Day 13, 14 and 15: 4, 5 and 6 July
Mozambique – Vilanculos, Baobab Beach campsite and backpackers
Another journey of over 850 km, another long day in the car.
The route takes you from Tete, through Chimoio, through Gorongosa and down the EN 1 to Vilanculos. The road has recently been upgraded and it was a pretty smooth road all the way down. We found a spot in Chimoio that served the best chicken and beef burgers we’d had on the trip – a much needed treat for the team’s treatie monster, Mike Sharman. Man that boy can eat.
Palm trees started popping up along the road and we couldn’t wait to spend two days in one place! The Shoesonfeet crew guided us through Vilanculos town (without much luck) at dusk until we found the Baobab campsite where a few others Put Foot Rally crews had already set up camp. Throughout the night a steady stream of other Put Foot Rally teams pulled in.
The following morning the #shoesonfeet crew and the Getaway team sniffed out an internet connection at Villas do indico. It’s a beautiful resort with 4×4 camping – and that’s where we found another Put Foot Rally team, Malelea Tours. They’d taken their old VW van through the sand and landed up in a little piece of paradise. It felt wrong, but we spent most of the morning behind our computers trying to link up to the wifi network. It was slow and wouldn’t allow us to load pics and posts – not the fault of the resort, but rather eight online hungry people trying to do too much all at once.
Paella was on the menu for the night. #shoesonfeet crew member, Richard Mellon, whipped us up an incredible meal on a gas stove in a wonky wok. We’d sourced two kilograms of prawns, a 4 kg kingfish and some calamari. YUM!
The next morning was tough. We jumped on a massive wooden dhow, sailed to an island, snorkeled along the reef in turquoise water, ate lunch on the sand and watched dolphins as we sailed back to shore. All for only R320 per person – thanks to Baobab campsite for arranging this. It was one of the most memorable moments of the trip.
As soon as we touched ground we had to leave for checkpoint 5 in Inhambane – Pirate party, hosted by the Pirates of Kariba Dam team. Yeehaa.
Checkpoint 5: White Sands campsite in Inhambane. Thanks to the friendly team for hosting us!
Note: From Barra Lodge one needs to cross a small section that fills up at high tide. If you’re nervous about your vehicle then make sure you cross it at low tide. All the vehicles made it across at high tide, including the Citi Golfs and The Sillybugger’s ‘Thunder Horse’ Datsun 120Y.
The Getaway team would like to thank:
4×4 Mega World for their fully kitted out VW Amarok
K-Way – the official gear partner to the Getaway team on the Put Foot challenge
MapStudio for their Southern and East Africa map
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