Travelling overland from Vilankulos to Ilha De Mozambique

After an epic journey from Vilankulos to Ilha De Mozambique I thought I'd share the experience here for future Mozambique adventurers.

If you are going overland from southern to northern Mozambique, you will be travelling for a few days but it is worth the effort as northern Mozambique is so amazingly lovely!

A bus leaves Vilankulo to Beira at 4am from the main bus station in Vilankulo. This journey takes about 10 hours but the bus is not a chappa so is slightly more comfortable.

In Beira you can take a direct overnight bus to Nampula. Two companies offer this service. TCO and Manning Nice. Both companies are within walking distance of the city centre but in opposite directions to each other. If at all possible book your ticket a few days in advance, both bus companies were booked up for days when my travel buddy and I tried to buy tickets for this service.
(Note: we met a guy who had been told that the TCO was full but pleaded for a while with the ticket selling lady until a seat miraculously became available- definitely worth a try!).

As an alternative to this over night service, you can get a bus from Beire to Quelimane. It leaves around 6am from the TPB bus station. This is a relatively comfortable bus by Mozambique standards and the journey takes about 10 hours. From Quelimane buses to Nampula leave between 3.30am and 4am and arrive in Nampula around 11am - 12pm.

Chappas to Ilha de Mozambique leave when they are full. We were advised that they only left in the morning but stubbornly sat on a chappa around 3pm and sure enough it filled up and we were in Ilha that same evening! The chappa will drop you at your guest house on the island. (Highly recommending Ruby's Bacpackers- it's in stone town and BEAUTIFUL!!!).

From Vilanculos we hitched to Quelimane and then took a bus to Nampula... Ruby's felt like a 5 star hotel after that journey! Does Uve (spelling?) still run Ruby's? But Ilha was definitely worth it, unbelievable place that, hope it doesn't become too commercial...