tankgirl
Pack Dog
In April last year I won a week’s self catered accommodation in Mozambique, Morrumbene Beach Resort (accessible by 4×4 only) in a lucky draw. About a week later I sell my Jeep 4×4 and buy the X Country.
Time goes by and I recruit SilverSurfer aka. DarthVtwin (SS/DV2), and his brother as our most likely backup-Defender.
We research the area a little, read some ride reports, talk to people we know who’ve been to Moz, both recently as well as not so recently.
In September we do the off-road training weekend including some beginner-level sand. I find out that same weekend that the backup Landy can’t accompany us anymore.
So Planning & Provisions kick over into a kind of Survival Mode.
At such short notice we couldn’t find more people to fill the other beds so we just figured we’d brave all the malaria by ourselves. Coz we’re hard asses 8)
On the 16th of December I go on the Touratech ride-out, and end up breaking my rear shock. Christmas and NewYears came and went, but not the new shock we had ordered, then BMW pull a few strings and fit their demo bike’s shock for me. Hooray Emile and Lenny ;D
So we leave for Nelspruit that same, rainy day. We take a wrong turn to my friends’ new house and end up on Satan’s winding road of red-snot hell-mud. And it's well after dark too. I fall over 4 times and in the process drop my phone in the red snot. Eventually they come for us and guide us back to their place where we eat and drink and get bit by mutant Mpumalanga mozzies all night long :3some:
On the Wednesday we infiltrate Mozambique, not too early in the morning. Sticking to the tar road because neither of us really know any shortcuts and we don’t quite wanna die on Day 1. We both reckon we shouldn’t go and get sidetracked in Maputo and arrive at our destination in pitch blackness again, fully aware also that a fair amount of sand awaits us there, so we stop only for fuel on our way.
Everyone has already had their say about the road condition from Xai Xai so I’m not going to elaborate much. Potholes outlined by wet, slippery, sandy lanes; some roadworks; and the local kamikaze-truck-and-bus-pilots decorate the entire way. Anotherworldly experience
The first stretch of sand road to Paradise Magoo is pretty much what we anticipated, a lot like the sand we trained on, only slightly more uppies and downies. And you can hear the sea. Then we get to a signboard that says “4×4 only, deflate tires to 0.8 bar”. The uphill is long and steep, thick and sandy. So we huff and we puff, paddle and push, and dig and curse. And the sun is setting :
We only just beat the race against darkness, order a delicious seafood platter and settle in with a cerveja or two to calm them hot an’ cranky nerves
After a good night’s zzz’s we hit the beach, sunscreened to the teeth. Hang out a bit, and when it gets hot we decide we’ll go up to the bar for refreshments.
First rule of Mozambique is: Don’t Go To The Beach Without Shoes. Lucky for us, there were no serious injuries
Dinner time we have a few RnR’s, as recommended by many Moz-goers. Second rule of Mozambique is: Don’t Tipo Tinto The Night Before >
Now, we’ve already learned that it takes twice as long to cover any distance because of all the villages next to the road where one must slow down to 60km/h. These villages are typically arranged about 20–50km apart… :-\
So, morning comes and we must move on. Next stop, Morrumbene (±300km further up the coast line). We get going just before sunrise to try and beat the heat. Under the circumstances I thought we’re doing very well. Yes, we get stuck a few times but we’re so good at digging and pushing by now that we’re outta there in relatively no time! Inflate our tires, have a quick snack and tackle the last portion of the troubled EN1.
There’s more than sufficient rest/fuel stops along the way.
