Mozambique: Pemba: Ibo Island Lodge

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Have you ever seen those photo’s of pure blue oceans, white sand and clear sea?   Well they are certainly to be found here in the northern part of Mozambique?

I recently traveled to Pemba for a site inspection at Ibo Island Lodge, accessible by plane from the town of Pemba on the mainland of northern Mozambique (not to be confused with the island of Pemba off the Zanzibar coast a little higher up).

There are a couple of options to get to Pemba, there are direct flights, a couple of days a week only, from OR Tambo in Johannesburg, or you can fly from Johannesburg with Air Mozambique via Maputo with a stop over of around 45 minutes to clear customs, where they make you go and sit in the newly built air conditioned in transit section of the airport, and then you jump back onto the same plane with the same boarding pass (so you need to hold onto the boarding pass otherwise you cant get on the flight again.

Actually, Maputo Airport was quite a nice surprise as I was expecting an old building with no air conditioning,  the new airport had it all and there were a couple of coffee shops as well as some duty free shops to look at to kill the time.

There are also flights from Dar es Salaam on Air Mozambique direct to Pemba if you wanted to come through from East Africa after your safari.

On arrival at Pemba Airport, which is really small you climb off the plane walk across to tarmac and collect your luggage, after clearing customs you then are met by an Ibo Island Representative and taken across to the charter company offices where there is a waiting room with a small fridge and bottled water.    Once all passengers for the islands are ready for the flight you board the small aircraft and its a 20 minute hop across pure blue waters to Ibo Island.  Be aware the plane could stop enroute at other islands along the way too!

On arrival at Ibo airstrip we were met by Rob the lodge manager and taken by open sided vehicle to the lodge where a welcome drink and towel was waiting to freshen up before check in.  Its a small lodge and only one of a few on the island, the others being more backpackers style.  Small and really charming with big high ceiling rooms all airconditioned with fans which will definitely be needed in the heat of the summer months.  The lodge currently has two pools to swim in as there is no swimming beach on the island – but dont get put off by this, Ibo Island take you out on a day trip by dhow to a small sandbank which more than makes up for the lack of beach on the island itself.

Its called the sandbank for good reason,  in the middle of nowhere about and hour by boat so fairly close to Ibo island itself is a mound of white sand, surrounded by shallow reefs to snorkel.  The trip out of the dune is done depending on the tides – but there is something really special about sitting on a sand dune in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by azure blue seas, a dhow, a gazebo to sit under with a table and chair and having breakfast cooked by staff from the lodge.     Harris our head guide, is a Zimbabwean that has worked on the island for quite a while and has fallen in love with the sea I think.  For someone coming from a land locked country he is like a fish in the water and obviously loves it there only going home in November for leave when he says it rains quite a bit there.

I traveled with 4 other girls who were also there to have a look for themselves and get to know the area, and all of us felt the Sandbank trip was the highlight – even though some got really sunburnt – its definitely factor 50 time!

On returning to the island we went to freshen up at the pool before being served a wonderful light lunch in the gardens, before retiring to the room to relax and have a rest before going out later on a historical tour of the island with Harris.  For those interested in history Ibo Island is full of it,  the Quirimbas area is the only place where you can stay in a building dating back to the 1500’s.   Harris & Rob, both do the tours and its quite fascinating, but sad at the same time to see all the derelict buildings.     For those of your who like to shop Ibo Island Lodge is involved in a project to sell Silver nuggets to the silversmiths on the island at no profit and they in turn make gorgeous silver jewelery which you can buy which creates employment and an income to many islanders.  You can also watch them at work if you wish as part of the tour.   Its fascinating how with so little they can turn out gorgeous pieces that you will not find anywhere else in Mozambique.  the lodge also encourages the local people to grow vegetables which they will buy from them as growing anything on the island is difficult.

For the birders, there are a number of birds to be found on the island and a short drive from the lodge early one morning we walked through an area of scrub that delivered a number of bird species worth seeing along with the odd monkey and cow grazing.    It soon became really hot and humid so we returned to the lodge for a quick shower and breakfast.

After breakfast it was off to the Silversmith for me to collect a necklace & earrings that I had ordered the day I arrived  – a great memory of my trip!