Another road trip

Early start this morning (Monday) – packed and on the road by 7.00am - and the joys of Moz roads again - this time in the rain for the first couple of hours. Chased down the road by a couple of double articulated ore carriers – scary to see something that size overtake you in rain and spray at 100kph when I thought the limit was 60!

Guess we were too early for the speed traps or perhaps they were discouraged by the rain. Only one stop at a checkpoint on the way into Maputo by a soldier with an automatic rifle. However he was more interested in the weather up north and waved us on before I had managed to show my licence.

Spent an hour in traffic getting around Maputo and then a fairly simple dash up to the Swazi border at Lomahasha. Our new friend Paul had told us that it was a very friendly and easy crossing – none of the pressure of the main posts.

We – of course – as the only foreigners transiting, managed to come across a Customs officer who decided that the papers for the hire car were not in order – despite the fact that they were identical to those we had used on our way in! Perhaps adopting the Jimmy C approach immediately – you know the sort of thing – loud, aggressive, banging the counter etc – was a bit of a mistake. 100 Rand for him and 50 for his sidekick and an apology for my outburst worked better and we were on our way after a short delay. This was the only £12 that they managed to squeeze out of us so we got of quite lightly.

Swazi Immigration and Customs was very efficient and within minutes we were through the border and a couple of hours later arrived at Mlilwane without further incident. Nearly 7 hours on the road to cover 420km.