27 May Another beautiful day. Flavia N you asked about Baia Sonambula – well it was fabulous. Lovely friendly staff, good breakfasts, awesome views from the seaview rooms and extremely comfortable beds – I would definitely stay there if I was you – ENJOY! Well today our dive was at a reef called Crocodile Rock, the marine life here in Mozambique is quite extraordinary and all the dives so far have been stunning. Overall our stay in Tofo was magical and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is a very laid back and relaxed place with plenty of things to do and see. We had dinner at Casa Barry as they seem to have the most comfortable dining chairs in town.

28 May Today we are off to Pomene Lodge which I am really looking forward to. We stopped about 3kms out of Tofo at the fuel station and there is a deli there called Chillies. They have the best coffee and cakes around; we also got some lovely filled rolls for lunch. It is run by Jenny & Gill and they do a great job. The road was up and down today, we had about 50kms or so of driving along beside the road until we got to the junction for Pomene. It was then a good dirt road for about 25kms to the gate of the reserve where we had to pay entrance fees. Then we hit the sand road for about 30kms or more, but good sand road the only thing is that it seems to mostly be a single track so you just hope that you don’t meet anything coming the other way! We arrived at the lodge and were welcomed by Oadie (the dog) English Setter, Neville & Wendy and Kirsty & Steve. We were staying in one of the water chalets, so asked if we could park in the campsite so that we could plug into the power for the freezer. Martin went to turn the car around to head back down to the campsite and duly got stuck! After a lot of tooing and froing we eventually got out and managed to park back in the campsite. This place uses a generator which runs twice a day for several hours which is plenty to keep the fridge/freezer going well.

29 – 31 May We went out the next day to Zambia Reef for a dive which was great fun. There seems to be even more marine life up in this region. When we first dropped down the first thing we saw was a manta ray which was so cool, there was also a reef shark, but I didn’t see it. We also went for a night dive in the estuary which was really great we saw seahorses which was just the best. This was the first night dive that I have done and has quite an eerie feel to it; we also saw a red baby octopus, baby zebra moray, baby firefish and loads of other things. All the things that you don’t usually get to see out on the reefs. Another excursion we did was a quad bike ride which was great fun to the old hotel, village and Pomene View Resort. The old hotel is reputed to be one of the most luxurious in its heyday, but like a lot of other places has fallen derelict after the war, it seems such a huge waste as it is a stunning location and the rooms and communal areas looked fantastic, but have been left to just rot and fall apart. We had a great time at Pomene, but tomorrow it is time once again to move north.

1 June We are on our way to Vilanculos today where we will be staying at Casa Rex for the first night. Once again the roads were a little up and down; once we rejoined the main road we unfortunately got stuck behind a truck doing 20kms an hour and as it was a one lane track at the side of the road there were no opportunities to pass for about 30kms or so – quite a long journey! Once you get to the good tarmac again the road was brilliant most of the way to Vilanculos which was appreciated. We arrived at beautiful Casa Rex and were welcomed by Mel & Suzannah. It is amazing how much the gardens have grown here; we stayed here 3 years ago and they had just planted a lot of new plants which have become trees now! We had a very late lunch when we arrived and then Dave from Sailaway came to see us and explain all about the dhow safari we would be doing tomorrow. He also told us about the boat trip that they had done which started in Fernao Veloso to pick up their new dhows; this was the same trip that Kerry did with him – quite an adventure and took much longer than first intended. We had a lovely dinner at Casa Rex and then packed our bags for our 2 day dhow safari before getting a good night’s rest.

