Ponta d’Ouro

Even before arriving in Mozambique Kraemer had been in touch with a friend of a friend named Blake who had been living here for several years and gave us the scoop on the safety situation in Maputo, whether Kraemer should bring his tent and how he’d really love if Kraemer could bring him some pine nuts so that he could whip up the pesto he was craving. He and his partner, Tumelga, purchased land and are building a home in Ponta d’Ouro. The beach is named the Golden Point for the shipwrecks said to have left behind treasure. As the southern-most beach in Mozambique, it's just 10kms from the South African border.

So when they were headed down, we took the offer to grab the backseat. Glad we did, as I’m not sure we would have made it otherwise. The road to the beach was less a road and more a conglomeration of dirt and sand trails that split every 50 meters or so. If a driver decided that the trail was getting too worn or wasn’t drivable, all he needed to do was start his road off to a different side. A few cars later and there would be a new road; of course not a sign was to be seen (though Blake claimed that “all roads lead to Ponta”). And calling it bumpy is a complete understatement. After a light rain we did pass one chappa stuck hopelessly in the sand with its passengers either pushing or milling around the road, waiting ‘til either they dug it up or night fell and the tigers started to pick them off one by one.

The town itself is small with a decidedly rustic feel. There are a few restaurants and lodges, but the place is still underdeveloped, probably owing to the pain-in-the-ass, 150km road that takes 4 hours. The bad road has its advantages though as when we stepped onto the beach there was approximately nobody around. That’s a big fat zero. So we plopped down on a nice sandy stretch with the waves crashing in front of us and the lush green hills rising behind. One hippy traveler chick did manage to walk by and looked as if, with a mile of virgin beach uninhabited, she was going to settle right in front of our piece of beach. Taryn shot her a pretty evil eye, so she moved on.

Tumelga’s mother and uncle are living in Ponta, and as soon as they heard that the land was available, her mother told Blake. They plan to use the house themselves but mostly to rent it out – a pretty solid investment, as there are plans for a new bridge from Maputo to be built within the next two years that would reduce the trip by an hour and for the road itself to be improved.

We stayed at Kaya Kweru, a nondescript lodge with basic amenities, a pool and a restaurant. And for anyone looking for a place to stay there, I’d definitely recommend this joint if you take their recently-added self-catering option (meaning you have access to a kitchen), which was clean, private and saved us lots of money!