The Unexplored Coast

Condé Nast Traveler

When I first came to Mozambique back in 1992, the brutal 16-year civil war had just ended. In Maputo, the former capital of Portuguese East Africa, I found the continent’s Havana, a relic of colonial Europe in tropical Africa, still buoyant with an anachronistic Communist fervour, with avenidas dedicated to Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh, and the aroma of freshly baked bread from Portuguese padarias.

On subsequent trips I became infatuated with some of the country’s islands: Bazaruto off the sandy, salty town of Vilanculos about halfway up the astonishing 2,500km coastline, and the Quirimbas in the far north, including the mysterious former Arab trading post of Ibo. For all of Mozambique’s problems, it was hard to find fault with the friendly people, or the beautiful Indian Ocean.

More recently I discovered Inhaca Island, off the southern coast opposite Maputo. Slightly smaller than the Channel Islands' Guernsey, with a lone hilltop lighthouse dating from the 19th century, it has a number of laid-back restaurants serving calamari and king mackerel. There are rolling hills, a temperate climate even in winter, a large marine reserve and, until 2016, a petty king, a sage man who died at the age of 100, leaving behind two wives.