David Wightman puts his superb new Subaru Forester through its paces while visiting a magnificent beach venue at Ponta D’Ouro.
Story by David Wightman
Four up and the boot packed, the spanking new burnished bronze Subaru Forester 2.5X purrs along the N2 to Hluhluwe, then swings on to the R22 towards the sea and the relatively new coastal road to the border. Tar all the way – perfect. This road should meet up with a new tar road the Mozambicans promised to build to open up a new tourist route to Maputo. But guess what? Their side has not even started yet. Instead, it’s tracks through the sand dunes all the way from Kozi Bay. Thank goodness for my brand new 4×4 SUV (although it should be said at the outset that the driver has grey hair and hasn’t driven off-road before – but this is exciting, bru!).
As we drove through Manguzi – a true African town pumping with commuters, hawkers, vendors, taxis, chickens, goats and so on – it occurred to me that it might be wise to fill up, but someone (no name mentioned) said there was a petrol station at the border. There isn’t.
No worries. The state-of-the-art dash says we have 160km left in the tank, and we’re only travelling eight or so kilometres from the Kozi Bay border to Bev Mould’s Gala Gala Eco Resort at Ponta D’Ouro, our destination.
At the border, which is quite a palaver, we let the tyres down (although maybe not enough) and we’re off again. Sitting in arm-chair comfort with climate controlled air-conditioning – it was baking outside – we made our way through a maze of soft sandy tracks, the Forester’s magnificent Boxer engine maintaining optimum grip, balance and control.
The Forester has some amazing features, including a Vehicle Dynamics Control system which pops up on the instrument panel indicating the “road” being travelled on has a slippery surface, and helps to prevent unstable vehicle motion by using control of the brakes and engine power. For a first-timer like myself, this made difficult driving a lot easier (and fun!). Nevertheless we are happy to arrive at Gala Gala, where we receive a warm welcome.
You may remember Bev Mould – a fantastic tennis player in her time, world ranked on the circuit, who once famously took on Martina Navratilova on the Centre Court at Wimbledon. Now, with her partner Mandy and her brother, they run a small, comfortable beach resort tucked into the dune forest at Ponta, providing scuba diving, snorkelling, dolphin and whale watching, bathing on beautiful unspoiled beaches with access to a wonderful selection of local and foreign-owned restaurants, small baraccas and pubs. Buckets of prawns and peri-peri chicken. Oh boy! Chilled Portuguese wine and tasty 3M beers. So attractively foreign and different – and just five hours from Durban.
Gala Gala is simple and comfortable, with wonderful breakfasts and other meals provided should they be needed, but then if you stayed in you would miss out on the delights on offer in town. Bev and Mandy, armed with local knowledge, took us to some local haunts which were huge fun – and the food quite delicious. They also pointed out sights to see during the day, where to go for lunch, and good beaches to visit a little further north.
While returning from lunch at Jenny’s Bar set on a high sand dune overlooking the coast, the speedo reminded us we had no more than 40km left before we would have to fill up. We swung into a small filling station at Ponta, only to be greeted by an attendant with arms outstretched. Sorry, no petrol. Anyway, as it turned out they only sold diesel. Oh dear.
We were due to leave for Mkuze first thing the next day, but fortunately guardian angel Bev came to our rescue with a jerry can of the right stuff – and once again we were on our way, the Forester powering itself along the soft sand. That is, until rounding a bend we came face to face with a woman driving a big 4×4. Being a proper gentleman, I swung to the left to avoid her and found ourselves well and truly buried in a sand bank. Oh dear. Some locals, one armed with a spade, appeared out of the blue with palms outstretched, but there was little they could do. We were stuck fast. Then, a second guardian angel, Mandy, came to the rescue in her Gala Gala vehicle. Once we had emptied the boot to find the right tools, she quickly towed us out and we made it to the border without further incident. Quite an adventure.
I can really give the Forester full marks for comfort, performance and safety – it’s a magnificent vehicle. Gala Gala Eco Resort also ticks all the boxes for hospitality, service, great hostesses and fun. But the driver, oh dear, he gets a one, maybe a two, but he sure had a lot of fun.
