The Essence of the Journey!

Ibo Island – Mozambique

By: Celeste and Danica

“Beware of the ‘Ibosons’….they love to sneak away every shoe they find and take them up to the trees… – be warned,” teases Marcelo. Islands tend to evoke images of sun, sea, sand, sunsets …. Ibo is all this and more. It’s inaccessibility only adds to it’s romance. It only took us a few hours from Pemba (6 hours by road and 1 hour by wooden dhow). The Yemenese architect, Marco, made our passage more interesting with his world knowledge and international lifestyle. One of the largest islands in the Querimbas Archipelago,

Ibo also boasts a long and somewhat clandestine history of Arab, Chinese and Portuguese trade, with slavery and corruption continuing into the recent era in the form of horrific incarceration and deaths of political prisoners in one of the three forts – reminiscent of South Africa’s Robben Island.

 A definite highlight is the cultural and historical tour of the island where we walked in these memories sitting heavy on the land and historical buildings. The entire island has been

nominated as a World Heritage Site and, as such, when re-building, each structure has to be true to it’s original architectural style.

Many of the buildings were constructed from lime and coral-stone with the lime white-washing fading into characteristic cream and pinkish patches. Ibo Island Lodge has also kept it’s original thick and not necessarily straight walls. From the open rooftop bar and dining area we enjoyed the peaceful sunsets and home-made snacks served on blue glass dishes. Like the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, we revelled in the prolific stars, our gazing efforts guided by the accomplished and fittingly-named Cosmo.

Dinners were sumptuous affairs with appetizers; soup and bread rolls; sorbet; main and pudding. Whimbrels and crab plovers called in the muddy flats, punctuated by mangroves, dark against the soft moonlighted ripples. As befits royalty, we retired to our suites, complete with oversized four-poster beds (and bedtime biscuits), over-sized wardrobes, mirrors, sea-blue-green curtains and a view of the ocean from the (you guessed it) over-sized shower. Some might say the style was shabby-chic but after camping for so long, it was definitively elegant! “What time would you like your tea/coffee tray served on your veranda?” Lily, a

travel expert from the U.K. was a delightful companion out on the dhow to the tiny island, only visible at low-tide. This was where we enjoyed a luncheon with Nic and Sarah, from the U.K. too. Thank you for joining us for dinner, Lizzy, and for delighting the children with your tales of travels and sorest sores. Danica was absolutely spell-bound with her very own guided undersea snorkelling adventure, holding Cosmo’s hand and taking her own photographs… She tells more: “It was a very strange coral reef with short, stout columns scattered all-over. There weren`t many proper corals (it was mostly sea-grass and soft corals) but a great variety and abundance of fish including some

I had never seen before like the crowned squirrelfish, dusky sweepers, sea goldies, blue-barred parrot-fish, blue pullers, a clown coris, two tone chromasses, checkerboard, gold-bar and crescent tail wrasses. Other fish I had seen were domino fish, blue-streaked cleaner-wrasses, two-bar anemone fish, masked coachman and thread-fin butterfly-fish. My all-time favourite was the 40cm blue starfish (Linckia laevigata). This incredible feeling of joy is surely what the dolphins experience as they leap out of the water. By the way, we saw two pods of humpback dolphins, too!” Rob (ex S.A.), the manager, and his wife, Glyn, are excellent hosts (with Ibo the lovely ridgeback) and continue in the tradition of the Ibo Island Lodge of uplifting the local population of 4500-6000 inhabitants by providing funding for schooling and guide training as well as running a Montessori Nursery School. A small world: we found several people we know in common, including Wapnik, from Sani-to-Sea fame and Rob’s cousin who designed the ‘Save the Rhino red-and-black beaded bracelets’ sold throughout the South African National Parks.’

Danica and I were treated by Dad to a little something in the jewellery line from the local silversmiths – delicately crafted and very special indeed – and demonstrated in tiny fired forges by father-and-sons. The game of ‘what was your best?’ which we play regularly was tough to answer. Marcelo, of course, came up with the brightest reply: “The fact that the ‘Ibosons’ did not steal my shoes.”