Inhambane from maputo · From Maputo in Inhambane
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From Maputo in Inhambane
From Maputo in Inhambane
When entering Maputo on the toll road from Swaziland or South Africa, take the EN1 highway north. The off ramp is signposted Xai Xai. The road is relatively good up to Xai-Xai (215 km north), but then deteriorates rapidly: potholes. Drive slowly, unless you are one of those people who believe that potholes are best tackled at speed, in order to "soar over" them. The bad road is only as far as Chidenguele, some 64 km north of Xai Xai. From here on, the road is in good condition having been recently rebuilt. There are still two deviations as of 28th November, 2006. The first is about 15km before Inharrime and the second is as you enter Inharrime, which is 108 km north of Chidenguela. The deviation takes you through the back roads of the town, bringing you back to the main road just before the petrol station, which has both leaded and unleaded fuel. From here, it is a further 65 km to Lindela where the road forks. The right fork takes you to Inhambane a further 37 km.
Beware of petrol attendants at stations along the way; they have been known to take advantage of your unfamiliarity with the metical. One trick to watch out for: the attendant starts filling your tank, but then the pump "blocks". He says he must restart the pump, but since this will constitute a second transaction, he encourages you to memorise the first sum displayed on the pump's meter. He then restarts the pump from zero, clocking up a second transaction. Once the tank is full, he makes a careless arithmetical error in adding up the two amounts. This adding mistake somehow seems to work out in his favor.
Be careful and pay attention to speed limits, especially when approaching and leaving small towns on route. This is prime territory for traffic police who tend to demand unreasonable spot fines. Do not overtake on solid white lines. The stretch of road between Xai Xai and Chongogda is 19 km and patrolled by a cop who preys on tourists. His trick is to use a decoy car, which travels extremely slowly up hills which have a barley distinguishable solid white line. Overtake through frustration and this cop seems to arrive from nowhere, speaks impeccable English and levies a handsome fine on you. One talks from experience as it happened in February and June 2004 and again in January 2006. If you feel you have done nothing wrong, do not give him your driver's license; argue the point and he will let you go.
Remember to take 2 emergency triangles per vehicle or pay yet another spot fine if stopped and searched. Or you could take a bus from Maputo and avoid having to deal with the Mozambican police entirely.
To go further north (or south to Maputo), it is often necessary to pass through Maxixe, which lies on the other side of the inlet. While it is possible to go to Maxixe without stopping in Inhambane, if you do want to stop in Inhambane, the best way to get to the other side is the ferry. It leaves from the main dock, but please be wary of dhow sailors nearby trying to get you into one of their boats. The dhows, without motors, are slow and expensive, and sometimes don't even make it to the other side. The best way to go is by the ferry, which is quick (10 minutes at most) and cheap (25 meticals).
By air
There are direct flights a few times a week from Maputo on LAM Mozambican Airlines. These flights run either nonstop or operate via Vilanculos, which is much farther north and is quite a circuitous routing.
LAM also operates nonstop flights from Johannesburg to Inhambane four times weekly. The flights leave JNB in the morning and return in the afternoon, making connections to and from European flights relatively short.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Inhambane
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Inhambane Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.