The Border Crossing into Mozambique

The border crossing at Ponta do Oura was, much to our surprise and huge relief, absolutely painless. The border post, on both the South African and Mozambican side, is nothing more than a small, prefab building with one official to complete vehicle inspections and one official to complete the immigration procedure. Officials on both sides of the border were welcoming and friendly. It was exactly what we needed for our first crossing!

Fifteen minutes, two stamps and about R50.00 later we were on our way. It was as simple as that. There was no unpacking or rifling through our belongings, no requests for bribes and no intimidating behaviour. All in all it was an absolute pleasure.

Upon entering the Mozambican side of the border, the single road leading from South Africa seemed to split into a veritable maze of sandy tracks veering off in all different directions. There was a distinct absence of formal signage (something we have now come to accept as standard in Mozambique) and were therefore thankful that the Mozambican official had shown us which track would lead us to Ponta do Oura. And so after once again letting air out of the tyres we trundled off in the direction indicated.

The road that we followed chopped and changed all the way along our journey; after hesitating in the beginning as to which was the correct path to take, we soon came to realise that it made no difference as they inevitably rejoined one another at some point, be it after 5m or 500m. After bumbling along for about half an hour holding our course constant we came upon the rather uninteresting and shabby looking town of Ponta do Oura, home to one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.

I’ll be the first to admit that it was a bit of a let down as there was really nothing much to the town itself; a few buildings scattered about here and there, most with cracked facades and faded paintwork. The main centre of town was pretty much deserted and most of the shops, markets and restaurants seemed to be closed during this quiet time of year. After a quick look around Tanje Beach Resort we thought we’d rather try our luck at Ponta Malongane about 8km further down the beach.