Maputo and crossing the border to South Africa

 Tuesday-Thursday 4-6.6:

                                              last night in the roof top at Xai Xai Beach

                                                                Xai-Xai Beach

                                               Piri Piri Chicken barbeque in Maputo

                                                          driving through Maputo

Via Inhambane where we balanced the tires one more time without any success and Xai Xai where we spent the very last time in our beloved roof top tent we arrived in Maputo, where we happily did the usual tourist stuff until the last day, when we found out that we might have difficulties entering into South Africa again. According to the South African Visa regulations (for Europeans) one can get a 90 day tourist visa per year. The problem is, that these 90 days count starting from the day you enter SA regardless wether you stay fort this time or leave the country in between. Both of us have entered SA more than 90 days ago which could have been a huge problem, as we needed to be in Johannesburg on time to sell our car and according to various sources we would have actually needed to fly back to Europe in order to enter SA again!!! We went to the Embassy of SA in Maputo where the lady at the counter seriously told us to fly back to Europe!! Then we called the SA Embassy in Germany, who mentioned something like “just try your luck” but “yeah, the situation looks bad for you guys…” and so we were quite stressed when we arrived at the border to “try our luck”.  AND: we were lucky! Just when it was our turn to go to the counter they were changing shifts, so the lady who was about to leave her desk just stamped our passports without even looking at it!! I was about to jump over the counter and give her a kiss! What was interesting is that they scanned our passports into their computer system, and I expected that the computer will tell her that our Visa has expired. But it seems as if South African border posts work different and I have no idea what their computer systems look for, but they definitively don’t match people to their passports/Visas….

After an 8 hour drive we arrived very exhausted but relieved in Johannesburg at Hannike’s magical house  where she offers couch surfing. Hannike is a extraordinary woman with many interest and hobbies. After staying with her for 4 days and drinking lots of excellent wine we found out about her that she is an artist, singer, cook, wine tasting expert, manager of a newspaper delivering service, founder of a wolves sanctuary…..