The road to Morrumbene is much softer sand than we’d hoped for. It was hot, and dry. And hot At one point one of the locals asks us where we're headed and it turns out that he works at the resort, but he doesn't think that our bikes will make it… We pretend like we know what we're doing and decide that we’ll phone for help if push comes to shove, so thanks, but we'll carry on…
After about 12km’s of coconut trees and soft sand and blurry heat we encounter that fatal uphill Not a nice and shady one like the other place. It’s 14:33. Sense Of Humour FAIL :-[
I phone reception and explain the situation, the lady tells me that they don’t have a bakkie or trailer, and that their truck is broken. I say bring what you got, and a rope. With a little persuasion the Transalp makes it over the hill and parks in the shade (with all our beef and bacon strapped to its back) but the X Country doesn't budge much. So we take our stinky gear off and wait…
About a half hour later the resort manager shows up in a Land Cruiser VX. Nirvana is only about 4km’s onward but he assures us that this ascent was the steepest of them all, which cheers us up a bit. We chuck all of our luggage in the car and he pulls me up without breaking a sweat because it’s such a light and nippy little bike, innit… We ride for a bit then SS/DV2 decides to have a thirst-stroke so we drink some water and carry on. But it's not even 1km before he stops again, dangerously dehydrated and breathless.
♪♫ algumas meninas precisam de muita água, e algumas meninas não ♫♪
Me and Hutch declare SS/DV2 unfit for further riding, throw him in the air-conditioned Cruiser and I ride his bike back for the last 2km’s, he books us in while we come back to fetch my bike.
:ricky: I ride like a champion with the car behind me and I must mention that the Honda feels way more comfortable in the sand (smoother power and larger front wheel?)
Anyway, we unpack and have our little holiday, no riding for the rest of the week. Only resting
We share some stories and a few cases of 2M between the three of us, really awesome music, splendid weather, terrific food (Campisto’s, Maxixe). We even go on a drunken Midnight Beach Safari beneath a breathtaking blanket of stars, and we half-adopt Diesel, the pit-bull who loves to destroy coconuts and then bury the remnants all over the beach
“We’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time”
Hutch shows us another route which would be slightly more bike-friendly than the one we came in on, and we get going by 4:30AM on Friday morning. It takes us at least 2 hours to get to the the tar road, from where on we ride like demons to try and reach the border before it closes.
To avoid Maputo this time we opt for some gravel from Xinavane to Moamba which happens to be quite refreshing after we’d just about reached our quota for tedious tar & strenuous sand.
We cross the border just after 5pm and immediately stop for Colonel burgers at the bustling BP / KFC junction.
Home sweet home
Time goes by and I recruit SilverSurfer aka. DarthVtwin (SS/DV2), and his brother as our most likely backup-Defender.
We research the area a little, read some ride reports, talk to people we know who’ve been to Moz, both recently as well as not so recently.
In September we do the off-road training weekend including some beginner-level sand. I find out that same weekend that the backup Landy can’t accompany us anymore.
So Planning & Provisions kick over into a kind of Survival Mode.
At such short notice we couldn’t find more people to fill the other beds so we just figured we’d brave all the malaria by ourselves. Coz we’re hard asses 8)
On the 16th of December I go on the Touratech ride-out, and end up breaking my rear shock. Christmas and NewYears came and went, but not the new shock we had ordered, then BMW pull a few strings and fit their demo bike’s shock for me. Hooray Emile and Lenny ;D
So we leave for Nelspruit that same, rainy day. We take a wrong turn to my friends’ new house and end up on Satan’s winding road of red-snot hell-mud. And it's well after dark too. I fall over 4 times and in the process drop my phone in the red snot. Eventually they come for us and guide us back to their place where we eat and drink and get bit by mutant Mpumalanga mozzies all night long :3some:
On the Wednesday we infiltrate Mozambique, not too early in the morning. Sticking to the tar road because neither of us really know any shortcuts and we don’t quite wanna die on Day 1. We both reckon we shouldn’t go and get sidetracked in Maputo and arrive at our destination in pitch blackness again, fully aware also that a fair amount of sand awaits us there, so we stop only for fuel on our way.
