Summary: Beautiful nature, Difficult to reach, very limited facilities, not run well. Entrance 600pp, 900p vehicle, 1200 tent per night. Call ahead for reservations. (Apparently they can bring in solar power?)
Full details: We are adventuring around northern Mozambique and thought this place looked interesting. We emailed the website contact to try and get information. No reply. Let's go try anyway. Coming from the south (Pebane) it took a couple of days over very rough 4x4 road to get there. (Estimate average 30kmh) Don't be alarmed if you question if it really is a road. We entered the reserve through the SE entrance. The gate guards checked us in, and sent us on our way. There was no information about fees, or accommodation at the gate. They didn't seem to know anything. We asked, using phone translators, if camping was okay, and they said yes. Once inside the park the road (basically the only road) is a two track through (and sometimes around fallen) trees and bush. It's sandy and gravelly, but decent and generally we moved at about 30-40kmh. Coming in we had no animal sighting other than birds and the hordes of Tse tse flies that swarmed the vehicle. We made it to the Ranger check point mostly without anything too sketchy to pass through around or over (the start of rainy season - Jan4th) Rangers were nice, but offered no more information. Off then to Lice camp, we ran into some guys walking down the road who flagged us and told us that they had keys to the camp. Arriving, the camp is pretty decent. After parking and waiting they arrived and told us we could camp in our tent or use their facilities (all limited language communication) for 500 Metical a night. What a deal, we will take 2 nights!! No power, no water, other than them bringing a few buckets a day from a nearby creek, it's all fine because the place is wild and beautiful.
The tents generally all had 2 mosquito netted beds (double and single) with a toilet and shower area attached. These seemed amazing and after the first day we decided that we wanted 2 more nights. This is where things got strange. All the rangers and the camp people showed up, we hung out, and tried to pay for 2 more nights, but were told it's ok, and that now the big boss wants to talk to us. Next day we bush whacked a 5k loop (no trails) and saw lots of animal tracks, heard baboons, 1.8 meter monitor lizard, large spiders and Tse tse the whole way. Lots of pretty plants and flowers and trees. Just before dinner, the boss arrived. He asked a lot of questions about how we knew it the place, and why we were there; Then informed us we had to pay for our accommodation, park entrance and vehicle fee. (Entrance 600pp, 900pv; 1200 per night in the tent) So we owed 6900. We said okay, but that we had been told a different price and already paid 1000. Boss took 6k and said he'd deal with it. The camp guys said they'd charged us a water fee, and not camp fees. Next day (3) the guys didn't bring water, and were stand off asking what we told the boss. Seemed like a shakedown, and at best not friendly, so we decided to leave a day early. We went out through the NW, through the town of Gilē which isn't on Google maps. From Lice camp to the N1 at Numaca took about 7ish hours over rough hills and 4x4 road. The reserve roads are good, but we had to move 4 fallen trees from the road. (Hauled them manually or used the land Rover and pushed the tree aside) I'm not sure it's worth it yet if you're looking for animals. They apparently have Crocodiles, Baboon, Monkees, Lion, Jackel, Leopard, Kudu, Zebra, Water Monitors, Duiker (No: Impala, cheetah, giraffe, rhino, hippo.) Again, we barely saw a couple fleeting deer in the distance while driving. It's too dense to explore by vehicle, as there really is no other road. (I did see one fork on the way out, but it looked quite disused.) I know the reserve needs money, but it's rough, and not...
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