SandiSplash: A stroll through the beaches of Maputo

A stroll through the beaches of Maputo

By Splash 20:48 Leisure

I’m generally excited to be travelling…especially when it’s somewhere on the beach. My two week trip to Maputo though is being filled with stressful work, tight deadlines and colleagues without a sense of adventure.

Everyone told me about the amazing beaches of Mozambique so despite my stresses I decided to explore Maputo’s shoreline. I’ve seen many a beach in my day but this has got to be the most unique beach. There’s a very small strip of shore during high tide and the ocean seems to stretch out forever. When the tide is low, the waters recede so far back that you walk for ages just to reach the waters. Little shallow tidal pools form along the damp shore. And the sands reflect the ripples of waves that were there just hours ago. Little holes dot the rippled sands with the evidence of little creatures digging themselves free.

When you finally reach the warm waters, you can wade so far in to the shallow waters. In the horizon, you see another shoreline and it feels as though you can wade right through to that island. If I had a life jacket and a friend who could swim with me, I would have totally tried out that theory. The waters didn’t even reach past my knees when I turned around and looked back towards the shore I walked from. It was intensely scary to see how far in I had gone and my mind kept thinking about what would happen if the tide quickly changed while I was standing there. If this was a beach in Durban, I’d be too far in to be able to stand on the ground and the current would be far too strong to keep me one place. Here the beach is calm and welcoming. There were even lagoons with trees – nature’s umbrellas – where people chilling under.

All week I’ve seeing people that looked like they were standing far out in the ocean and now I understand why. The calm shallow waters make it quite safe to be able to go far in. The locals live off the ocean and either fish off the piers, off the banks of the harbour, stand far out in the beach or use fishing boats.