7/31/2019 "Time and Tides in Mozambique" The Weekend Australian,
June 2012
1/1
TRAVEL & INDULGENCE 5THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, JUNE 9-10,
2012www.theaustralian.com.au
Time andtides inMozambiqueIn thrall to music
andmagicalunderwater experiences
MATTHEWCROMPTON
MOZAMBIQUE
TANZANIA
ZIMBABWE
SWAZILAND
SOUTH
AFRICA
Tofo Beach
BeiraIN DIA N
OCEAN
Pemba
Maputo
AbeachsceneinMozambique,whichboasts2000kmofsun-drenchedcoastline
MATTHEWCROMPTON
{ JOURNEYS:THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY }
THE first thing I notice aboutMozambique is the rhythm tropical
and infectious, a quicktwo-step that sets your hips inmotion, head
bobbingslightlylikeapalmtree swayingin thebreeze.
It moves you with a flavourwholly its own, African influenceswed
to Portuguese, Arabic to
Ind-ian.The2000kmofsun-drenchedcoastlinedrawsyouinlikeadance.
Ithinkofallthisat3amasabovethe throbbing bass of the
music,Abduljuggles polyrhythmsonthedjembe. I have been dancing
forhours at Fatimas Nest, a beach-side bar in the southern
Mozam-bica n t own of Tofo ; the sky isbeginning to grey in the
east butthepartyshowsnosignsofending.
Themusicon thesoundsystem
is an excellent progressive
houseandAbdul,aslimcigarbalancedinthe corner of his mouth, is
seatedon the edge of the packed dancefloor with his large African
drum,beating out a d elirio us cadencethathaspeoplegoingcrazy.
I play in clubs all over theworld, man, he t ells me as I si
tbeside him late r, my feet a lmostraw from dancing barefoot on
therough stone floor. In Africa, Ger-many,Brazil. .
.hereinTofoisstillthe best. Its all about people feel-ing me
drumming, me feelingthem dancing. Here people arereally about the
music, not justaboutthescene.
Exhausted, I walk 1km back tomy beach chalet up the
wide,deserted sands at dawn, roselight ribboning the sky, feeling
asif I have discovered somethingtrulyspecial.
A pattern emerges across aweekhere daylight hoursswim-ming and
snorkelling with whalesharksin theturquoiseoceanand,whendarkness
falls, dancinglike amaniac to great music in bars up
anddownthebeach.Much as I hate to leave, therhythmmovesme
fromTofobackto the capital, Maputo, and then atwo-hour flight to
the provincialcentre of Pemba in the far north,where the view from
the hill sopensonto thecalmwatersof thelargestnaturalbayin
Africa.
AsIdescendthelongslopeintothe 40ha Pemba Dive & BushCamp
justsouthof Pemba,its notjust date palms and coast al man-groves
along the way but drysavanna grasses and thorn trees.Stately
baobabs stand like enor-mous sentries guarding fire-coloured waters
as the sun setsoverthebeach.
We intended the bush campnot just asa resort but as a
wilder-ness preserve, owner BrendaFranck tells me next morning
atherhomeintheramblinggrounds.Weve got about 170 bird
species,15kindsof reptiles,monkeys,civetcats,gazelles. .
.andwetrytoworkwith the local community to edu-cate them about
wildlife conser-vation not slashing and burn-
ing,oroverfishingthe reefs.Sarah Clever, who runs cater-
ing for the camp, later tells me,For a lot of Africans the
bushmeanstrulywildcountry,andthat[canbe]areallyspiritualthing,thisoriginalwilderness.We
tryto helppeopleheretoexperiencethat.
Around sunset, I take a guidednature walk around the
groundswithFrancks son Kai.He explainsthe various eco-systems
wetraverse and their animals and
medicinalplants.Theresa beguil-ing smell emanating from theearth
warm and sweet and dry and I can feel the days t rappedheat on my
bare feet. I lived thefirst 14 years of my life in SouthAfrica,
says Kai, but its only upherethatreallyfeelslikehome.
I ts easy to settle into thelanguidtempobutImalsocuriousabout
what lies offshore, particu-larly on the nearby islands of
theQuirimbasArchipelago.
The triangular sails of leaf-shaped dhows a style appro-priated
from Arab traderscenturiesagodotthehorizoninthe evening light as I
make thecrossing from Tandanhangueport, four long hours down
abumpydirt roadf romPemba.
As my boat approaches theislandof Ibo,the capitalof
the400islesoftheQuirimbas,throughthemangroves, I can see the
crum-blingcolonial edifices of Ibo town,its ancient Portuguese
churchstanding like a vision out of timeacrossthe bay.
An hour later I head out frommy guesthouse into the dusk
fordinner at the primitive islandkitchenof PanelaAfricana,
whereFrench owner and long-time Iboresident Stephane Cade
servesexcellent seared whitefish in amustard marinade with the
Afri-can staple of manioc and groundpeanutsknownas matapa.
Originallyit wasthewaterthatdrew me here, Cade tells me.I loved
everything about it:the boats, the scuba diving, beingonthe
sea.AndwhenI discoveredtheotherislandstropical,whitesand, coconut
palms, l ike alittle Maldives I was com-pletely hooked.
NextmorningImupatdawntocatch a dhow across the bay.
Mydestination is the dive site known
only as the Shipwreck; here acargo ship sunk in the early
20thcentury lies partially exposed atlow tide, the palm-fringed
andlargelydesertedislandof Matemostanding in brilliantly clear
shal-lowsacrossthebay.
Therustingbowand sternlooksinister at first but wreckage,
sit-tinginaslittleas1mofwater,islikean underwater playground, a
vib-rant garden of live healthy coralsand thousands and thousands
ofgorgeous fish, from thumbnail-sized clownfish to schools
ofdeepwater species the size ofhouse cats chasing each
otherdownthecurrent.
Hugeschoolsoftinyfeeder-fishtickle my body as I swim. I
amsmiling so much, I keep gettingwaterin my mouth.
That night, happily tired andsunburned, seated at the bar
inCades kitchen, I mention howdramatically the landscape of
theQuirimbas seems to change withthe tides, huge sandbanks in
thebaybeing hiddenand revealed,thedhows mooring far offshore to
prevent being grounded, childrensplashing in the shallows past
theruins of the old Portuguese fort,where earl ier ther e had
beendeep water.
Thats life here in the Quir-imbas, he shrugs. We must
doeverythingwiththetide.Tofish,tomakea voyage,to dive,wegowiththe
tide. Thats the first thing youlearn here: that the tide is
reallytheultimaterhythmof life. pembadivecamp.com
{ A LITTLE FLIGHT READING }
PlayingHouseAmyChoi(TransitLounge,$29.95)
AMYChoihascontributedtheoccasionalessayandcolumntooursectionandatfirstitseems
rathera
pitythisbookdoesntconcentratemoreonherrichlyobservedtravel
experiencesandlessongivingherpartnerScottaprettyhardtimeastheytrotaroundEuropeandEgypt.ButoncethereaderclickswithChoiandgetsto
gripswithherfrequentspikiness,thebookworkswellenoughas
arovingnarrative,withplentyof
insightintoherrelationship,thearrivalof
twodaughtersand,especially,asojournin HongKongandMacauinwhich
thisAsian-Australianauthorre-evaluates herheritageandher
familyrelationships.
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