STOPOVER IN MOZAMBIQUE AND ESWATINI

Only a stone’s throw behind the border of South Africa and Mozambique is Ponta do Ouro – Tip of Gold. The Portuguese gave the name to this spot because of its golden sandy beach. Many South African love to spend their summer holidays in this paradise at the ocean. Now it’s winter time, there are only a few vacationers and the village mostly belongs to the locals.

Road N200 to Ponta do Ouro is under construction at the moment. Soon it will be all-new, much wider and tarred of course. Obviously the Chinese give active support in road construction also to Mozambique to make use of the valuable natural resources of the country in return. Coal, bauxite, iron, natural gas, titanium, tantalum and gold.

The well known coastal resort doesn’t answer my overexaggerated expectations and I’ve to adjust them to reality the moment we arrive at a kind of village entrance and in the centre of the village a minute later .

Dirt road, improvised stalls, sheds and ramshackle buildings, that’s the disillusioning first impression we get from the Tip of Gold. The more we are enthusiastic about the beautiful wide beach at the end of the village. The turquoise blue Indian Ocean treats us with warm water and we very much enjoy bathing in the waves.

After we get served delicious pizza with a smile at the brightly coloured Love Café and enjoy the lively activities on the street we are fully reconciled. The sun is shining and people are beaming with joy. Ponta, we’ll stay and take a vacation!

We still wonder how the upcoming new tarred road will fit ever to the small narrow village. We don’t have have the slightest idea of a town building vision. Let’s see how much it’ll have changed when we’ll stop by again some time.

Generelly it’ll remain suspenseful how this country will develop in the future. Political revolutions and the longstanding civil war in the past left heavy scarfs. Mozambique still is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world although it now experiences a slight economical recovery. But there is still a long, long way to go.

Just some two hundred kilometers northwest of Ponta do Ouro we leave Mozambique some days later at the border post Namaacha – Lomahasha. We cross in a way the southern tip of Mozambique once from the right to the left. The immigration officer who stamps our passport for departure farewells us very friendly and hopes that we soon will come back again to his country. That’s very nice, we think.

Meanwhile another immigration officer is awaiting us at our truck. He surprisingly speaks German very well and welcomes us very friendly. Some years ago he lived in Germany and worked as dock worker in Wismar, we learn. He likes Germany and spontaneously rates us among his close friends. This circumstance ultimately prevents getting pulled over the barrel by two guys who are accountable for the traffic liability only. They want us to pay road tax, 100 US-Dollars against receipt or 50 without. But there is no fee like a road tax as we know for sure. We don’t agree and refuse unwaveringly to pay even one single cent. The discussions about it are over soon, thanks to our new friend. They wave good bye with a smile and we happily can move on to eSwatini.