We made an early start from Ponta Malongane and drove north towards Ponta Mamoli and then on to Ponta Milibangalala (known as Mili for short) which is found in the Maputo Elephant Reserve.

The drive to Mamoli passed without incident and the 11km were traversed without a hitch. However, we did find that even the sporadic sign boards dotted along the way told conflicting tales about the route to take. That these signboards accurately described the haphazard layout of the snaking sandy tracks (which branched out in different directions in places only to meet up again further on and then separate once more) was a surprise. However no matter which path you took you always seemed to end up in the right place further on up the road.

We turned onto an 8km tar road (once again a relative term and oftentimes on such tar roads we find ourselves wishing for a nice, quiet sand track instead!) to Zitundu and then onto a main dirt road to the reserve (about 27km). The trip took us about an hour and a half and involved some of the toughest driving we’d had to do up until then. Although the road was fairly large and seemingly well travelled, it was also very sandy and very soft. The constant twisting and turning, and having to manoeuvre through the huge ruts and bumps in our path demanded every bit of concentration from the both of us. But we did it!

We arrived at the Maputo Elephant Reserve entrance, a small round hut manned by a rather abrupt and disinterested local official who found it to be a huge effort just to indicate to us the correct road to take and then to open the gate. Without so much as a smile from the park official, we paid our entrance and camping fees and headed blindly into the reserve along a once again un-signposted stretch.

The road was much the same as what we had been driving on before, winding, full of ruts, very soft and sandy with numerous other roads and tracks leading to and from it, going only who knows where (thank heavens for Drew’s little map and power line markers). The 34km to the campsite took one hour and twenty minutes during which time we saw a handful of birds and absolutely nothing else. There was scant evidence (bar a few destroyed trees) of the supposed 300 elephants after which the park is named. We were warned that the war had had an unfortunate impact on all of the wildlife in Mozambique and in this park the remaining few were very skittish and frightened of humans.

On the positive side to our bumpy journey, the bucket of soapy laundry containing a few round rocks that we’d tied to the roof rack before leaving had by now been suitably bounced about. The result was clean clothes with no additional scrubbing required – thanks to Lou and Chris for the tip :-)

The long and somewhat challenging drive was all worth it when we rounded the hill overlooking the small campsite, and the spectacular beach.