Indigo Bay - Mozambique

I arrive at O.R. Tambo on a Tuesday morning, having just had the Monday of all Mondays, completely drained, and exhausted after weeks of flu, looking for Pelican Airlines (Pelican Air Services) without any ticket, not even a number or any such thing. This is a recipe for a fight, or conflict, I think to myself. Not telling my partner.

We arrive at the desk, and are the only people there. The lady at the counter asks for names, and passes me boarding passes. Um! Is this it? That simple? Yes, just go to passport control, and that’s it.

Wow. When has anything been that simple and hassle free? And so commences the best few days I have had in many a year. Simply divine and without tussle.

The Pelican aircraft is a twin propeller number right out of the classic Casablanca. It seats about 40 passengers, and the flight is short in time and long on fun. We fly to Vilanculos, with the airport is as big as the C N A at O.R. Tambo. As we arrive, Indigo Bay staff whisks us away to Bazaruto Island.

In less than five minutes we are in the air in a 4-seater Cessna, and the pilot tells us it will take 15 minutes. What we fly over just bring tears to your eyes. This is a wonderful planet we live on. Most days all I see is a Mac screen, and I forget how utterly incredible this world is. Blue sea and sand islands at low tide that changed the landscape to a tie-dye blue and white scene as far as the eye can see.

It is like living inside a National Geographic documentary.

We land and are at the hotel entrance in a flash.

The best thing about being a photographer is getting to travel. But most travel involves a flight of a billion hours including transit and connections. Then wearily you finally arrive, and the thought of having to repeat the whole process to get back, is just nauseating.

So, to get from Tambo to the hotel room, in such effortlessness, is more than wonderful. My family vacationed in Mozambique during the sixties, and I heard such nostalgic recollections of Portuguese wine and prawns, with the best shopping Africa had to offer; imported Portuguese fashions, and great architecture, Mediterranean joie de vivre abounded.

We as a family have done Mozambique in the normal ‘Vaalie’ way, which is 4x4 to destination, get stuck, get to rented house and eat fresh fish and get hot. It’s a great Getaway kinda destination. In December the 4x4’s cruise into Moz from SA by the thousands. Gung-ho people with trailers with four wheelers, cases of beer and fishing gear.

Indigo Bay is not that kind of Mozambique. The room chalet has two showers to choose from - outside and inside, a big
bath, TV and white crisp sheets. The décor of the hotel is non-evasive, it feels right, and allows the island and surroundings to be the hero.

One step off your veranda, and you are on pristine white sand. The waves just softly roll in, and out. Hardly making a sound. Once you just fall in the water, you remain there floating for hours. Floating in paradise.

I know sunsets always seem so clichéd, but we watched the sunsets in utter awe every afternoon. The colours start sparkly bright gold, and at the end it fades away into dark purple. It is spectacular.

The hotel makes sure that the activity list is such that you will never run out of things to do. But the question is; do you want to? I just want to look at the sky and the sea. I have never seen a sky so big, and I wonder why that is? The beach goes on for miles and devoid of tourists. It is not like Zanzibar or Thailand where locals use the beaches as market places.  It is the first time I go to a beach without anyone wanting to sell me something. For the simple reason, there is no one around. The island is about 38 km longs, and there are some fishermen villages, but its really just a few huts.

People spend their days fetching water and fishing. The locals are gentle and quiet. Not gregarious and loud like other islands. They have something mystical that we do not see in JHB, I think one calls it peace.

Rani Resorts are also very active in looking after the ecology of the Islands. Indigo Bay forms a small but integral part of the greater 1 430 square kilometre Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, which is a sensitive environment with a diversity of fauna and flora. The National Park is run by the Mozambique Government, along with economic and conservation input from the WWF. On the island there are some 180 bird species, an extensive variety of Palaearctic migrants, 26 species of waders, endemic butterflies, suni antelope and freshwater crocodiles, while offshore the protected waters and reefs support dolphin, the endangered dugong, game fish, seasonal whales and several species of marine turtle. At Indigo Bay, Rani Resorts has also implemented large-scale programmes to plant and propagate indigenous vegetation.

Indigo Bay offers an array of water sports including waterskiing, sailing, snorkelling and diving, in water that is seldom cooler than 26° centigrade and has implemented a tag and release policy for its fishing activities by actively supporting the tagging programme from Durban’s Oceanographic Institute (ORI). On Bazaruto, Rani Resorts has achieved an almost 100% release rate on sailfish and marlin caught by guests and a notable feather in Indigo Bay’s cap is the fact that the resort itself has won accolades for the most tagged fish out of all charter operations along the southern African east coast.

One of the next projects Rani will tackle is Paradise Island. Known before as Ilha Santa Carolina, which is highly regarded as the jewel of the islands forming the Bazaruto Archipelago - a proclaimed marine national park. Catering for discerning clientele from all over the world, Paradise Island offers an airstrip for easy access to the mainland. The resort island itself will consist of 50 exquisitely appointed rooms, stylish restaurants and bars, kids-club, Sanctuary Spa, shops, a dive and
fishing centre, floodlit tennis courts and an innovative Golf chipping course (“Qolf”), which was first at Indigo Bay Island Resort and Spa. In addition to the art deco 50-room hotel, to be built as part of the joint venture will be 40 freestanding luxury fractional-ownership villas.

We took a boat to the island, and was met by the warm and charming Luis, who overseas the WWF initiative on the Island and general up keep until building starts later. It is quite strange to walk amidst a deserted hotel, complete with a promenade down to the harbour. It is a relief to know that soon people will be vacationing on the island that has been empty since the war.

On the way back, the boat stops in the blue waters for us to snorkel. It is like watching a combination of a fashion show and a Jackson Pollock moving painting. I float over a school of two hundred fish. Their colours change from black, to blue to silver when they move. Hypnotising! Neon coloured fish, electric blue, it can’t be real!

There is a gym, but we really did not have time. It’s a full time job to have three wonderful meals to fit in a day. Fresh and light, and of course, a lot of crayfish and prawns. Yum. The resort likes to give one choices, like three different restaurants, and different pools. Sea or pool? Crayfish or Pasta? Choice, choices!

Indigo Bay boasts with a Sanctuary Spa set higher than the rest of the hotel, with the best view of the entire bay.  A 360 degree view of the Indian Ocean’s indigo coloured waters.

There is really no reason to leave the resort feeling anything but like a new and improved version of yourself. The Spa uses Elemis and South African-produced Moya products. Boasting a hydrotherapy pool, steam room, ice pool, rasul chamber and juice bar, there are also 40 treatments to choose from . You get the picture: view, treatments, relax,
aaaaah.

Leaving is a hard thing to do. It is raining for the first time since we arrived, and that slightly eases the pain, but not that much.

I feel better than I have in years, and wish I could bottle that feeling. Instead I will try and conjure it here for you, the reader.