Vilankulo and Swimming with the Fishes in the Bazaruto Archipelago

Our drive to Vilankulo went rather smoothly, although we started suffering from the slight side-effects from the anti-malaria pills we decided we ought to start taking, given the number of mosquito bites we have begun to accumulate. So far the side-effects haven't been too bad, just the slight feeling of nausea, the occasional headache and a persistent feeling of lethargy. We're not letting it get us down though!

Vilankulo is another seaside town, but a bit larger and more bustling than Tofo. We found a lovely resort to stay in with clean, comfortable rooms with air-conditioning right by the beach. Unfortunately, however, the weather took a turn for the worse, so we spent the first day and half exploring the town and watching movies on our laptop. We found an internet cafe to catch up on emails and our blog and booked a dhow (boat) trip to go snorkelling in Magaruque, the closest island in the Bazaruto archipelago, for the following day. The weather forecast wasn't great, but as long as the sea wasn't too choppy and there wasn't much rain, the trip would go ahead.

We were up bright and early the next morning and the weather wasn't too bad so we headed out. We motored to the island in about an hour where we were dropped off by the reef and snorkelled for the best part of an hour. It was a nice experience, though the current was quite strong so you couldn't spend long looking at each area of the reef. We then spent a couple of hours on the island (together with another couple who were on our trip), with a fresh fish lunch cooked for us, chatting and walking on the beach before heading back.

We sailed on the way back, so it took a lot longer, and unfortunately, seasickness got the better of me towards the end. Not a great end to a good day, but it was still a nice experience.

We spent the next day deciding whether to continue further up the coast or to stay a bit longer in Vilankulo and do another boat trip, this time to the well-renowned two mile reef, which is meant to be the most spectacular reef in the Bazaruto archipelago for diving and snorkelling. You can only reach this reef by speedboat on a day trip, and we managed to find a company that was going out the following day so we booked ourselves another place to stay for the weekend and went on the trip. The weather had improved and we had sunshine for the most part of the day. The first stop was Benguerra island, with beautiful white sand beaches (and a few exclusive resorts). We got our snorkelling briefing (there were 7 of us) and headed out to the part of the reef known as the 'aquarium'. Once we got there, we immediately understood the nickname. It was beautiful! All the live coral and the hundreds of different types of fish swimming around you. We spent about half an hour snorkelling in the 'aquarium', but the tide was so low that it was hard to avoid the coral (I got a nice scrape on one knee), so we were taken to another two places, but there was much less to see.

We then headed off to Bazaruto island where we had a few hours to have lunch, swim and chill on the beach.

Just before heading back, Joost was having a conversation with the skipper of our speedboat, and he let Joost drive the boat back to Vilankulo (a 45min ride). Joost's experience working for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) shone through and he safely brought us back to shore through choppy waters. This time, no seasickness, great snorkelling, good weather and all in all a lovely day out.

 

Sunday was a day of rest, catching up on emails and planning the next leg of our trip. And it was decided, a little further up the coast we go...

Desert Island Dreams Come True

After having left Tofo behind, we headed north on the EN1 towards Vilankulo/Vilanculos. Whilst the roads were in excellent condition, the police had obviously taken a leaf out of Western law enforcement entrapment techniques and positioned themselves behind a parked truck at the exact point where the speed limit changed from 100 km/h to 60 km/h. We were pulled over and handed a little printed out slip of paper that indicated that we were going 20km/h too fast. I had to hand over my driver's license and the car papers and received a lecture on the dangers of my reckless 'speeding'. After protesting my innocence, including stating that I would never break speed limits and that I had been instructed by my 'Government' to strictly adhere to the rules of the road, we were allowed to continue our journey, our wallet and sense of justice intact.

Christel had been reading up on the different places to stay along the coast, and when we came to a turn off for Pomene, we decided to see what it was like and headed down a sandy track. The road got worse and worse, and we started wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.



The car laboured on through the thick sand and eventually we came to the end of the track and found ourselves at Pomene Lodge, set on a tiny peninsula, with the ocean on one side and an estuary on the other.

The site was completely deserted apart from the staff and one other group of people staying there. We checked out the accomodation options and decided to camp under a bunch of trees right on the beach. The views and scenery was stunning. This was the perfect beach that we had been looking for.

We parked up, set up the tent and wandered along the beach looking for a place to go for a swim. Unfortunately, even perfect beaches have their downsides, as this one was filled with super-sized jellyfish, including the infamous Portuguese Man o' War version, which can apparently paralyze an adult. Us both being adults, we decided to give the swimming a miss and instead just continued our walk along the deserted beach.

In the evening, we watched the sunset and contemplated our luck of having stumbled upon this remote gem.

The next morning, we bought a bunch of fresh fruit and vegetables from a group of friendly villagers, paying well over the odds for the mangoes, bananas, and tomatoes, but enabling us to have a very healthy breakfast and lunch.

After breakfast, I once again repacked the car, finally finding the ideal functional lay-out for all our belongings, supplies, tools and emergency equipment.

We chilled during the day, reading on the beach, wandering along the water's edge, and playing guitar.

 We managed to record another video of Christel playing and singing, and if the internet works for long enough we can post it here:



In the evening, Christel had an open air shower next to the car, we prepared another camp fire from wood collected from the beach, cooked a lovely pasta dish and relaxed under a star-filled sky.

The next morning, we packed up our tent, said our goodbyes to the staff and made our way through the thick sand back to the main road and onwards to Vilankulo.