Trip Report: JHB-Ponta-Catembe-Bilene-Komati-JHB

[barbs11]

Hi All

I (with my fantastic partner in crime) recently completed anamazing trip to Mozambique. We did a lot of reading on the forums prior tomaking the trip and picked up a lot of useful information. So a HUGE thanks forall the information. I think it is only fair that I share some of theinformation from our trip. Some of the things we picked up from the forumswere:

• Equipment Required: Tow Ropes, Air Compressor,Planks
• Moz Car Travel Requirements: Safety Vests, ExtraTriangle, Fire extinguisher, Insurance etc
• Sand road driving: Deflating tyres, keepingmomentum
• Road conditions: Most importantly we found thatthe Ponta-Catembe road was ‘do-able’ in a 2x4 (albeit tough)

The vehicle we drove was 2x4 Renault Duster.

Joburg - Ponta Do Ouro
Leaving at just after 3am, getting to the Kosi Bay borderwas relatively easy, with a small amount of fog about midway through thejourney. We arrived at the border at approximately 10.30am. The border wasquite busy with many South Africans eagerly trying to get through as quick aspossible to their holidays. Inevitably the border was surprisingly smooth – Ithink mostly because the officials were a bit fed up. As soon as we crossed the border, we pulled over in order to deflate our tyres which brought aboutour first mistake. We had not deflated the tyres enough and proceeded to getstuck doing a u-turn to get onto the correct road to Ponta. With some help fromlocals (and R50 later), we deflated our tyres further and got a push out of thesand and set off along the treacherous road to Ponta. Having had nodefinitive experience in sand driving, this was certainly a challenge. Asmentioned on some of the forums, there were many tracks to choose from (allleading in the same direction) so we endeavoured to choose the best of the verysandy, bumpy, and hilly roads. It was quite daunting to keep momentum up thedune hills to avoid getting stuck, yet still completely unknowing of any carscoming up the other side of the hill. We were extremely relieved when we realisedthat we made it through to Ponta without getting stuck once. Moving aroundPonta was relatively simple, with the only issue being traffic and being forcedto stop in soft sand on the odd occasion to allow cars to pass on the narrowroads. Nothing the Duster couldn’t handle.

Ponta Do Ouro – Catembe
Having had a bit of a festive evening on our last night inPonta, we decided to take our time on the morning of our trip to Catembeleaving Ponta at around 8.40. We had gained some directions the night beforefrom a friend for potentially ‘better’ roads to Catembe. We unfortunatelydidn’t listen to those very well as we started to head out on the same roadstowards to Border again (our initial intention was to take the road toMalongane and come up through the reserve). Anyways, we managed to getourselves solidly stuck in a relatively long stretch of soft and deep sand notfar out of Ponta. This was mainly because we were forced to slow down foroncoming traffic. We felt a little less bad for causing a small traffic jam aswe saw a couple 4x4s also get stuck in the same section. With a push backwards,a long run up, and a lot of momentum, we managed to sail over the section andwere soon on our way around 9.30. It was only then that we realised that we hadmissed the earlier directions to go to Malongane and therefore made the hastydecision to choose one of the sand tracks that headed in the general directionthat we were going. These tracks were certainly not for the faint hearted. Softsand, steep hills, sudden corners and ditches… we certainly put the littleDuster to the test as it was a solid 60kms of ‘white knuckle’ driving. We onlygot stuck once more, but very briefly and we were away. It was an excitingjourney. As the road got closer to Catembe the road did gradually harden andimprove, but we still had to be very careful as there were sudden dips andpotholes. This road should definitely not be done with anything that doesnot have a fair amount of ground clearance. The directions we took for thesewere as follows:

There are two ways to tackle this route – either straightup the coastal road that links Ponta Do Ouro to Ponta Malongane, or inlandtoward the border again. Either route will eventually land you on the 201,which is a sand road of decent quality and only the occasional soft patch toworry about sticking in. The 201 bears left before the Elephant Reserve WestGate, stay on the 201 until Salamanga. Once across the Military checkpoint andthe river bridge, you can restore your tyres to standard pressure as the roadsgoing forward are harder and without any soft sand sections to worryabout. Follow signs and directions to Bela Vista which is still on the 201, andfrom there up to Catembe. The entire route is about 120kms.

Catembe-Bilene-Nhabanga
The ferry across to Maputo was interesting (extremelytightly packed) and costed 270Mets for the car and 10Mets per person so 290Metsin total. Maputo was crazy, and took a very long time to get through. The roadsfrom Maputo to Bilene were very good tar road. The only issue was themany traffic officers and speed limits through all the villages. This meantthat we could only travel at around 70km/h for most of the way. We kept to the speed limit, and did not get stopped or asked to pay a 'fine' once for the entire trip. Our finalstretch from Bilene to Nhabanga was also a sandy one and easily manageableexcept for the last bit. The last stretch of 2km is on the lagoon beach whichis quite difficult in the soft sands and should not be tried without somethingthat has a fair amount of ground clearance as well.

Nhabanga – Komatipoort – Joburg
For our journey home we decided to avoid Maputo and use asuggested gravel road. The directions for this were as follows:
Fromthe En1 travelling South, 20-25kms after Macia (for us this was at theintersection of the road from Bilene and the En1), take a right following signsto Xinavane (the Huletts sugar plantation and town). Travel that road for anumber of kms to a grassy intersection with large Standard Bank and a Milleniumbim signs, at which point you veer right. This then takes you through the townof Xinavane, beyond which another intersection puts you either towards arailroad crossing or onto a dirt gravel road of about 60-70kms (this was theroute we took on recommendation of our host). It is very manageable as athroughway to Moambe. When emerging from the gravel road at a T-junction to atar main road, turn left to Moambe (follow the signs). From there you’re on theEn251 which then meets the En4 in Moambe and runs all the way to Komatiepoort.

Thisroad definitely cut out some time from taking the Maputo route. The roadconditions were decent and we managed to travel consistently along it atapproximately 60km/h. Be aware that this road should also not be driven withoutsomething that has a fair amount of ground clearance. The road does have sectionswhere there are dangerous potholes, many loose rocks (making a bumpy ride), andsudden dips so careful driving is definitely required. Interestingly, we passeda Range Rover Sport (with very large rims and thin tyres) which had sufferedtwo tyre punctures and stopped us to ask for use of our air compressor.

Tosum it up: The trip we took was manageable in a 2x4 SUV that had good groundclearance. I would not recommend anything less than that. By the end of thetrip, I was pretty much converted into a Renault Duster enthusiast and was veryimpressed by how the car handled. I can only imagine that the 4x4 version wouldonly be better in those conditions. If you are planning the trip, just goprepared with all the extras (as mentioned in the intro) and prepared mentallythat you may get stuck on the odd occasion and need to push and dig. It’s all part of the adventure J

[pienkie]

souds like you had lots of fun
we leave tomorrow for ponta du oura and then from monday to ponta malongane. road should be quiet now. duster 4x4 will upload pictures
if i may ask what was your tyre preasure ? im going for 1.5bar as a start should be fine my jimny was 1.6bar and never engadge 4x4
so duster first drive in mozambique

[barbs11]

Hi Pienkie


For the sand driving we dropped the pressure to between 0.8 and 1 bars. Can't remember the exact pressure for the hard surface driving, but your vehicle should tell you that


Drop in pressure of tyres with some speed and momentum over the soft patches seemed to work well.