We’re travelling for a year!
Curiosity in Colour path: LONDON 🛫⇨ LISBON 🛫 ⇨ MAPUTO 🚌⇨ TOFO 🚌 ⇨ VILANCULOS 🚣 ⇨ BAZARUTO 🚣 ⇨ VILANCULOS 🚌 ⇨ MAPUTO 🛫⇨ JOHANNESBURG 🛫⇨ LILONGWE
After years of meticulous planning (read our tips on what to think about before travelling) and even more years of frugal living to save for this adventure – it was time. We had said the goodbyes to family, friends and nonessential items (we miss you, luxury developed world products). With everything we need for a year packed ever so tightly in our 45L and 65L travel bags we head to the self-check-in desks. Excitedly entering our passport numbers (the first of many times) and booking references into the machine, ERROR ❌. So, we try again. UNABLE TO CHECK-IN, HEAD TO DESK.
We’re now in a queue waiting to be seen by the TAP representative and slightly concerned about the error messages. We get waved over by a gentleman with protein shake breakfast in hand, who asked for our passports. After scanning them, he looks at us with a worrying look and says, “you don’t have a return flight booked?”.
“WE’RE TRAVELING FOR A YEAR!”, we reply in joyous harmony.
Still puzzled, he replies, “and this is all you’ve packed! Can we take a picture of you two and put it on the wall for all to see, please?”. Turns out he wasn’t concerned about the length of our journey. He was worried about us being able to get a VISA for Mozambique. We quickly reassured him that we had done our due diligence and applied for one in advance at the Mozambique high commission in London. Panic over, he checked us in and wished us all the best for our year of travels.
Mozambique is situated in the South East of Africa. We would describe it as being Portuguese in influence, Brazilian in attitude and African by default. Following colonisation by Portugal and lack of finding a ‘better’ replacement post-independence the official language is Portuguese. However, some locals wouldn’t look out of place in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu dojo and/or a favela.
Our first stop in Mozambique was the capital city, Maputo. Pre-independence it was known as Lourenço Marques, the city boasts fading colonial-era architecture and an attractive natural setting alongside the harbour. There isn’t much to see and/or do in Maputo, so a day is plenty. It is, however, a great pit-stop for onward travels to Tofo Beach and Vilanculos.
As you may know, we have a budget that doesn’t allow for the fanciest of accommodation. We arrived at our humble Maputo abode, Pensao Da Baixa Guest House, thankful that we made it and found it (both aren’t as easy as they sound – believe us). Really friendly and helpful staff who give good honest advice (something we will never take for granted again). If you’re like us and just need a bed, working air conditioning, wifi and hot water. Pensao Da Baixa Guest House delivers all and is close to the bus stop for the onward journey to Tofo Beach (more on that here).
What really attracted us to Mozambique was the beaches. It has Africa’s longest stretch of Indian Ocean coastline 1,616 miles long from Tanzania to South Africa. This extensive coastline means more chance of beautiful beaches.
Our second stop in Mozambique was Tofo, if you’ve read our Traveling in Mozambique blog post you already know about the fun journey to get to what the Lonely Planet describes as being a small town with a perpetual party atmosphere. We know it was winter (May – November), which means warms days still but cooler nights, but we didn’t come across this never-ending party.
Being a beach town there are several water activities that you can do in Tofo. We were mainly interested in swimming with whale sharks (the largest fish in the sea). The activity is called Ocean Safari.
We stan for the marketing genius who came up with this concept. They’ve essentially come up with a way of grouping all the different snorkelling trips that you can do together, making sure that they don’t have to ‘guarantee’ sight of any particular ocean creature. Nonetheless, we were upbeat about our chances to see and potentially swim with a whale shark. Tofo is home to a resident population of whale sharks, which make year-round encounters possible. However, the best time to visit is between October and March when the plankton blooms inspire huge aggregations of whale sharks.
We visited and enquired about prices at three of the main diving schools in Tofo, who all offer the same thing for the same price:
Peri-Peri Divers – the self-proclaimed hottest diving school in Tofo. Not the closest to the centre of town, but it’s a very small place, and they do have a great view of the whole beach and provide free wifi!
Diversity Scuba – Tofo's longest operating scuba dive centre based in the heart of town. They have a lovely café upstairs that provides tasty sweet treats made onsite with humble equipment and local produce. However, rumour has it that they’re looking at relocating to a place that has a proper kitchen!
Liquid Dive Adventure – Tofo’s newest dive centre. They’re a little walk from the centre but have the nicest setup (maybe because it’s the newest site) and boast a delightful vegetarian restaurant.
Our thrifty nature meant that we decided to go with Peri-Peri Divers. All three charge 5% if you buy using credit card (Liquid Dive Adventures don’t change for bank transfer). However, Peri-Peri offer discount if you have your own equipment (snorkel, masks and flippers). We were extremely happy with our decision. The marine researcher who took us on our Ocean Safari was knowledgeable and made us feel safe.
Our last stop in Mozambique was to Vilanculos. Offering long beaches and shallow water, which is ideal for fun in the sun. Just beyond the bay is the magnificent Bazaruto Archipelago, a chain of islands in a marine national park. We had heard of and determined to do two activities in Vilanculos:
Ocean walk with horses 🐴 – Thanks to Mozambique Horse Safari as well as the shallow and calm waters it’s possible to ride horses bareback in the ocean. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. This is not the cheapest activity in Vilanculos but having this unique experience with horses rescued from Zimbabwe at the height of the political violence is totally worth it. The whole experience lasts an hour and a lot of time and care is taken with every element. You don't need to worry if it's your first ever time on a horse (like it was for Quan), but do prepare yourself for a very bony spine.
Visit Bazaruto – This is usually done by a booking a day trip. The main providers of this are a company called Dolphin Dhow. However, many of the lodges also offer independent day trips. Depending on the size of your boat (we had quite a small one) it takes approximately 45 minutes to get to the closet point on Barazuto. Our first stop on our day trip was to visit sand dunes. This was followed by snorkelling at coral reefs and then we had lunch (the food was amazing, the freshest 🦀 we've ever had). On the way home we stopped off at a tiny island (maybe 10 metres x 5 metres) in the middle of the sea made entirely from shells🐚. The day trip was even capped off with a quick hello from a dolphin 🐬 as we sped to back to Vilanculos.
We sent 13 days in Mozambique and spent £26 each per day, coming in a little under our £33 average budget target. We tried our best to do things the local way regarding food and transport, which helped us have money to do the fun activities like swimming with a whale shark, riding horses bareback into the surf and visiting the nearby archipelago.
If you have any questions on Mozambique please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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