Paradise....
We are Day 19 into our yearlong tour and the Fogg’s are in Paradise both figuratively and literally. Yesterday we arrived in Pomene which is a beach area north of Inhambane (Mozambique) and south of Vilankulous. The road bringing us here suddenly felt more “road-less-travelled – out-there” than other destinations … after turning off the main tar road the usual white sand road turned rust red – in complete contrast to the bright green coconut trees and huge trees lining the road. I could not take enough photos of people walking to school or the local village or cycling their precarious heap of long poles along these roads. These roads will stick in my memory for ages.
On arrival in Pomene with the heat nearly knocking us over we arrived at the lodge we had booked into. We had emailed and asked for a 2-bedroom chalet (the price was almost the same as camping!). We were assured the manager and “their best chalet” would be ready for us…….. HA HA HA ….. well thankfully our humour was intact after driving through the aforementioned beautiful landscape. There was no one around the lodge save for a very drunk man sleeping in what we think was the main deserted reception area and his only garbled language being Portuguese. We walked around and found our “amazing sea view chalet”….. oh man if only we had our cameras with us…. Yes it did have a sea view and yes it did have beds, but that is where it stopped…. NO mattresses for the beds, no chairs, no tables, no nothing. We found the humour in this thankfully!!!!! Not sure how the South African owner of this lodge will feel when we email him to kindly let him know the status of his dwelling.
But god has a wonderful way of turning something that could have been bad into something glorious. Just up the beach we found Paradise Lodge…. What a win. The staff (yes this place had sober staff) where so friendly and helpful and within an hour our reed chalet was ready for us. Our current abode is literally ON the beach. Don’t think South Africa on the beach think tropical island on-the-beach….. our veranda is 10 hot footed paces to the high tide water mark, it has a reed roof and massive open-plan dining room/kitchen with 2 bedrooms (this in itself exciting after sharing a room/tent with the kids for the past few weeks J). And it is continuously cooled by this incredible off-shore breeze. There was nothing better than sipping my morning tea whilst in my lounger overlooking the sea this morning. Heaven! And just to have a little space to spread out and not have the confines of a tent.
Another unique thing about this place – at high tide you will be sitting at the bar sipping your 2M beers and eating peri-peri chicken and the water is crashing underneath you literally and splashing your feet… seriously amazing and Brass Bell in Cape Town wuld have a run for its money!
Today was spent exploring and swimming between a million sand bars. Like Santa maria there is a big change in tides and nothing like the KZN beach we are used to. We feel like royalty and are finally able to sit back and soak in as well as catch up on blogs, video footage and photos.
We wish we could stay here for a week but with us only getting a 30 day visa which expires on the 24 Jan our need (not necessarily want) is to “keep going” north.
