Inhambane – Areia Branca, Ponta de Barra

We had to decide between staying at Tofu or Ponta de Barra. Tofu is more open sea and Ponto de Barra is situated on the peninsula. When we arrived at Areia Branca Lodge where we camped, we did not realize that we were actually driving in the sea…….until the tide came in.

High tide and low tide taken from the same spot

The Catamaran on the left was stranded for a period because the owner had to work on it.  Arno enjoyed helping to launch it.

We had a very nice campsite in the coconut plantation and were lucky to stay with Jan & Joey Bean whose resort it is. Jan helped Arno with a few things that needed attention on the canopy. They were very friendly and kind to us. It was also so nice to talk Afrikaans again!  Joey helped with the luxury of a washing machine and we also had access to internet to send emails and Skype with Naas & Heleen which was amazing

We were very excited to see our first Dows. It really is a beautiful sight to see so many Dows busy fishing on the sparkling blue ocean.With their twisting and turning  it is as if they are dancing on the sea! One of the emotions that we experience since we are on this trip is a feeling of well being and deep appreciation of what we see and experience.

We also bought, after long negotiations, our first Tiger prawns. I made us, even if I say it myself , a very nice dish by  pan frying it using garlic, lemon juice and butter. Thanks Eretha, the Wok works fantastic and “woks” very hard. We paid R70 for the prawns. All the fishermen walks around with hand scales to weigh whatever you are buying because they price their catch by kilo.

We drove to Inhambane for a morning just to see the town. Across the bay is Maxixe that can be visited either by Dow or small motorboat. Lots of Portuguese architecture to be seen, beautiful but very run down and sometimes not even lived in since the Portuguese fled the country in 1975.

 

This church was build in the 1800’s

Looks very similar to buildings in Angola

After 4 nights staying at Areia Branca we had to move on but were not yet saying goodbye to Jan & Joey because they invited us to visit them on their farm after our stay at Morrungulo. We paid R150 for the campsite per night.

Jan & Joey sitting at Jan’s favorite spot