up. Poverty is rife, but then I suppose if you don’t know better this home is great. Certainly no bonds, Eishkom and garden maintenance
The minibuses there all have a “conductor.” His is job is to shout out fares, where th4ey are going tout for business etc. When he had a beer no sooner was the empty bottle removed from your lips, he grabbed it and promptly threw it out the window. This happen twice, so after that we held onto the bottles tightly. This explains the litter that abounds there. He thought we were mad taking back empty bottles. But he was instrumental in not getting my camera taken by the gook.This guy in the photo below is the conductor.
Where the road splits take left to Zimbabwe and right to the dam, is another road block. More showing of passports but these guys were very friendly and merely doing their job. This again happened as we entered the area of Cahora Bassa. Again a friendly guy and doing his job. Some years back a bunch of (in my opinion) weirdos entered the area and went by boat to wall and poured some “energy balls” into the water at the wall. These balls were to give extra life to the water. Result is the passport inspection and the wall closed for a tour, but can be done if application is made months before, giving a host of info including mother and fathers names etc, and then a date is not guaranteed. Same as some idiot on a bike with one incident spoiling a venue in future for all. We got to the lodge,
and transferred to the house boat. The adventure has started.
Cahora Bassa a none biking few days
Myself, and 4 friends went up to Cahorra Bassa Dam for a few days fishing. We flew to Tete about a 2 hour flight on Airlink.
The flight was comfortable and in my opinion all aircraft are the same. Just a bus that flies and we had no “Feesh or Cheeken.” Just “Cheeken or Beeef”. But I must say friendly staff and our baggage did arrive intact although one fishing rod holder (made of a 110mm PVC drainage pipe) had the end stopper cracked. We decided to take our reels as hand luggage as that way they would not be thrown around and also not get stolen, lost or broken. God forbid my wife sells my tackle at the price I told her I bought it. Flying over Mozambique I was shattered at the amount of fires. I don’t think veldfires, but more slash and burn. This results in a haze over Mozambique which is very evident on the dam.
We landed at the mighty Tete International Airport.
https://The flight was comfortable and in my opinion all aircraft are the same. Just a bus that flies and we had no “Feesh or Cheeken.” Just “Cheeken or Beeef”. But I must say friendly staff and our baggage did arrive intact although one fishing rod holder (made of a 110mm PVC drainage pipe) had the end stopper cracked. We decided to take our reels as hand luggage as that way they would not be thrown around and also not get stolen, lost or broken. God forbid my wife sells my tackle at the price I told her I bought it. Flying over Mozambique I was shattered at the amount of fires. I don’t think veldfires, but more slash and burn. This results in a haze over Mozambique which is very evident on the dam.
We landed at the mighty Tete International Airport.
[img]https://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l585/Rodbike/Cahorra%20Bassa/DSCN2194_640x480.jpg
The customs guys proceeded to search our entire luggage. Unpacked the whole bloodly lot. Found nothing to lock us up for so then looked for something else. One bright spark saw I had a litre each of Gin and Brandy (No litre bottles of KWV at duty free) as well as a bottle of wine, but I did not buy this grog at duty free.
The brochure for customs given out at Tete Airport states you are allowed 1 litre of spirits and 2.25 litres of wine. We bought 5 litres of spirits and 6 bottles of wine (4.5litre). Duty free pack the liquor in sealable plastic bags of 2 or 3 bottles. The bag I carried had two litres of spirits and 1 bottle of wine. This character takes one look at this and says over the limit and says he must take it. Of course in the background are the inevitable gooks with AK47’s. We tell him there are 5 people in the party and this is for all of us. Nope he insists you must carry your our luggage and SA must pack accordingly. He is the only one going on and the rest of the customs people are looking on grinning. One of our party then shows him the customs brochure given to us, grabs the parcel from me and proceeds to walk off. The guy just looks on and we are off. They try the intimidation trick.
The mini bus turns out to be a 25 seater Toyota bus and we load everything and start off for the lodge which is about a 2 hour drive away.
The lodge sent a guy with the bus who could speak some English and just as we turn out of the airport he walks to the back of the bus and comes up with a Coleman cooler box full of beer, water, cool drinks and loads of ice. A life saver. So we drive along. The Zambezi is a mighty river and an impressive bridge spans that water. I sit on the engine section next to the driver with my camera and take a few pictures of the hovel hell hole of Tete. Up comes the bridge and I take some photos. The toll road you pay only in one direction. Maybe so that the guys won’t return and thus solve the housing problem. The driver stops at the bridge, pays the toll (20 Meticais) and just about to set off and two gooks stop the bus waving AK47’s. He stops; they board the bus and promptly want to confiscate my camera. The guide and the bus driver do lots of talking and eventually the gook agrees to me deleting the photos. Now he wants our passports. Lots of checking and then sees a visa for Nigeria in one of the passports and wants to know why the others haven’t got visas. More jabbering and explaining that the holder of the passport went to Nigeria last month and now we are in Mozambique. The gook finally accepts everything is OK and off we go. I crack a beer and welcome all aboard to Africa. About a km further a take a photo out of the window of the bridge!
Tete is a real scum bag hell hole. But it has very big coal deposits that are being developed. Heard from a one of the other passengers on the plane that the coal is not of the quality that was hoped for, but is OK. Tete is miles inland and I guess that a railway line will be built to get the coal to Beira. There was talk that consideration was given to using barges to transport the coal down the Zambezi. Can you imagine how the river would be stuffed up completely then. Loads of Chinese around but did see Group 5 and WBHO plant so they have been/are there. The poverty is amazing, or, the people just live in hovels. Goats roam freely and the road side market stalls are just that, right on the side of the road. This is a road side stand selling white mealies. Bags all stacked and then some mealie kernels spread out on the sail and sold by measure for smaller quantities.
The road from Tete to Songa (town about 10Km’s from the dam wall) is not fenced at all and goats, cattle and donkeys are regularly on the road. I recon to ride at night on those roads is not quite as safe as being completely pissed riding a superbike down the N1 flat out on a Friday at 17H00 in the opposite direction. Loads of real pondokkies all the way up. Poverty is rife, but then I suppose if you don’t know better this home is great. Certainly no bonds, Eishkom and garden maintenance
The minibuses there all have a “conductor.” His is job is to shout out fares, where th4ey are going tout for business etc. When he had a beer no sooner was the empty bottle removed from your lips, he grabbed it and promptly threw it out the window. This happen twice, so after that we held onto the bottles tightly. This explains the litter that abounds there. He thought we were mad taking back empty bottles. But he was instrumental in not getting my camera taken by the gook.This guy in the photo below is the conductor.
Where the road splits take left to Zimbabwe and right to the dam, is another road block. More showing of passports but these guys were very friendly and merely doing their job. This again happened as we entered the area of Cahora Bassa. Again a friendly guy and doing his job. Some years back a bunch of (in my opinion) weirdos entered the area and went by boat to wall and poured some “energy balls” into the water at the wall. These balls were to give extra life to the water. Result is the passport inspection and the wall closed for a tour, but can be done if application is made months before, giving a host of info including mother and fathers names etc, and then a date is not guaranteed. Same as some idiot on a bike with one incident spoiling a venue in future for all. We got to the lodge,
and transferred to the house boat. The adventure has started.
