Dis Moz Nou Lekker!

[ TRAVEL ] ISUZU MU-X MOZAMBIQUE ADVENTURE

The novelist Douglas Adams famously said: “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” Unfortunately, I do not have the luxury of missing a dead… I know our readers are anxiously awaiting each new edition of Caravan & Outdoor Life. But when Isuzu invites you on a Mozambique Adventure with the new mu-X, you have to throw caution into the wind and just go for it, no matter how close to deadline it is! Even though we wouldn’t be towing, with the chance to cross the border, stay in a ve-star resort, and go exploring the surrounds including some sand track driving in the Maputo Special Reserve, I packed my bags, grabbed my wife, and off we went…

- Francois Huysamen

We flew from Cape Town to King Shaka Airport in Durban, were we were met by the Isuzu and Driving Dynamics team for a quick briefing, before hopping into our mu-X and heading out to Kosi Bay Lodge for lunch.

Regular readers will know that our journalist Richard van Ryneveld also visited this resort a while ago and brought us the first images of the new camping site that is under construction at the lodge. I was excited to see the progress, but the owners informed me that since Richard’s visit, not much more has been done as the weather had been a problem.

The campsite is currently scheduled to open in October… I guess I’ll just have to go back again later this year!

From Kosi Bay Lodge (pictured right) we headed the 15-odd kilometres north to the border. Getting into Moz was a breeze, thanks to our trip organisers who had all the vehicle and insurance paperwork ready and on hand. All we had to do was get our passports stamped.

From border control it was an easy hour-long drive to our base for the adventure: White Pearl Resorts.

The road from the border post has in recent years been tarred through to Maputo. We turned off the tar after about 13 kilometres to take the gravel road to the resort.

This road is in bad condition, heavily potholed, sandy and muddy in places.

The mu-X handled it all with ease, and I was immediately impressed with how comfortable the drive is in these conditions.

The 3-litre turbodiesel might not be a rocket on the open road, but it handles the rough nicely, has power, and as with all Isuzu’s engines it will reliably last you hundreds of thousands of kilometres. During our fourday adventure on highways, gravel, sand, mud, watercrossings up to bonnet level, in 2H and 4H we did not have a single problem!