Bom Dia Mozambique!

When you think of coconut trees, white beaches and coral reefs, you tend to think of exotic islands. But EVAN NAUDÉ found all that and more right across the border.

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I arrive bleary-eyed at O.R. Tambo International Airport after getting up at 4 am for my 6 am flight from Cape Town. It has to be this early though, because I still have a long way to go before I reach my destination for tonight. As the crow flies, it is probably one of the longest distances between two points in the whole of the country – Cape Town to Punda Maria camp in the Kruger National Park. This time, however, I am not really interested in the park, but rather in Mozambique, which lies just across the border from it.

Through the border

Paul Wigley from Bhejane 4x4 Adventures picks me up at the airport and we hit the road. In Polokwane we meet the other two crew members, Sanana Seforo and Gilbert Modise, for some last-minute grocery shopping before continuing on to Kruger. By dusk I’m watching the sun set, 1 750 km away from where I saw it rise this morning. The rest of our tour group, 22 people strong, arrive during the hot afternoon the following day. The campsite is the official starting point of our tour, but another reason for meeting here is that we are planning to use the Pafuri border post to enter Mozambique – and for that we’re required to spend at least one night in either the Kruger National Park or the Limpopo National Park. During dinner Paul gives the tour group a briefing on what to expect on the tour, and the next morning we all make a beeline for the border.

Despite the cautionary tales I’ve heard about issues people have experienced at Mozambican border posts, our group’s passage goes surprisingly smoothly. The officials are friendly and efficient, besides the fact that this is the first border I’ve ever been to where there is a flat screen TV on the counter in the administration office. I fill in all the required forms next to it, while a Portuguese-subtitled Robert Duval and Kevin Costner go about some sort of cowboy business in the movie