Day 32 Liwale - Mueda

January 10, 2016
Our last day in Tanzania, we were not far from the border. We left our favourite Tanzanian village and headed towards the Mozambican border crossing - Unity Bridge:

Lots of trees and greenery, and many burned down forests, they use charcoal for cooking...:

Crossed some bridges:

And rivers:

Then got back onto tar road:

And then again small dirt road that leads to "most crossed border crossing":

Very close to Mozambique there were major road works happening on Tanzanian side:

Huge brand new road has been built that connects both countries:

 

And here it was - Unity Bridge!

Just before the bridge there was a very quiet immigration office, we were the only ones there, quickly we got our stamps from the officer, he wished us a good luck and welcomed back to Tanzania. We loved their hospitality! So we crossed the bridge and were getting ready for the contrast :)

When we crossed the bridge, we got to Mozambican immigration. Nobody was there!!! Just few soldiers that opened us the gate. They said that officers went home for lunch and don't know when they will be back. So we waited 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours. Nobody was coming over. And travel books says that it is the most crossed border crossing, ha! So our patience was out, because we had to drive to the next village today to camp, so we went to the soldiers and asked where the officer lived. We took one of the soldiers in the car to show us his house and we drove to the nearest village. The best looking house - thats where he lived. Soldier went to fetch him and it took him a while to find the officer, because he wasn't at home. Finally 3 of them came in their white shirts... We didn't drive them back to the border, because there was no space in the car, so they had to walk back to their jobs now. Back in the office very slowly they turned on their computers, asked what kind of car we have and if it is a 4 wheel drive and what colour it had, and in about half an hour we were done. Nobody was asking for a bribe this time. It took us more that 3 hours and some patience and we were legally back into Mozambique! It was afternoon and we still were quite far from the next village where we would be able to camp. So we were on the road again and not for a long, as the nice tar road finished just few hundred meters after the Unity bridge:

Forest all around:

 And soon the road turned into mud bath!

Our village was 120 km away, and we were driving good if 20-30 km per hour! Slipping and sliding to all directions! The time went fast and kilometres were not going down... There were saw turned over trucks on the road, stuck motorbikes:

Soon it became dark and we were driving in this mud in dark!!! It wasn't fun at all... Forest full of owls and fireflies, that was nice though;) It took us about 5 to 6 hours to drive 120 km. Finally we were close to civilisation and small villages started to appear. Full of drunk locals trying to hitch to next village. And then, 120 km from the border - customs! Just not that now - we thought. But the guy was lazy and it was pitch black outside so he just opened us the boom and let us go. Close to the Mueda village another obstacle - this time red flashing police baton. Ow no, Mozambique style again! So we were stopped and questioned, they asked for drivers licence and wanted to search the car, but we didn't allow. Funny they were looking for our documents, but they had no torch :D They didn't believe us we were tourists, but at the end we just drove off and were looking for a campsite. We arrived to Mueda village - it looked like it has been major floods there not long ago - the streets were all washed with mud, full of garbage, debris everywhere. So we arrived at the camping, and - it was closed!!! So we went looking for some other place to stay. There was some small hotel, so we got a room there. I think this one was of the worst places we ever stayed :D We felt like in a prison cell haha :) But anyway, it was clean and we were exhausted and we were finally done with this crazy day :) Here is our light source in the room:

We had TV and a chair :) Welcome to Mozambique :)

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