Coastal Self-Drive Holiday: Exploring Mozambique’s Beauty

Mozambique tweaks its tourism act a little every year. Getaway went on a self-drive 4×4 expedition from Bilene to Vilanculos to ferret out the best of old and new for a beach holiday.

Words and photographs by Catherine Hofmeyr

‘I found it,’ I texted my son in his wintry boarding house in Cape Town. Bemused by why I didn’t let him skip the end of mid-year exams and join me on a 12-day trip to Mozambique, Tom had issued this parting instruction: ‘Well then, Mom, find us a perfect place for our next family holiday, near a surf break with lots of space for friends.’

I was standing on the balcony of Casa Malcampo’s main house when I sent the message. A balmy evening breeze rustled the palms, while I looked over a headland to the beach. Renowned Tofinho surf point lay just around the corner. It was the perfect spot for a frosty Dois M after a long drive.

There are few short road hops in Mozambique. Long ones become very long ones due to crawling traffic in towns and getting lost among stately palms on seaward tracks. Our long hop had started two days earlier in Joburg, when Getaway colleague Gabby Jacobs and I had piled our sarongs, snorkelling gear and mozzie repellent into an Isuzu D-Max crew cab and set the on-board sat-nav for Komatipoort.

I was last in Mozambique 12 years ago, and plenty has changed. Our eastern neighbour is now red – not communist-hangover or even Coke red, but Vodacom red, on virtually every village building. And the feared transitos (traffic police) smiled and waved our bakkie through every checkpoint.

There’s lots to do at the Bilene Club Lodge, a favourite coastal getaway for city-dwellers in Maputo. Image: Catherine Hofmeyr.

First stop was Bilene, on the shores of Uembje Lagoon, separated from the sea by a narrow strip of coastal dunes. ‘It’s the first blue water north of Maputo, so Bilene is very popular as a weekend getaway from the city,’ said general manager Jacques de Wet, welcoming us to Bilene Club Lodge. There’s a new road being built, direct from Maputo, which will cut the trip to around an hour. The lodge is right on the lagoon, with green lawns, a communal Saturday braai at a beachside pool and mooring for boats out front.

Jacques’ son JJ runs the activities centre and soon had us aboard his boat for a trip to Turtle Rock. We anchored near the lagoon mouth and crossed the beach to where sand cliffs culminated in Turtle Rock. For some reason, these critters hang out here and you’re almost guaranteed a sighting. From the top we spotted three. The views of a wild coastline disappearing northwards were just as exhilarating.

‘You’ll need six hours to get to Inhambane,’ Jacques advised (it’s 270 kilometres). It proved a slow-going six-and-a-half, crossing the Limpopo at bustling Xai-Xai and on past the beautiful lake-lands around Quissico. Vasco da Gama called the area around Inhambane Terra da boa Gente (Land of Good People). Five centuries on, there are still some fine humans around. Our host, Eddie Grujon, and his manager, Luis Combi, at Casa Malcampo were two of them. They treated us to a cuta (king mackerel) braai at the pool with side helpings of local casquinas (stuffed crab), prawn rissóis and coconut rice. For action and activities in the area, we just asked Eddie.

Team Duzentos, surf competitions and lifesavers are new additions to Tofo Beach, thanks to The Surf Shack. Image: Catherine Hofmeyr.

On Tofinho Point next morning at sunrise we met Allison Levin and Dave Rupping, aka the good people of The Surf Shack, having a coffee. The ‘shack’ was opened in a back alley of Tofo by a Hollander a few years ago. Allison and Dave bought it in December last year and have transformed it into an organised beachfront shop. They’ve also taken a few local lads under their wing, providing boards and coaching. Team Duzentos were delighted to shred Tofo beach break while I clicked away.

The coast from Barra to Tofinho is a hub of scuba diving and surfing activity and the hot – literally – newcomer on the block is Peri-Peri Divers. Steve Counsel grew up on a council estate in Manchester. In his late teens he washed up in Cape Town, then decided to drive home. He got as far as Tofo, tried diving and 17 years later, together with Nicholas Bateman, has built one of the finest dive centres I’ve ever seen – with Wi-Fi and complimentary popcorn to boot. Their three, semi-rigid inflatables are all named after chillies, and for your forays underwater you can choose your degree of ‘heat’. Having not dived for a few years I opted for Fingers, definitely in the lemon-and-herb league (expect currents and toothy critters on a ‘hot’ dive) but it provided excellent sightings of a mantis shrimp, honeycomb eel, blue-spotted ray and a lizard fish chomping something small and orange – medium-hot by the look of it.

