Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
between Cóbuè and Metangula takes about two days, going along the river via the villages
of Ngoo and Chia.
Niassa Reserve
About 160km northeast of Lichinga on the Tanzanian border is the
Niassa Reserve
(Reserva do Niassa;
www.niassareserve.org
;
adult/child/vehicle per day Mtc200/50/200)
,
a vast tract of wilderness with the largest wildlife populations in Mozambique, although
the animals are often difficult (or impossible) to spot. Wildlife includes elephants (estim-
ated to number about 16,000), sable antelopes (14,000), lions (800), buffaloes and zebras.
There are also duikers, elands, leopards, wildebeests, hippos and a population of the en-
dangered African wild dog, as well as over 400 different types of birds.
The reserve is also notable for its ruggedly beautiful scenery - dense bush and wood-
lands laced with rivers and dotted with massive inselbergs. It's twice the size of South
Africa's Kruger National Park, and was established in the early 1960s to protect local ele-
phant and black rhino populations. However, because of inaccessibility, scarce finances
and the onset of war it was never developed. Although wildlife populations here suffered
during the 1980s from poaching and the effects of armed conflict, losses were far less than
those in other protected areas further south. In more recent times significant progress has
been made in curbing poaching and there has been a trend of increasing animal numbers.
Ongoing poaching and hunting in reserve areas has contributed to great skittishness on the
part of wildlife; go to Niassa primarily for adventure, rather than for wildlife watching.
In the late 1990s Niassa Reserve was given new life when a group of private investors,
working in partnership with the Mozambican government, was granted a 10-year renew-
able lease on the area. The reserve's size was increased to about 42,000 sq km, and the
boundaries now stretch from the Rovuma River in the north to the Lugenda River in the
south and east.
An estimated 35,000 people live within the reserve's boundaries, which also encompass
a 20,000 sq km buffer zone. You'll undoubtedly come in to contact with locals setting
their fish traps, walking, or paddling in dugout canoes (for which a few words of Swahili
or Yao will stand you in better stead than Portuguese).
Sleeping & Eating
At the time of writing, there was no official public camping ground, although there is a
rudimentary area near Mbatamila headquarters where you can pitch a tent, and another
