Getting Around Mozambique

SAA as well as LAM (mozambique's airline) fly from South Africa to Maputo. There are flights daily.

SAA was fully booked so we had to experience LAM. The flight to Maputo was in a little prop number. I don't think it took more than 20 passengers. It was a different experience for the kids. They are only used to the big aircrafts of SAA. It's less than an hour's flight from JHB. Drinks and snacks were served and the service was fine.

Coming back it was a 737 operated by LAM.

LAM also have internal flights to places like Beira, Inhaca etc.

The picture was taken from the aircraft coming in to land in Maputo.

Inside the airport doesn't really resembles a international airport. Officials are a bit slow and not the friendliest. This is Africa.

Bear with them they are in charge here. If you are difficult they will find something wrong and nobody wants to spend hours on the airport.

I found the taxi's to be a bit expensive.
The Holiday Inn is on the beach so we had no idea how far the shops and mall was. We took the taxi once and then decided to walk most of the time. It is necessary exercise after the Holiday Inn breakfast.

If I took the taxi back to the hotel I wouldn't have seen this opportunity for a photo of the Holiday Inn from a little hill.

To get to Inhaca you can take the ferry. There is one each day. Over weekends there are more than one. You can book at the Holiday Inn in Maputo.

It is $30 per person.(weekends) Leaves around 08:00 and returns at 17:00. Stops at Portugese Island before continuing to Inhaca.

There is secure parking at the port. Holiday Inn has a courtesy bus for their clients.

A large river marks the border between Mozambique and Tanzania . There aren't any bridges between the two countries (one is planned, but it could take a while). Border-crossing is possible at some place by dug-out cannoo. At one place it's possible to cross the border with a vehicle. A small ferry takes you across near the coast. When the ferry breaks down it can take months before it starts opparating again, so it's wise to try and get advies in advance. We ended up leaving our car behind and crossing by cannoo. At the Mozambiquean side of the border it takes for ages before you reach the immigration office (see picture), so if there's a vehicle around, get a ride!

Nothing compares to driving in Maputo! Pedestrians cross the streets
whenever they feel like it and you have to stop or slow down - not that you
can drive fast anyway. Vehicles change lanes without indicators on or stop
infront of you all of the sudden. One needs to be very sober and very alert
when driving there. Finding your way is also complicated by the fact that
street names are virtually non-existent. At intersections, there's a robot
only on your left hand side. The robot is also positioned at such an
awkward angle that, when you are first in line, you can't see when the
robot changes. In Maputo, the polite way of letting you know the robot has
changed, is hooting. So, there's a lot of hooting going on and believe me,
I was at the receiving end of a lot of that!

Be prepared for some large potholes along the way!! I would highly advise you to have a spare tire as getting a flat is a very real possibility in this country. I have never seen so many potholes in my life on one single road. Also people are EVERYWHERE!! They use the edges of roads all the time so be very cautious of pedestrians.

I found travelling by public transportation to be a nightmare in Mozambique. Next time I'm hiring a car in Johannesburg and driving.

Believe your Lonely Planet when it says that most buses leave at 4 AM. What's worse, there are essentially no taxi services within towns, so I was constantly getting up at 3 and hiking out to the bus station to try to find a bus to the next town. On a couple of occasions I bought a ticket for the bus the next day--I was suspicious, but it worked every time, and when they told me that the bus would leave at 4, it left at 4:00 exactly.

I travelled from north to south through the country, and transport improved the closer I got to Maputo. Once I got into an area with enough minibuses (called "chapas") I took them--changing a flat is a lot quicker on a minibus than on one of the biggies.

Prices were generally pretty cheap, 4-8 USD for a day's journey.

If you come to Mozambique from Tanzania you can cross the border in Kilambo. From there, after a few kilometers drive you reach the Rovuma river where there is a ferry service that runs at full tide twice a day. In August the first run is at about 5.30 a.m. and since the closest place where you can find an accomodation is in Mtwara it may be convenient to camp on the river banks, as we did without any problem.