Waypoint Journeys Presents
Four Countries, Island to Highlands
13 Days
Nampula to Maseru, by way of Maputo, Eswatini and the Sani Pass
We reply within 24 hours
Four countries sit close together in the south-east corner of Africa, and few travellers see them in order. Mozambique, Eswatini, South Africa and Lesotho are usually visited one at a time, from different airports. This expedition joins them the way the map does: south from the Island of Mozambique to Maputo, west through Eswatini, across KwaZulu-Natal to the foot of the Drakensberg, and up into the highlands of Lesotho.
The character of the trip changes as it goes. It starts on coral stone, on the island that was the capital of Portuguese East Africa until 1898, where dhows still sail under the fortress walls. Maputo is railway iron and 1950s concrete, Hlane is lowveld bush lit by paraffin lamps at night. Then the land climbs: Underberg in the Drakensberg foothills, Sani Top at 2,874 metres, and Semonkong, where the Maletsunyane River drops 192 metres in a single fall.
It is a road trip, and we would rather you knew its shape now. There is one flight, Nampula to Maputo, which does not run every day and so sets the dates. Two days are long: about nine hours across to the Drakensberg on Day 8, and about seven into Lesotho on Day 10. There are three land borders and a border post at the top of a mountain pass. The same leader travels with you from the first morning to the last.
“It starts on an island built of coral stone and ends in the only country on Earth that lies entirely above 1,000 metres.”
A coral island about three kilometres long, joined to the mainland by a single-lane bridge and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. Fort São Sebastião fills its northern end, and beside it stands the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, built in 1522, the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere.
Mozambique, Eswatini, South Africa and Lesotho, joined the way the map joins them. One flight, three land borders and the post at the top of the Sani Pass, with the same expedition leader from Nampula to Maseru and local drivers in each country.
Eswatini's largest protected area, once the royal hunting ground, now home to lion, elephant and white rhino. You sleep in the park's own camp, which has no electricity and looks onto a waterhole, and go out at first light on a rhino drive with a chance to approach them on foot.
The road climbs more than 1,300 metres up the Drakensberg escarpment from KwaZulu-Natal to the Lesotho border post at Sani Top, 2,874 metres up. We go up by 4x4 with a local driver, cross at the summit and walk the rim before coming back down.
At Semonkong the Maletsunyane River drops 192 metres in a single fall into a basalt gorge. We reach it on Basotho ponies or on foot, and anyone with the nerve can abseil 204 metres down the gorge wall beside it.
A capital best seen slowly and on foot: the railway station of 1910, the prefabricated Iron House of 1892, the central market, the fortress by the Baixa, and the buildings Pancho Guedes designed in the 1950s and 1960s.
Thirteen days from the Indian Ocean to the Lesotho highlands: four countries, three land borders and one flight, Nampula to Maputo.
Nampula to Maseru
Thirteen days from the Island of Mozambique to Maseru: a flight south to Maputo, then by road through Eswatini and KwaZulu-Natal, up the Sani Pass and into Lesotho.
Land in Nampula, the largest city in the north of Mozambique, reached through Johannesburg, Maputo or Nairobi. Guests coming on from our Malawi expedition fly in from Lilongwe. Your driver meets you at the airport and takes you to the hotel. We sleep here rather than drive on, so that the road to the coast is done in daylight.
About three hours east in the morning, past granite domes standing out of the cassava fields and cashew trees, to the coast at Lumbo and the single-lane bridge out to the island, more than three kilometres of it. The afternoon is for settling in to Stone Town, the northern half, where the merchants' houses and churches are built of coral stone and lime.
A full day with a local guide, which on an island this size means walking almost all of it. Fort São Sebastião, begun in 1558, and beyond it at the northern tip the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, built in 1522. The Palace of São Paulo, the old governor's residence, now a museum. Then south into Macuti town, where the lanes run between palm-thatched houses, and out on a dhow at sunset.
