The wonders of Mozambique are opening up

The engine groans. Water sputters. The boat leans, and a fellow passenger’s pink birthday cake, topped with whipped cream, threatens to slip from her lap to the ground. “If you’re scared, we can always take the bigger ferry,” my guide Januario tells me.

No need. I emerge safely on the other side of Maputo Bay, Mozambique. Battered fishing boats rock on the water, tiny fish bake in the sun on beachside stalls and locals are gathering for their 8am shandy. I clamber into a minibus and watch the driver’s orange rosary beads sway to Rihanna’s hits, which blare through tinny speakers to the homes that dot the road.

The road: everyone’s favourite topic. Although my journey may sound chaotic, that’s all about to change. I’m on my way from Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, to explore the pristine beaches of the country’s south. A year ago this journey could take up to eight hours, the route only accessible to fearless 4x4 drivers who weren’t afraid to push their jeeps out of muddy ditches. But in a few months, thanks to a new bridge (cutting out long car ferry crossings) and a new Tarmac road (its last lines of paint are being completed as I type) the journey will be condensed into a cushy 90-minute drive. It will fast-track travellers to Ponta do Ouro, a beach town in the south, and ease access to a smattering of hotels that line the undiscovered coastline.

I’m starting a little further north at Anvil Bay, a luxury eco camp that’s set deep in Maputo Special Reserve. The thrillingly remote beach lodge has been a decade in the making, its existence the combined efforts of several charitable foundations and a community association representing the local villages which will benefit from the lodge’s earnings.

At the Jurassic Park-style gates of the reserve I swap from the minibus to take on the web of sandy tracks and savannahs by 4x4. The space was earmarked in 1932 to safeguard the country’s coastal elephants. Today, thanks to a game restocking programme, it has blossomed into a vast protected habitat for wildebeest, hippos and some of the most spectacular bird populations in the country, including polka-dotted crested guinea fowl. It’s not unusual to see elephants – close to 500 live here – but the herds are strolling further south today. Instead I spot hippos rolling in water, inquisitive zebras and a spindly-legged saddle-billed stork, which struts as if it is on a catwalk.

I hope they’re happy to share, because we’re virtually room-mates. Anvil Bay creeps up on me, its footprint so small, its nine casinhas, or rooms, barely visible in the coastal forest. Mine sits buried in branches on the beach dunes, its stilted, majega thatch and canvas design allowing a cooling ocean breeze to flow through the refreshingly simple suite, with soft linens, a huge bed made with local wood and jugs of reverse osmosis water. It’s the only luxury outpost in the reserve, though a budget campsite lies some distance north. Apart from that? Nothing.

I’d happily spend all day in the invigorating outdoor shower, but sunshine beckons. I follow the path to squeaky Tic Tac-white sand, with turquoise waves tumbling 30 metres on. It stretches north and south as far as I can see, the only tracks those of a turtle that ambled on to the beach to lay her eggs during the night. I stroll two miles south and, returning, plunge into the waves. I don’t see another soul.

For three days I manage to do that rare thing: relax. Anvil Bay’s charm lies in switching off (there’s no Wi-Fi unless you go to the “restaurant” tent) and embracing the beach’s isolated serenity.

I try fishing off the beach, casting my line into an ocean so green you’d swear it had been tampered with. I wade a fat bike through the sand and binge on more romantic fiction than I should probably admit to. Come sunset, I guzzle chilled local beers under a dusty pink sky, which transforms into a vast inky blanket pricked by stars. When everyone goes to bed I sit around the campfire and revel in the silence. It’s intoxicating.

Yet Mozambique’s charm doesn’t rely on a luxe price tag. Inspired to see more, I head south to Ponta do Ouro, a ramshackle surf town that nudges the border of South Africa. My base is Gala Gala Eco Resort, a colourful, hugely loved guesthouse that reminds me of the glory days of backpacking. I set out to explore, taking a path down to the ocean and emerging on to one of the most thrilling stretches of sand I’ve seen.

Empty. I kick off my flip-flops and wander along the beach with an entourage of several hundred dolphins. They dip in and out of the waves barely 10 yards from my feet, and stay with me until I climb around the headland of Ponta do Ouro, meaning “tip of gold” – a nod to the bay’s southern cape.

Picnicking families are spread out on the butter-coloured sand, their smoky barbecues mingling with the salty air of the surf-pounded beach. Behind them, sandy lanes of paint-doused stalls sit next to crumbling baroque villas adorned with moss-strewn Portuguese tiles – a reminder of Mozambique’s colonial past.

