Jan 24, 2018 - Ibo island Mozambique

First the tourist blurb: virtually unknown to the outside world and undisturbed for centuries, Ibo island is a place where time has stood still. Well it oozes bygone times, an ancient Muslim trader site established before the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century. There was no love lost when the Portuguese arrived and displaced The Arab traders who refused to trade with them, resulting in Arab life and property destruction. The village is quite spread out melting back into the lush vegetation, grand old colonial buildings and a...

Jan 20, 2018 - Ihla de Mozambique

Fortunately we and our luggage survived four aircraft changes to arrive together in time to meet our ship for the week's trip up the Mozambique coast. The highlight of the journey was clearly the opportunity to join the flight deck for the night landing in the small airfield of Arusha in Tanzania, the smallest airport on the KLM network that can take a Boeing 777 200. It requires a steep approach to avoid surrounding mountains including Kilimanjaro and the airfield occasionally suffers from approach landing light failures, but not this...

Aug 20, 2016 - Machangulo, Santa Maria Peninsula, Mozambique

We left Windhoek, Namibia, flew to Johannesburg and spent a (thankfully) uneventful evening in Johannesburg. The kids were sure we wouldn't make it out of that city alive, so they were quite excited when we got on the plane to Maputo, Mozambique. Maputo is a big city (almost 3 million people) but it has a tiny little airport - I think because they've been at war for so many years, most people can't afford to fly, and Mozambique doesn't get a lot of tourists. After arriving in Maputo we got a ride to the Maputo Marina and then took a boat...

Jan 30, 2015 - Ponta D'Ouro, Mozambique

Headed up to Ponta D'Ouro Mozambique for a week of surf, sun, rest and relaxation after a busy holiday in the Mpumalanga region. I was delightfully surprised with the beauty of southern Mozambique, and the friendliness of the locals. It took the last day of the trip, for me to score some quality waves and the famous right handed point, but when the swell arrived it was well worth the wait.

Dec 8, 2012 - day of Relaxaztion at Massinga Beach lodge

Saturday, December 8th - day of Relaxaztion at Massinga Beach lodge Today was a day of pure relaxation...sleeping a little late, okay we still woke up at 6am, and a nice coffee on our deck. After breaks we hiked down the cliffs to the pool/lunch area to enjoy the pool and the beach. The beach was desolate with an occasional local fishing off the beach just using a solo line and no fishing rod. Large boulders dotted the beach and the waves were even higher today than yesterday reaching about 5-8ft...Marks dream come true. Although there was...

Dec 7, 2012 - Vilanculos to Massinga

Friday, December 7th - Vilanculos to Massinga It was the last morning to soak it all in prior to leaving. It was a very cloudy morning with storms out over the islands. We watched the storms rolling out to sea but never actually made it to Vilanculos. I will miss my beautiful multiple blue hues of the ocean water balcony views and my favorite balcony swing. Our driver arrived in the morning to drive us from Vilanculos to Inhabane ( Massinga Lodge). initially I had a LAM flight booked for that leg but the flight was canceled and the airline...

Dec 6, 2012 - Free Day in Vilanculos

Thursday, December 6th - Vilanculos - Free Day A crazy storm literally poured tons and tons of rain throughout the night....lightening, thunder, and periods of no electricity which meant no fans. The wind was fiercely blowing and knocking the coconut trees in front of the lodge back and forth like it was a tropical storm...we thought for sure it was going to be a rainy day spent at Casa Babi. Still rainy during our breakfast, our Dhow Sailing/snorkeling trip was canceled. It was actually a blessing in disguise because it gave us an...

Dec 5, 2012 - Snorkeling 2 Mile Reef - Bazarato Island

Wednesday, December 5th - Snorkeling 2 Mile Reef - Bazarato Island It was a great hot morning and a great day for our snorkeling trip to Bazarato Island to snorkel the archipelago of Two Mile Reef! We were taking it thru the Odeseyea Dive company (owners of our lodge). About 8 divers and 3 snorkel ears climbed on a small motorized dive boat and set out full speed ahead to Bazarato Island. It was about a 45 min ride to the island. The ride was very bumpy with large waves crashing into our tiny boat. I was hanging on for dar life on the boat...

Dec 4, 2012 - - day in Villanculous

Tuesday, dec 4- day in Villanculous Ay 3:45am I wasn't awakened to hippos or lions but rather men shouting...ha! It was the fisherman getting ready to set sail during high tide as the sun rose at 4:00am. I wanted to watch the sunrise but figured I would do it another day and rolled off to sleep in today...till 6:30! Ha! It was great getting up to see such beautiful view and the water sparkling for the morning sun. I even have fantastic views of the water and beach in the reflection of the bathroom mirror while I brush my teeth! A relaxing...

Dec 3, 2012 - Johannesburg, South Africa to Vilanculos, Mozambique

Monday, dec 3rd - Johannesburg, South Africa to Vilanculos, Mozambique Up early again but this time with a hair dryer! Yea! My pet peeve is a hotel that says they have wifi, you buy time on it, and the connection is too weak to use it....and that is what happened this morning. I had to resort to using my " intl package" I bought from AT&T that evidently does not apply to ANY of the countries I visited, my phone has been officially shut off! so, that was not a nice call to them this morning...I think its time to scrap the idea of blogging in...

Aug 1, 2012 - Day 41 Vilanculos to Chimoio - still in Mozambique

Peter is boiling water for coffee. Getting out of bed and headed for Chimoio today 470 km, we connect with the busy Beira road. Our last view of a beautiful beach sun rise here in the Lagoon. The beaches in Mozambique have been very different but all stunningly beautiful. This remains still such an under developed country. Long long drive - again after arriving in Chimoio we were surprised by Sadik's extended family and have great lunch packs for tomorrow. Early night tonight as we have a long drive over 600 KM tomrrow By Thomas

Aug 1, 2012 - Day 37 Ponto Do Ouro to Maputo - Blue Sky

The weather had cleared up a bit so we had booked a dolphin tour in the morning – we all got up at 6.30 to be there for 7 AM – We got our instructions and off we went in the rocky sea up the coast about 20 km and we saw nothing – we were told that there was a nice reef and jumped in the water to see nothing and then headed back – Not much of an excursion other than a bumpy boat ride. We packed up at the house and headed for the ferry at Catembe across from Maputo – about 40 KM’s in deep sand was some kind of an experience, but we managed...