Travel: Spellbinding safaris across sands and sea in Mozambique

Washed clean by a high tide overnight, the long, empty stretch of sand running along Maputo Bay is pristine. Only one set of prints runs from the sand dunes, considerably larger than mine.

“I dream of finding an elephant down here,” says park warden Miguel Gonçalves, who has seen plenty of evidence to suggest these large mammals cross towards the ocean.

Forming part of the recently amalgamated Maputo National Park, a 650 square mile mosaic of marine, coastal and grassland areas present an unusual safari, giving visitors a chance to see elephants, giraffes, turtles and humpback whales (potentially) within the same day.

Running along a border with South Africa, this region has always been part of an important elephant corridor, although numbers dropped dramatically in the 1980s during the country’s civil war. Now numbers are on the rise, game viewing is rapidly improving and investment in tourism looks set to make Mozambique a premier safari and beach destination.

Having spent a day exploring the park inland, Miguel is driving me along the empty beach to watch humpbacks breaching on the horizon.

Hugging the hillside in a sheltered bay at the end of the beach, 22 suites sparkle in the dunes, part of the White Pearl Resort in Ponta Mamoli.

© Press Association Images

Wooden furnishings and floaty linens are decorated in a palette of colours inspired by silky sands, weathered driftwood and frothing waves. Best of all is the never-ending view of sky and sea.

On morning runs along empty beaches that stretch into infinity, I’m frequently overtaken by fish eagles. By the time I return to the resort, day beds are set up in the sand and my butler (who serves me every meal in either the restaurant or my room, depending how I feel) is preparing a breakfast of fresh fruits, pastries and homemade granola.

Although there are options for horse rides, turtle walks, kayaking and dolphin sea safaris, the main purpose of a stay at White Pearl is to relax. It’s a two-hour drive from White Pearl to Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. On a walking tour with Maputo a Pe, I discover some of the city’s highlights.

The architecture is a mix of Art Deco homes and geometrically pleasing social housing designed by famous post-modernist Portuguese architect Pancho Guedes in the pre-independence years. But some of the most colourful public displays are murals and sculptures from local artists.

Outside the Franco-Mozambican Cultural Center are attention-grabbing pieces by Goncalo Mabunda, who has transformed guns, missiles and tank tracks used in Mozambique’s 15-year civil war into works of art. The most internationally renowned artist, however, was painter, poet and political commentator Malangatana, who captured the country’s transition from colonialism to independence. I find several pieces of his work in the National Museum of Art, an institution he helped establish.

His signature style of densely packed, colourful figures curling into one another is recognisable in several murals around the city – including one in the gardens of the neo-Gothic Natural History Museum. There, one of the exhibits is a series of glass cabinets featuring the different stages of an elephant embryo, all preserved in formaldehyde.

© Press Association Images

Although it appears macabre today, the collection was intended for scientific studies and no doubt seemed like a good idea 50 years ago, when elephants were being culled in their thousands.

Fortunately – for now – the thriving species is far from being a dusty relic in a museum cabinet. Even if you can’t always see them, there are always those footprints in the sand.

P.S. 

Constructed between 1908 and 1916, with a grand dome designed by an associate of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, Maputo’s railway station is ranked as one of the most beautiful stations in the world. Tall pillars and wrought iron latticework decorate the cream and mint-green structure, where trains still trundle.

Factfile: 

Exceptional Travel (01608 638 777) offers two nights B&B at Hotel Cardoso in Maputo and four nights full board at White Pearl Resort from £2,575 per person, including return flights from London to Maputo and all road transfers. Virgin Atlantic (flights.virginatlantic.com/en-gb) fly to Johannesburg from £632 return.