Forty Plus Years on the Wildside was written by Terence Cotton. It is the story about the life of Terence and Ina Cotton discovering overlanding from the early 1950’s and into the 2000’s.
This story is dedicated to the memory of Frank Dandridge a founder member of the Landrover Owners Club. And Clive Crossman, with both of whom we had so many wonderful trips.
As we never kept a diary of our travels through the outback of Southern Africa. So some of the incidents related may be out of sequence.
OUR EARLY STORY
I met Ina in 1966 after returning from a two-year working holiday in Europe. We were both keen campers and our fate was sealed when we discovered that the zips on our sleeping bags were compatible.
Our first trip was to Inhaca Island a couple of kilometres off the then Lourenco Marques. We missed the ferry to the island by an hour. Following the advice of a Portuguese man, we went to the airport and chartered a plane for the grand sum of R11. We loaded all our camping equipment into the plane. In less than half an hour we landed on the Inhaca landing strip where we were picked up by the hotel taxi (a tractor with trailer equipped with a couple of deck chairs). The next day we hired the hotel boat to take us to the other end of the island.
The hotel was given strict instructions to pick us up in three weeks. We had a fabulous three weeks all by ourselves with lots of snorkelling, and spear and line fishing. We ate fish at least twice a day. Later that year we were married and retuned to Inhaca the following summer for another three weeks of paradise. This time we caught the ferry.
FIRST LAND ROVER TRIP DISCOVERING OVERLANDING
Over the Easter holidays the following year, we went on our first Land Rover trip with a working colleague of Ina’s and her husband to Mozambique. This was to be a rather traumatic introduction to Landroving and discovering overlanding.
When we arrived at their house, we were informed that we would not be leaving for at least two days. The reason – the gearbox of the Land Rover was in pieces on the bench. This we were to find out later was normal for Land Rovers of that era. We had a few problems with our travelling companions but nevertheless enjoyed the trip.
Travelling to Mozambique
The trip took us through Pafuri, across the Limpopo River and on to Mabote. We caused a bit of a problem at the border post because it was used chiefly by WENELA who brought in migrant workers to work in the gold mines and very seldom by anybody else.
In Mabote we went into the local pub for a drink. There we found a Portuguese soldier whom our travelling companions had met on a trip the previous year. He invited us to accompany him to Parque Nacionale de Zinave, also known as Safariland. Situated on the Save River approximately 100km north of Mabote, to shoot a few impala for the army garrison. We arrived at the hunting lodge at dawn after a hair rising ride following the army Jeep through the bush in the dark.
We were quite intrigued to see the photos and autographs of a number of famous celebrities and authors on the walls of the pub. After a free 5-star breakfast and a walk along the banks of the Save we went fairly deep into the Parque. What a beautiful place. It was in fact like a big park with magnificent trees in very large green plains. In no time, the soldiers shot a few impala and we returned to Mabote.
Pomene
The next day we made our way to the coastal road aiming for Pomene where we were to meet other people. The trip from the main road took almost the full day travelling at 10km/h.
As the rest of the party were all scuba divers, we were left to our own devices. The spear fishing was quite fantastic and we were able to supply the party of about 12 with fish every day. We had one scary incident. I had shot several fish, which were attached to a line when I noticed Ina indicating madly that we should get out of the water. Why? There were a couple of sharks right behind us. We covered the 50 metres or so to the shore in record time.
Morongula and Sylvia Shoals
The rest of the party left to return home after the Easter weekend. But we were told by a local schoolteacher, called Manuel, of a spot further down the beach, which he said was far superior. With his bicycle tied precariously on the roof rack and him sitting on the passenger wing of the Land Rover we were directed almost back to the main road and then through the bush following a footpath to the coast.
We had to saw down at least one tree and remove several bushes that obstructed our passage. It was worth it. A pristine beach with a fresh water stream running just on the inside of the coastal bush. This spot is in the vicinity where Morongula and Sylvia Shoals are situated today.
The locals had never had anyone camping on their beach before and, under the control of the Manuel, three or four observers were allowed to sit on the edge of our camp at a time for about an hour to observe our activities. We had plenty of help to launch our boat. When we returned we did not even get our feet wet as the boat was picked up manually and carried onto dry sand.
On our way back from diving and snorkelling we would always catch 4 or 5 large barracuda, kingfish or other game fish on lures we dragged behind the boat. The fish always weighed 4 to 6 kilograms. Manuel would cut several choice pieces for us; the rest was given to the locals. This was really paradise. The locals were very friendly and there was no thieving. We could leave everything outside at night.
Ponta do Ouro
We had one other trip to Mozambique before we got a Land Rover discovering overlanding. This was to Ponta do Ouro in our Ford Corsair. There was no problem as the road from Ressano Garcia was in very good condition, far better than now 44 years later.
It was just after this trip that our first son Alan was born. As we were not too keen to take babies out of South Africa. We did a couple of overlanding trips inside the country.
The most important of which was to Sodwana in our new Ford Cortina Station wagon with Alan and new arrival Brian. The campsite at Sordwana was small, about 20 sites. The other campers there were amazed that we had actually got there in a car, as there was a lot of very heavy sand on the road.
We had discovered overlanding and this trip finally convinced us that we needed a Land Rover. The only other choice in those days was a Toyota Land Cruiser.
Next is part 2 of this story where we travel with Land Rovers
Watch the full video of this discovering overlanding story at The Overland Legend on Youtube
