Mozambique - Pemba to Lichinga

I did not take too many photos of this part of the trip, I wish I had. The photos I took were mostly of the easier parts, I was too stressed to take photos for the other sections. Here are the photos...

Pop quiz. You are in Africa, possibly two days walk from anywhere, and you have to cross a small wooden bridge made out of rickety logs. Half way across the bridge one of the logs collapses and the front right wheel of the car falls through. The log supporting the other side of the car is looking a little bendy too. What do you do?

We just went through the practical examination for this one while on the road to from Montepuez to Nungo. It is stressful exam, on by far the worst road that I have ever traveled on, and classifying it as a road gives it far too much credit. It is basically a track through bush, dirt, sand, water, and log bridges that would be undrivable if there was any rain. It took us two days to travel the 100km and it was not an easy experience. Especially after we destroyed the front right wheel of the car along with some part connecting the wheel to the car.

We had decided to take the road on some bad advice from other travelers. There are several routes from Pemba to Malawi, and on the map the route we took is the most direct, going through Marrupa and on to Lichinga, but about 100km in the road dissapears into the bush. Hardly believing that it was a road we drove along the track until we reached a small village where we got slightly off course. We tried to make it back over to the track on the bad advice of a local. The car immediately fell into a deep ditch, almost toppling over, with the front in the ditch and a back wheel wheel way up in the air. Not a good position. With help from about 20 villagers and attaching the winch to a tree we managed to drag the car out and get back onto the track. Only to get stuck again in a drop a hundred meters onwards, this time we didn't need to use the winch, but it was only a sign of things to come.

Driving on we suddenly hit a big ditch hidden in the undegrowth. The front of the car slammed into the dip and we crossed over, but with everything in the car flying around and the sound of metal screeching. After a little prayer we tried to drive further, but there was something very wrong with the front right wheel. We got out and saw that the wheel was flat and destroyed. No problem, we had two spares, or it would have been no problem if we knew how to operate the car jack. It is an industrial strength jack that, with sunlight fading, in the heat, and with the mosquitos coming out in force, we spent about an hour figuring out. Even then, after replacing the wheel, we realized that the front right hand side of the car had something wrong. The wheel was at a crazy angle, it was obvious something had broken and we could no longer engage 4x4 mode. The car still drove, but it was worrying because we had no idea how much more of the road it could take before failing completely. Especially worrying because we were far away from any civilization, definitely no cell phone signal and probably two days walk from a town. With night falling and after the road dividing a few times we were unsure if we were following the right route, our GPS could only tell us if we were heading in mostly the right direction. We decided to camp for the night at a fork in the road and re-evaluate the situation in the morning. It was the first time that we have used the rooftop tent on the car and it was a stressful and sleepless night, just before we started to sleep we heard something walking around in the bush outside the car. Early in the morning, with the mists rising over the trees we woke up and walked both the forks. In an excellent piece of news it turned out the two forks were just alternative routes leading to the same place. The rest of the day we spent driving very slowly along the terrible track. I can't fully describe it. Huge ditches, ponds, rivers, rickety bridges, sand and mud that the car would get stuck in, roads that would disappear to tiny tracks and all of this to be navigated when we couldn't engage 4x4 mode on the car and with the right front wheel possibly failing. At any obstacle we would get out walk the track ahead and often I would walk along right in front of the car guiding the wheels along. The most worrying obstacle (and there are lots to choose from) was one of the bridge crossings I mentioned above. Half way across the bridge the front right wheel fell through and we had to winch and drive the car across, hoping the other supprting log would not break. We were very lucky that it did not.

After a long and exhausting day filled with obstacle after obstacle, and the car making some more clanking noises, we made it to Nungo where the road becomes a superhighway, ok, it becomes a one lane dirt track, but a good one! From there we drove to Marrupa, where the road becomes a proper tar road, and then on to Lichinga where we are now staying. We took the car to a repair shop here and the head mechanic told us not to drive it any more. We will be taking it in on Monday to be repaired. Until then we will be doing our best to recover and relax.

Lessons learned:
#1. For whatever reason the roads leaving villages are always the worst. Be very careful leaving, expect huge ditches.
#2. Drive slowly, even if you think the road is ok.
#3. If in doubt always have someone get out and walk the road ahead of the car.
#4. When crossing a wooden bridge spanned by logs have someone get out and test the logs and figure out which two to use for the left and right side of the car. Then line the wheels up at the logs and drive across with someone walking ahead and directing the driver extremely carefully and slowly.
#5. There are often alternative routes through the bush around large ditches and bad parts of the road. Keep an eye out for these.
#6. Along the way we would ask villagers that we would meet if we were going the right way or if the road was better up ahead. Even if they didn't really know the answer they would make one up. You can't really trust their advice unfortunately.
#7. If you can find the GPS track of someone who has done the route before I would take that rather than trusting the offical Garmin GPS map. It is crap.