Everyone has already had their say about the road condition from Xai Xai so I’m not going to elaborate much. Potholes outlined by wet, slippery, sandy lanes; some roadworks; and the local kamikaze-truck-and-bus-pilots decorate the entire way. Anotherworldly experience
The first stretch of sand road to Paradise Magoo is pretty much what we anticipated, a lot like the sand we trained on, only slightly more uppies and downies. And you can hear the sea. Then we get to a signboard that says “4×4 only, deflate tires to 0.8 bar”. The uphill is long and steep, thick and sandy. So we huff and we puff, paddle and push, and dig and curse. And the sun is setting :
We only just beat the race against darkness, order a delicious seafood platter and settle in with a cerveja or two to calm them hot an’ cranky nerves
After a good night’s zzz’s we hit the beach, sunscreened to the teeth. Hang out a bit, and when it gets hot we decide we’ll go up to the bar for refreshments.
First rule of Mozambique is: Don’t Go To The Beach Without Shoes. Lucky for us, there were no serious injuries
Dinner time we have a few RnR’s, as recommended by many Moz-goers. Second rule of Mozambique is: Don’t Tipo Tinto The Night Before >
Now, we’ve already learned that it takes twice as long to cover any distance because of all the villages next to the road where one must slow down to 60km/h. These villages are typically arranged about 20–50km apart… :-\
So, morning comes and we must move on. Next stop, Morrumbene (±300km further up the coast line). We get going just before sunrise to try and beat the heat. Under the circumstances I thought we’re doing very well. Yes, we get stuck a few times but we’re so good at digging and pushing by now that we’re outta there in relatively no time! Inflate our tires, have a quick snack and tackle the last portion of the troubled EN1.
There’s more than sufficient rest/fuel stops along the way.
The road to Morrumbene is much softer sand than we’d hoped for. It was hot, and dry. And hot
At one point one of the locals asks us where we're headed and it turns out that he works at the resort, but he doesn't think that our bikes will make it… We pretend like we know what we're doing and decide that we’ll phone for help if push comes to shove, so thanks, but we'll carry on…
After about 12km’s of coconut trees and soft sand and blurry heat we encounter that fatal uphill
Not a nice and shady one like the other place. It’s 14:33. Sense Of Humour FAIL :-[I phone reception and explain the situation, the lady tells me that they don’t have a bakkie or trailer, and that their truck is broken. I say bring what you got, and a rope. With a little persuasion the Transalp makes it over the hill and parks in the shade (with all our beef and bacon strapped to its back) but the X Country doesn't budge much. So we take our stinky gear off and wait…
About a half hour later the resort manager shows up in a Land Cruiser VX. Nirvana is only about 4km’s onward but he assures us that this ascent was the steepest of them all, which cheers us up a bit. We chuck all of our luggage in the car and he pulls me up without breaking a sweat because it’s such a light and nippy little bike, innit… We ride for a bit then SS/DV2 decides to have a thirst-stroke so we drink some water and carry on. But it's not even 1km before he stops again, dangerously dehydrated and breathless.
♪♫ algumas meninas precisam de muita água, e algumas meninas não ♫♪
Me and Hutch declare SS/DV2 unfit for further riding, throw him in the air-conditioned Cruiser and I ride his bike back for the last 2km’s, he books us in while we come back to fetch my bike.
:ricky: I ride like a champion with the car behind me and I must mention that the Honda feels way more comfortable in the sand (smoother power and larger front wheel?)
Anyway, we unpack and have our little holiday, no riding for the rest of the week. Only resting
We share some stories and a few cases of 2M between the three of us, really awesome music, splendid weather, terrific food (Campisto’s, Maxixe). We even go on a drunken Midnight Beach Safari beneath a breathtaking blanket of stars, and we half-adopt Diesel, the pit-bull who loves to destroy coconuts and then bury the remnants all over the beach
“We’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time”
Hutch shows us another route which would be slightly more bike-friendly than the one we came in on, and we get going by 4:30AM on Friday morning. It takes us at least 2 hours to get to the the tar road, from where on we ride like demons to try and reach the border before it closes.
To avoid Maputo this time we opt for some gravel from Xinavane to Moamba which happens to be quite refreshing after we’d just about reached our quota for tedious tar & strenuous sand.
We cross the border just after 5pm and immediately stop for Colonel burgers at the bustling BP / KFC junction.
Home sweet home
