Days 98 thru 101

(Rhia’s comments are italicized)

While exploring Maputo we planned our next move, and decided to go full beach holiday because traveling, though exciting, can be like work at times. We were told about a lovely small town about 1.5 hours South of Maputo that the new bridge gave easy access to. The road had also been recently improved, and all of this by Chinese money. We close to use a ride sharing app called Yango without knowing if it would work or not. But we were so lucky as the person who accepted our fare did this part-time to supplement his teaching salary, and was extremely reliable. We ordered a ride at about 8:45, and at 8:47, our trip to Ponta do Ouro began.

Ponta do Ouro is a town in the extreme south of Mozambique. Extreme as in we can walk about 3 kms along the beach and cross the South Africa border…which, of course, we can’t do as our visa has expired. The town’s name is Portuguese for “tip of gold”, referring to a cape at the southern part of the beach. Ponta do Ouro is known for its beach, dolphins, offshore diving and deep-sea fishing. And the accommodations are reasonable and beautiful!

Our first walk along the beach was toward the cape that gives the town it’s name. We have to make that walk during low tide, otherwise we would have to climb through the sharp rocks to make the transit.

The town is very small and fairly limited. There are no malls or big chain grocery stores. A lot of the accomodations that are popular to tourists date back to pre-war and are “primitive” in their offerings. But those are right on the beach and offer diving and surfing experiences. The whole vibe of Ponta do Ouro is straight out of the surfing documentary, “Endless Summer”, from the 1960s. I LOVE IT! Needless to say I don’t know the movie but I also love this place; it reminds me of beaches I visited in SE Asia back in the 1980s before everywhere was overrun with tourists.

Unfortunately, with it being this small, there is only one bank and, for some reason, they stopped honoring MasterCard which, as it happens, is the only card we brought on our journey. We had expected to pay for our two week accommodations on card, but ended up having to use most of our cash to settle the bill. Although we’re great at budgeting, we don’t have enough cash for our time here and were in a bit of a panic for a while. But then …

People surprise you when you least expect it; the co-owner of our favorite little shack-restaurant, has extended us a tab, to be payable when we get back to a place where we can send him the money! This man (S. African) used to own the business but, a few years ago, gave the bar business to a local man and gave the restaurant business to a couple of local ladies; he still owns the building but he has made a huge difference to these families. The kindness and trust shown to us is genuinely mind-blowing and reminds us that there are lovely people on the planet. Thankfully, chilling to the sound of the waves is free and brings us much joy.

Ponta do Ouro is currently off season, so the beach is fairly vacant. I think this is the perfect time to be here; the temperature vacillates between 68 at night and 73 during the day so our windows are constantly open, allowing us to fall asleep to the sound of waves. No matter what season, street vendors walk the sands to hawk their wares.

Even in this idyllic place, you’re reminded that you’re not in Kansas anymore; soldiers walk and drive the beach to ensure safety. Mozambique has been unstable since before I first came to Africa. Thankfully, the fighting is now constrained to the north…but the presence of the soldiers reminds you that things could change again someday.

Being that we are on the eastern shores, the sun rises from the ocean.

But it also offers beautiful sunsets.

During the last full moon, we captures photos of the moonrise over Lake Kariba, in Zambia. This time we are capturing images over the Indian Ocean while on the shores of Mozambique. Seems like so long ago.

There is a magic to the subtle light of a full moon, especially in the winter when it is high overhead. I walked over to the cape during this time to look back at the town… It really is small, but the pace is lovely.