Peri-Peri Divers in Tofo makes learning scuba diving easy in the five-metre-deep pool on site. Image: Catherine Hofmeyr.

Back at Malcampo, Eddie had an old Safari surfboard and lots of advice, but the swell remained tiny until just before we had to leave. Cursing Murphy, Poseidon and other spoilers of that ilk, I bounced reluctantly out of Tofinho, vowing to be back.

‘How far can we ride along this beach? I asked Ben Gericke, straddling my dikwiel bike. ‘Aaah, about 2,500 kilometres,’ he said, looking at me quizzically. It was a day later and we were on the flat highway of beach fronting Travessia Lodge at low tide. Several kays down we’d passed fishermen tending their nets but no other signs of civilisation.

If you had to pin Travessia down geographically, it’s in the Morrumbene area. At the end of a sand track through cashew trees and palms, we came to the off-grid eco-lodge, a hilltop collection of sea-view chalets linked by boardwalks.

Travessia is a barefoot luxury lodge designed for chilling – but the lodge dogs, Essie and TK, much preferred Gabby Jacobs cycling down the beach at low tide, than reading in her porch hammock. Images: Catherine Hofmeyr.

‘Dinner tonight will be in the palm grove,’ announced Adel, our delightful co-host with Ben. And what a dinner it was, with braaied rock cod and a crayfish too big for the plate. Lanterns flickered, the fire burned low… I’m not saying anything more, except get to Travessia, if it’s the only place you go in Moz.

Traditionally, Vilanculos was a launch pad for visitors to the upmarket island lodges of the Bazaruto Archipelago, but these days the seafront town has plenty to offer landlubbers. While I met up with Kerry Butler of Sailaway Dhow Safaris at their mainland camp, Gabby spent two nights at Archipelago Resort, a long-time family favourite with a dive centre, south of town. From the veranda of each thatched casa, there are magnificent views of the sandbanks and turquoise channels as the tide ebbs and flows around the islands.

‘With Mozambique Horse Safaris, I befriended a gentle furry giant named Bazan, and we horsed around on the beach in the sunset as colourful dhows pulled in and eager fishermen enticed me with the catch of the day – fresh lulas (squid),’ said Gabby. ‘The next morning I set out in a kayak from Dive Bazaruto, visiting mangrove forests and hopping from one sandbank to another.’

It was Gabby Jacobs’s first time on a horse with Mozambique Horse Safaris at Archipelago Resort near Vilanculos; they also ride on Benguerra Island. Image: Elizabeth Broomhall.

Dhows in Vilanculos are almost as ancient as the islands themselves. Chatting to Kerry rekindled fond memories of a long-ago family trip to the island of Margaruque, so next day I joined fellow guests Alexis and Martin aboard the Dona Teresa.

‘Dugong!’ shouted guide Alfonso Mhaca as we neared the island. It was just a glimpse, then it dived out of sight. There are only a handful of these mythical creatures left in the Bazaruto National Park. As we sailed into the reef-sheltered cove, memories from 12 years ago came flooding back. What’s changed since then? Blissfully nothing – the water was still translucent aquamarine and the snorkelling sublime.

Back on the mainland, I discovered a very good reason to overnight in town: Casa Babi, with on-site Odyssea Divers. Arriving damp, salty and sunburnt from the island day trip, the fluffy towels, marula conditioner and Kalahari body lotion were just the pampering my body craved.

Watch dhows unloading the night’s catch from Casa Babi in Vilanculos; snorkelling off Margaruque, you drift gently along with the tide, so there’s no need for fins while you tick off eels, lionfish, parrot fish and more of the 2,000-odd species of the Bazaruto National Park. Images: Catherine Hofmeyr.

My French hosts, Denis Dujardin and Sabrina Rocco, bought Odyssea back in 2007. And slowly Casa Babi rose out of cactus and sand on the plot next door into a boutique guest house in tropical foliage. The three-course dinner included crayfish with French flair. And from my bed the next morning, I watched dhow sails returning with the night’s catch.

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