mozambique
March 2024
A better-than-you-think African nation of extreme poverty and world-class beaches.
Mozambique is a mystery to most travelers. Filled with war, poverty, disease, floods, dangerous animals and insects, horrible infrastructure, deep corruption, with... glorious coastline, stunning natural beauty, colonial cities, and incredibly safe. How can it be both extremes?
We arrived in Maputo in March 2024 on a 14-hour bus ride from Johannesburg, South Africa. We knew the heat would be rather sultry, and opted for an Airbnb on the 14th floor of an apartment complex to catch the ocean breeze. The apartment had no elevator - 14 flights of stairs only - but the breeze more than made up for it. We had the best views imaginable over this African metropolis, watching luxury cars cruise the main boulevards lined with barefoot locals making pennies a day selling bananas.
Surprisingly, it felt quite safe. Your biggest danger in Mozambique is probably corrupt police finding you on the street and inventing some problem and asking you for a bribe, but we had no issues.
Maputo isn't that great of a city (let's just be real), and the heat, filth, and crowding mean that one day is more than enough. We took a series of crowded local buses up to Bilene for a week, where Suhei and I celebrated my 35th birthday on one of the most stunning lagoons ever. We spoke basic Portuguese with local kids, and flew our kite in the warm breezes of the Indian Ocean.
Staying in a thatch-roof hut in Bilene managed by an expat retired South African couple, we had scorpions in our doorway, a huge spider in the kitchen, black mambas in the trash, and blue vervet monkeys in the trees. No one bothered us, no one asked us for money, no one tried to steal our packs. It was quite stress free.
However, we're experienced travelers and had done our research ahead of time. As Mozambique was the first stop on our Coast2Coast2Coast Africa Overland Expedition, we had originally planned to bring our 4x4 truck into the country. But police checkpoints, and bribes, are rampant, and there is quite a bit of vehicle theft, especially of South African-registered vehicles like ours. Had we not done our homework in advance and haphazardly driven into this paradoxical nation, our experience might have been quite different. As it turned out, even on public buses, our drivers were stopped and paid bribes at every single checkpoint. It's hard to see much of a good future when corruption is so rampant, but, that's how Africa is!
From Bilene, we headed back to Maputo and then back to Johannesburg. I'd wanted to explore more of Mozambique, especially the north, but the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Poor roads, endless malarial mosquitos, and corrupt police mean I probably won't be back in Moz anytime soon.
