Mozambique’s magic islands offer paradise
IFEEL faintly ridiculous as I instinctively lock my laptop, money and passport into the electronic safe. Especially when I notice that the door to the beach villa I’m settling into doesn’t even have a key. The only people on this tiny island are here to look after me, I realise, not to rifle through my undies in search of hidden treasure. The mental adjustment comes as a relief, and I unlock the safe and leave the villa doors wide open to the ocean breeze.
A lack of crime may not be the major selling point for a resort on a quintessential tropical island, but as a South African it’s wonderful to know that only a jellyfish is likely to mug me.
Medjumbe is one of 32 islands in the Quirimbas Archipelago flanking northern Mozambique, some of them uninhabited and all relatively untouched by tourism.
Medjumbe is just 1km long and 500m wide, and its only occupant is the Anantara Medjumbe Island Resort & Spa. oils and potions. I’m having a back massage, and ask for medium pressure. Davies, an esoteric Brit, senses better. She steps up the pressure to hard, and more cares and woes of ordinary life are massaged away.
The best snorkelling is a boat ride away, and the next morning we walk down a long sandy spit at low tide and board a speedboat. The sun has heated the sea to a “wintery” 28°C, and beneath the myriad blues of the surface lies coral straight from a kid’s colouring book, with equally flamboyant fish clowning around. I try not to laugh in delight, but the colours are so exuberant that it’s hard not to giggle despite the risk of water down the snorkel.