Truck Day 10 – Eswatini to Maputo, Mozambique – Travelling renders you speechless then transforms you into a story teller

We’re leaving at 7.30am this morning. The drive is 40km to the Eswatini /Mozambique border and then a further 95kms the otherside to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.

Sugar cane fields go on for miles en-route to the border

The drive to the border takes 90 mins and there’s no one else either at the Eswatini exit point or Mozambique entry point. 5 of our group have visas – us included – and 7 don’t and we wait while their applications are processed. We take bets as to how long the process will take – 2.5 hours in the end which is a hell of a lot less than the 6-8 hours that we’d anticipated. Immigration is friendly and as my passport is stamped my passport officer says “Long live the new King”. It’s been noticeable whilst we’ve been in Africa how many condolences we’ve received on the death of the Queen. A genuine reminder just how universally loved our late Monarch was.

With the beaches of the Indian Ocean beckoning we enter Mozambique and make our first stop in Maputo, the capital city.

We arrive at our beach hotel, swiftly check in, roughly unpack and take a shower. Within an hour we’re back on the truck for a real whistle-stop city tour. We commence our very quick tour at the striking Maputo Central Train Station, or CFM (Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique) as written under the clock on the 51 m high central dome of the station. It’s quite possibly the most stunning building in Maputo and a superb example of colonial era architecture in Africa. It’s is on the CFM Sul line, which links to South Africa Eswatini and Zimbabwe. It was constructed from 1908 to 1916 in the Beaux-Arts style. Widely recognized for its attractiveness, the station has been ranked by international publications as one of the world’s most beautiful.

The main focal point in Maputo, is the Praca de Independencia. Around it are a statue of the country’s first president, Samora Machel, the striking gleaming white Roman Catholic cathedral and the neo-classical City Hall.