Mozambique

The briefing

Mozambique has the Indian Ocean coastline that everyone in East Africa talks about but few reach - a 2,700-kilometre stretch of coral, seagrass, and sand that holds the last viable dugong population in the western Indian Ocean and an island-hopping dhow route in the Quirimbas Archipelago unchanged in centuries. The Bazaruto Archipelago sits 14 kilometres off the central coast - five islands of sand dunes and coral reef with a marine national park around them. The dugong feeding in the seagrass beds is the encounter most people come for: a slow, unexpected proximity to an animal that has been disappearing from every other Indian Ocean habitat for thirty years. Most travelers fly POL and keep the first night close to the action.

The Bazaruto Archipelago sits 14 kilometres off the central coast - five islands of sand dunes and coral reef with a marine national park around them. The dugong feeding in the seagrass beds is the encounter most people come for: a slow, unexpected proximity to an animal that has been disappearing from every other Indian Ocean habitat for thirty years. The reef diving, with Napoleon wrasse and regular whale shark encounters, is also among the best in East Africa.

The Quirimbas, 1,200 kilometres north near Pemba, are the wilder version: 32 islands stretching 100 kilometres along the coast, most uninhabited, reachable only by dhow. A sailing trip through the Quirimbas - with a Swahili crew, anchoring on a different island each night, cooking from what the reef provides - is one of the last genuinely expedition-style ocean journeys available in Africa.

How to get there

Gateway airports: POL, MPM. Build the rest of the trip around the arrival.

Book first

Flights - POL, MPM → Stay on the water; the boat days start at the dock in Mozambique → Operator - boat, dive, or dhow desk after the room