Ponta do Ouro serves up its own heavenly version of rest and relaxation. R&R - a half-rum, half-raspberry pop flouro-pink cocktail that’s fondly downed by locals and visitors – comes with a wink and warning. “One is good, two is great. No more than three,” the bar’s owner tells me. I’ve never slept better. The next day calls for something a little more sedentary. I drive 11 miles north to Ponta Mamoli and arrive at White Pearl, one of the few luxury resorts on this southern coast. The clue’s in the name: the all-white interiors and squidgy sun loungers-with-views are the sublime antithesis of Ponta do Ouro’s bustle.

It’s here I explore another seemingly never-ending stretch of wave-lashed sand. I saunter along the coast on a ginger-tinged horse called Blazy (“because she’s a little lazy,” Lorenzo, the hotel’s activities guru, tells me), squint through a telescope at the moon and devour traditional deep-fried Mozambican snacks. I could spend many hours bobbing about in the ocean, but the new road has made it even easier to revisit the Maputo Special Reserve, rolling a bush and beach break into one afternoon.

Please, let me see elephants this time. I’m in the right hands. Domingos, my guide and a former reserve warden, is an expert in predicting football scores – and the animals’ whereabouts. We turn off the Tarmac and take a “hippo highway”, so called because the animal’s dung lies fresh in the sand. We stop to pick black monkey oranges, a slippery stone fruit that tastes like custard. We watch monkeys launch themselves from the low, wide branches of waterberry trees, see 12 giraffes striding regally alongside us and spy crocodiles snoozing in the late-afternoon sun. Finally, in the distance, we spot a herd of elephants. The jeep crawls closer and we watch them roam the grassy savannah until sunset.

Things move somewhat faster on my ocean safari. This southern stretch of coast is a hotbed for divers, and Lorenzo takes guests to the Pinnacles reef to see 12 species of (friendly) shark and to Croc Creek (for crocodile fish).

All very good, but I have other things on my mind: dolphins.

“Swimming with dolphins is a privilege, not a right,” Lorenzo tells me. “They can sense your mood, your anxieties, your stresses. They can tell you’re pregnant even before you do.” I’m nervous already.

The conditions are perfect: the sky a cloudless cornflower-blue, the wind low, the waves flat. We zip south along the coast, then follow it back north. Miles and miles of uninterrupted sand are backed by jungle forest, without a single eyesore in sight. Then we see them. A small pod of bottlenose dolphins starts wiggling around the front of our boat. “They are taking a nap,” Lorenzo says, “they close half their brain to swim and sleep at the same time.” Multitaskers, take note.

It would be rude to wake them. Instead we hurtle north, Lorenzo easing the throttle at a reef just off the beach. Mozambique’s tourism has previously suffered at the hands of political tension in the north, but here, 1,500 miles south, it’s a different story. “Investors want to build a port in this very spot,” Lorenzo says. “It would destroy the beach, the marine life and the peacefulness. We must all work to protect our coast.”

It’s hard to picture. Just yards away is another stretch of empty, dazzling white sand leading into lively jade-coloured ocean. I promise to play my part, pull on my snorkel and fins, and jump straight in.

Four more beach breaks in Mozambique

Set in the Quirimbas National Park – the largest protected marine reserve in Africa – Guludo is a small, barefoot lodge of stone and thatch villas, or bandas. There’s no electricity and no Wi-Fi (except in emergencies) – not that you’ll need it with eight miles of beach on your doorstep.

From Dh960 pp per night. guludo.com

The mansion at Ibo Island Lodge was once the headquarters of the Niassa trading company, and you’ll still enjoy the colonial-style architecture today. Take a boat trip to discover the best beaches of the archipelago, and learn about the wildlife that calls this island home.

From Dh1,430 pp per night. iboisland.com

For all-out luxury, try the Anantara Bazaruto Island set in the Bazaruto Archipelago, 20 miles off the coast of south Mozambique. At 37 miles long and 12 miles wide, there’s more pristine white-sand beach than you can possibly explore, plus diving, dune bashing and fishing.

From Dh1,700 pp per night. bazaruto.anantara.com

Tuck into fresh seafood at breezy beach bars and watch fisherman haul their nets on to the sand at Wimbe Beach, close to Pemba in north Mozambique. Base yourself at the Avani Pemba Beach Hotel &Spa which has its own lovely white sand beach out front.

From Dh630 per room. minorhotels.com

Traveller’s checks

Getting there

There are no direct flights from the UAE to Maputo, Mozambique’s capital but you can get there with one connection, either through Johannesburg, Nairobi or Addis Ababa.

Staying there

Anvil Bay (anvilbay.com) offers rooms from Dh1,480 per person including meals, drink and activities.

White Pearl (whitepearlresorts.com/) offers rooms from Dh2,000 per person including all accommodation, meals, drinks and activities.

Gala Gala Guesthouse (gala-gala.co.za) offers accommodation from Dh104 per person.

The Telegraph Group London LTD, 2018