Back across the bridge in the morning and on to Nampula for the flight south, which changes in Johannesburg and reaches Maputo in the evening. It is the only flight of the trip. It does not run every day, and it is the reason departures start on particular days of the week.
A day on foot in the capital. The railway station, opened in 1910, its dome long and wrongly credited to Eiffel. The Iron House of 1892, a prefabricated governor's residence that proved too hot to live in. The central market, opened in 1901, the fortress by the Baixa, and the buildings Pancho Guedes designed in the 1950s and 1960s. The day also gives the schedule some room if the flight runs late.
West to the border at Namaacha and into Eswatini, about three hours in all, to Hlane Royal National Park, the old royal hunting ground and now the country's largest protected area. An afternoon game drive, then the night at Ndlovu Camp, which has no electricity: paraffin lamps, a fire, and a waterhole in front of the huts where rhino come to drink. The gates close at dusk, so we are in camp by sunset.
Out early on the rhino drive, about an hour and a half with a ranger and a chance to approach them on foot (it is open to guests aged 13 and over). Then about two hours west to the Ezulwini Valley and Mantenga, a reconstructed Swazi homestead of the 1850s, where the afternoon brings traditional dance and a short walk to the Mantenga Falls.
The longest day of the trip: out of Eswatini into South Africa and across KwaZulu-Natal to Underberg, in the foothills of the southern Drakensberg, about nine hours with the border. It is a transit day and we treat it as one, with stops where the road allows and an evening with nothing planned.
Up the pass by 4x4 with a local driver, through the South African border post and up the hairpins of the escarpment to the Lesotho post at Sani Top, 2,874 metres up. Lunch at the top, a walk along the edge of the escarpment, then back down to Underberg for the night. If snow or bad weather closes the pass, the day becomes a walk in the foothills instead.
South-west through Matatiele to the border at Qacha's Nek and into Lesotho, down to the valley of the Senqu, and then north as the road climbs to Semonkong, a trading village at 2,275 metres where many people still arrive on horseback. About seven hours with the border.
Out to the falls on Basotho ponies, or on foot if you prefer, along the edge of the gorge to where the Maletsunyane drops 192 metres in a single fall. Semonkong means place of smoke, after its spray. Anyone who wants to abseil the gorge wall, 204 metres on one rope, does it today at extra cost. Everyone else has the afternoon free at the lodge or on the river.
North through Ramabanta and down to Roma, the mission town that holds the National University, then to Thaba-Bosiu, the flat-topped mountain Moshoeshoe I fortified in 1824 and never lost. We walk up with a village guide to the ruins and the royal graves, then go on to Maseru for a final dinner together.
Transfers to Moshoeshoe I International Airport, about half an hour from the capital, where flights connect through Johannesburg, or to the border at Maseru Bridge if you are continuing by road. Book departures from late morning onward.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Expedition Investment
per person, twin share
Fully inclusive of a single expedition leader for all thirteen days, private vehicles and local drivers in four countries, the Sani Pass by 4x4, the Nampula to Maputo flight, twelve nights' accommodation, daily breakfast and all listed experiences
Excludes international flights, visas and the Mozambique travel authorisation, travel insurance, the abseil, lunches and dinners. Runs in May and from September to November, on dates set by the Day 4 flight
Reserve Your SpotFour countries means four separate plans. In Mozambique the route stays well south of Cabo Delgado province and the districts of Nampula province that border it, which government advice asks visitors to avoid; Nampula, the Island of Mozambique and the road between them lie south of that area, and we review them again before every departure. Elsewhere on the route the main things to manage are the road and the usual city care, so we drive in daylight only, use local drivers who know each stretch, and keep valuables out of sight in Maputo and Maseru. Malaria is present in Mozambique all year and in the Eswatini lowveld around Hlane, so see a travel doctor about prophylaxis before you fly. Every confirmed traveller gets a detailed country-by-country briefing before departure.
