Mozambique: Bilene, Maputo, Santa Maria,Ponto do Ouro

Bilene

Our next stop was Bilene. Most resorts are dotted around the huge lagoon. The mouth is not always open to the ocean but you can access the sea over the dunes on a bad 4x4 track. We stayed at Villa n Banga in safari tents and there's a restaurant. Despite the rude owners I would recommend it. It's a bit off the route but worth it for your stop over.

Maputo

From Bilene we drove to Maputo. We treated ourselves to a night at the Polana Hotel. We had lunch on the balcony and spent the afternoon lazing by the pool and catching a few hours of comfy air-conditioned rest. 

A drive by sightseeing tour of the city is all you need. The city beaches are not great.  I recommend sunset drinks at Dhow Cafe. We ate dinner at a nice garden restaurant called Botanica. 

The massive new bridge over to Catemba is almost complete. On the south side it links to a brand new tar road all the way to the Kosi Bay border. 100kms and 1 hour away from Ponta Do Ouro. 

Santa Maria and the Maputo Special Reserve

The old ferry crossing is slow and chaotic so we chose to drive out to Boane to cross the river, heading to Bella Vista. Here we entered the Maputo Special Reserve on the Manculo Pennisula. It's a beautiful coastal national park with amazing birdlife.  We saw the elephants as well  as a few other animals.The road is strictly 4x4, mostly through thick sand and it takes about 4 hours to drive 70kms up to Santa Maria Beach on the Northern tip of the Pennisula. Here there is just a narrow channel over to Inhaca.

This is another piece of paradise. The remote location has kept  it relatively quiet and untouched. Just beaches, fishing and diving. We stayed in a wonderful open beach house in Nhonguane Lodge. 

There's also a sunset beach bar with a pool for residents.They have 6 lodges of various sizes on the property. There are other lodges and houses available for rent too. Bemugi's has a restaurant and an activity centre. With a sport's bar for rugby games on TV. The tidal variation is very marked in the bay so our Dhow trip had to be arranged around high tide. You can see the skyline of Maputo across the bay on a clear day. If you're not driving in, you can charter a speed boat for the hour long ride from Maputo. We spent 3 nights but next time we will stay at least 5 days.

Ponta Do Ouro

We stayed a few nights at the cool GalaGala Ecologde. It's got a nice relaxed feel but it's not at the beach. We found Ponta do Ouro so overdeveloped since our last visits in the late 90s. And sadly, not in a good way. There's hardly any public access to the beach and no decent parking. The place has sprouted in all directions with no planning and we couldn't find great restaurants or beach bars like you find in Tofo. Ponto de Melangane looked like it's gone the same way. I am sure the diving is still good here and if you have a house with beach access it would be fine.