2-4 June We arrived down at Sailaway at 8.30am for our dhow safari and we found that another Dutch couple would be doing the safari with us which is great; when you are together 24/7 you can run out of conversation as you are doing all the same things together. We set off for the island of Magaruque where we were to go snorkeling, walking around the island and having lunch. The dhows have a big box type thing at the back full of sand which they use as a fire place to cook the meals on, it works amazingly well and Alfredo was a fantastic chef! We decided that it was a little cold to go snorkeling so started on our journey back across to the mainland to Chigamane Camp which is north of Vilanculos on the mainland where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights. We had a fabulous dinner and sat around the fire having drinks and talking until about 9pm (oh so late) before heading off to our tents for the night. We were up around 7am for breakfast and then we were due to sail across to the southern tip of Bazaruto Island; basically between Bazaruto and Benguerra Island’s to Two Mile Reef for snorkeling. Well what a bumpy trip out to the reef, but we were rewarded with great snorkeling. It is quite crazy to be snorkeling along behind a reef whilst there are huge big breakers (waves) the other side. We then pulled up closer to the island for lunch which once again was brilliant all once again made on board over the fire. We then sailed back to Chigamane Camp for the night. Dumas (the first mate) had a couple of handlines so I was trawling one of these the whole time on the ocean and managed to catch 2 lizard fish – it must be said that they are not good eating far too many bones! The last6 morning we got up and I had forgotten to take my pills for my hernia with me so was not feeling very good at all. We sailed out to Benguerra Island for some more snorkeling and to walk around one of the sandbanks that are exposed at low tide. We had lunch on the boat and then had to motor back to Vilanculos as the wind was not so good. We had a fabulous trip and great fun. Was also lovely to get back to Casa Rex and have a lovely shower and the beautiful gardens and views – just stunning.
I had a fabulous massage before getting our transfer across to Dugong.

5-9 June Today we are off to Dugong Lodge, although it is on the mainland it is easier to get to by boat which only takes around 45mins as opposed to driving which would take about 6 hours or so. There is about 80kms of bad sand road to get there. We were picked up at about 2pm by the boat and jetted off across to the lodge. Well what a stunning setting and oh so quiet. We were looked after beautifully by all the staff and in particular Wayne & Gail. We went fishing three days for a few hours and caught (well should I say I caught); a 7kg Bonito on the second day and Martin caught a 1kg bonito as well. The first day we got nothing and the third day I got another bonito only about 1kg again, but great fun! We also we for a drive up to ‘Worlds View’ in a golf cart with Wayne through the sanctuary – it is Vilanculos Coastal Sanctuary and has had some animals introduced over the last few years. We only managed to see a grey & red duiker, plus some great birdlife and the views were stunning. I went for a walk one day and Martin took a hobie cat out for an hour or so. We also did some snorkeling at the end of the jetty which is just teaming with reef fish as well as snapper, mullet and other varieties – great fun. The dolphins came around the jetty a few times over the 4 days which was awesome as well. One of the days out fishing we took a picnic lunch with us and stopped on Bangeu Island which was cool fun. On our last night we took a sunset dhow trip which was interesting. We stopped at a fishing village and had a bit of a walk around and then set off back to the lodge – the wind was up a bit and we all got a free shower on the way back! All in all we had a lovely relaxing time and great fun.

9 June Today we are making our way back to Vilanculos to Casa Rex for the night. Kerry will meet us and join us for the trip into Gorongoza National Park. We had a lovely crossing back and had a relaxing afternoon. Martin had his hair cut today as it was getting rather woolly like a sheep! Kerry and Dave met us and had drinks; Kerry said it would be best to leave at 5.30am the next morning so we arranged a packed breakfast and lunch to go with us. We had a great dinner and then went off to bed excited about the next day.

10 June Martin set out clock slightly wrong and it went off at 4.30am, so there will be no problem picking Kerry up at Dave’s place at 5.30am. In fact we got there 10 minutes early and Kerry was still packing his bag – very impressed to see us not only on time, but even a bit on the early side! We then went back to Casa Rex and hitched up the trailer and were away from Vilanculos at 5.30am. Martin started driving and Kerry promptly fell asleep in the passenger seat, whilst I as usual didn’t want to miss anything was taking in the countryside from the most comfortable back seat. We stopped at 7.30am for breakfast and a wee break. It was lovely having a coffee and bacon roll although the mist was still hanging around quite thickly. Kerry took over the driving and the roads were mostly good, we stopped off for coffee and then I took over the driving then. It was great to get off the pot holed tar road and onto the good dirt road into the park.

Oh my goodness please let this go through it has been very difficult to get onto the internet throughout here. Love and hugs to all xxx