At 5:30am on Christmas Eve morning we said goodbye to Africa on Foot and the Klaserie Private Game Reserve and headed north through Hoesdpruit, South Africa to the Phalaborwa entrance gate into Kruger National Park. It was about a 90 minute drive and along the way we stopped for gas and at a Spar grocery store which luckily opened at 7:00am. Since we were expecting to arrive in Tofo, Mozambique late on Christmas Eve and our first full day would be Christmas Day, we needed to purchase provisions in the likely event that everything in tiny Tofo would be closed. Originally, we had planned to drive back the way we came through Nelspruit and to use the Rosaria Garcia Border Post, but Ranger Jan suggested we take a more scenic route through Kruger. Since it seemed like it would be 16 hours one way and 16 hours the other, we elected for the route through Kruger (even though it meant dirt roads all the way to Massinger, Mozambique). The trade-off was that there was a new Border Post in Kruger that would be far, far, far less busy than Rosaria Garcia – which is the largest border crossing between South Africa and Mozambique and was bound to be hectic with everyone traveling for the holidays (and by hectic I mean it had the potential to take 2 hours to cross through the border + Biss and Josh needed to apply for visas for entry into Mozambique). Having just come from a 4-day safari, we felt a little like we’d been to ‘safari training camp’ and were venturing off for our first independent game drive (in Little Lemmy, no less). Given the sheer size of Kruger National Park and the fact that we were entering from the north, when most enter from the south, we were also eager to see portions of the park less traveled. Our independent game drive did not disappoint and we made it through the park and through the new Border Post in just under 6 hours (which ain’t bad considering the dirt roads). Plus, we got to see a slew of animals and spotted them all ourselves!
The magical gates of Kruger National Park
Elephant drinking from water tank
Herd of elephants at a watering hole
So many tracks!
Momma and baby hippo
Ostrich
Rainbow caterpillar
The fun didn’t stop with our morning game drive, we still had 10 hours ahead of us and the first stretch was through Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.
There was also the small matter of Lemmy not starting every time we turned her off. The dirt being kicked up by the dirt roads and the jostling around by the potholes kept causing our battery connection to loosen. But, have no fear, a little coca-cola classic cleans a battery in a jiffy and it saved us on numerous occasions during this portion of the trip!
It was loud and slow going for Lemmy as the dirt road on the Mozambiquan side was not as well maintained and we had a solid 3-4 hours to Xia Xia where we would pick-up the tar road along the coast. Rural Mozambique is very desolate and poor, but the drive provided a little perspective on the realities of life in the region that one doesn’t experience in Mbabane and just can’t ascertain on safari in a Private Game Reserve. Actually, while it was only a single day, the 16 hour trip from Klaserie to Tofo/Praia da Barra felt like a leg of the vacation in and of itself!
Massinger, Mozambique
Outside the gas station just south of Xia Xia
Objects on head duo
Don't worry Dad, I would never hitch hike or ride atop bags of crops spilling over the side of a flatbed lorry
And this wasn't even the 'bad' road
The most stressful portion of the trip was the 85 kilometers immediately following Xia Xia. The tar road was ‘under construction’ and there was only a single strip of paved road down the center and then a single sand lane on either side of the paved strip. Without going into details because our parents get anxiety about our driving over here…let’s just say that it was a constant competition with oncoming traffic about who was going to win the opportunity to be the car on the paved strip in the middle (I won most times, but even I conceded to a barreling semi-truck). And to make things even more exciting, there are potholes the size of kiddie swimming pools just begging to blow every tire on your vehicle (an obvious drawback to winning the sliver of tarmac). Alas, we made it to the real tar road and in daylight no less, which only left another 4 hours or so to our final destination.
By this point in our journey we had stopped at every gas station we passed (just in case there wasn’t another one), gotten ripped off by the locals on the exchange rate from Rand to Meticash, eaten half of the provisions that we purchased at Spar earlier in the day, and took a turn with everyone’s respective favorite ipod playlist. Surprisingly, we were all still chatting away and enjoying our shared company in Little Lemmy. Hard to believe, I know. I’ll spare you the details of the last stretch and just say that ‘The Moth’ and ‘This American Life’ Podcasts got us through. Conversation dropped off as all 3 other passengers focused on the road and tried to drive with me (by hitting their own imaginary gas or brake pedal) for the homestretch in the Mozambiquan dark. With only a little bit of backtracking and getting turned around just past Inhambane, we made it to the fork in the road where our property owner, John, was waiting for us at 9:00pm.
We were totally fried and I had to be peeled from the steering wheel, but fortunately, John had brought cold beers and Doug was on hand for accidental comic relief (insert foot in mouth, now). Keep in mind John is a 300 pound South African who Josh named, ‘Bone Crusher’ based on his handshake (and coming from Josh, that’s saying something). Anyways, Doug being the friendly guy that he is leans out the window with a big, ‘Merry Christmas!’ To which John replies, ‘Yeah.’ Next, Doug hops out because John informs us we need to let the air out of our tires in order to drive the sand road back to our casita. Once out of the car, Doug notices that John has a knee brace on and being the eager physician that he is, inquires about John’s knee brace with a, ‘what happened to your knee?’ To which John replies, ‘that’s my prosthetic leg.’ Yup, he said it. O-2, for sure. But, like I said, we were all delirious and at least it gave us something to laugh about (and to be clear, we weren't laughing at John for missing a leg, we were laughing at Doug for NOT noticing AND saying something about it). Finally, the awkward conversation with John the Giant was over and our tires were flat and we were set to go. At which point John hands everyone a cold beer and hops in his Land Rover to lead the way to our casita. It wasn’t clear that we were all supposed to drink the beer while driving on the sand road until John cracked his open and pulled away. Nice. Okay. Here we go.
So, at 9:30pm on Christmas Eve, 16 hours after leaving Klaserie, we arrived at our casita in Praia da Barra, Mozambique. We had a view of the ocean and a box of wine and retelling the stories from our adventurous day was surprisingly already funny.
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