Last weekend took me to a never before explored area - Macaneta, in the Marracuene District of Maputo Province. Located about a 30-minute speed boat ride from the city, Macaneta is peninsula off Maputo. The Komati River also reaches the sea here, making the water a darker brown than that of Vilankulo, especially after the recent cyclone.
Some friends and I decided to spend a night on Macaneta in the Kaya Xaimit Eco-Camp, run by Christina, a Portuguese Mozambican who started the lodge over thirty years ago. The lodge is at the furthest southern end of the peninsula. At the top of the peninsula lies the town of Marracuene, which was apparently of great military importance in the late 1880s. It was the site of a battle fought between the colonizing Portuguese and the local Ronga army. The Portuguese had machine guns and rifles, making theirs a decisive win even though they had the smaller army, and the evidence of the fight can apparently still be seen in gun shot marks left over on some of the old buildings. Marracuene was too far for us to visit this time, but some day we will go exploring to see the historic town.
Christina organized the boat for us, and we were greeted on arrival with a late lunch of clams:
After lunch, we were shown to our accommodations - three to a tent - and then spent the afternoon on the beach. “And I will bring you some snacks at exactly 18:02, because that is when the sun will set, and you can eat them with the sunset and then we will have dinner,” Christina told us.
While watching the sunset, the lights of the Maputo skyline become slowly visible in the distance. This is the first time in Mozambique that I have lain on a beach looking over a city - different for sure, but also beautiful.
Christina is a most excellent host, and her dinner of many courses had us all staggering to an early bed with full, full bellies. Pumpkin/carrot soup, fresh fish, rice, matapa (a local vegetarian dish made with cassava leaves and coconut), bread, and for desert, “360 cake” - an egg custard tart. Coffee and a round of Uno later and we were all exhausted. The walk between the restaurant, which is a wooden rondavel, and the tents is along sand paths sided with tall bushes; if you ever decide to take a trip here, make sure to bring a flashlight (and mosquito spray, though the mosquitoes weren’t so bad that night)!
The next morning, most of us were up early for the sunrise. The peninsula has two beaches; there is a mangrove-y river beach on the side facing the city and, to the other side, the wild Indian Ocean. It was on the Indian Ocean side that the sun rose. We hadn’t been there that first evening since we were busy enjoying the mangrove side.
After another hearty meal (a three course breakfast!) we took a five kilometer walk around the peninsula, to the tip where the two sides meet, and then around to relax a bit on the ocean side. Evidently, we weren’t the first to grace the beach sand that morning…
Walking along in Macaneta, one is struck by the beautiful greenery - it feels like a mini paradise after being in Maputo City.
At around 15:30 that afternoon, we took the boat back to Maputo and settled once more into city life for the night. It was a quick weekend away, but the peace and tranquillity of the peninsula made it seem to last forever. If you find yourself in Maputo, make sure to take the short trip to Macaneta and visit Christina’s camp !