Whale of a time!

Published Nov 21, 2013

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Maputo - Monday 9am and I’ve an important meeting to attend. No, not with that chap from marketing with the comedy tie — with a group of humpback whales. As a way to start the week, it beats the commuter train into London King’s Cross.

But then experiences such as this could be considered NFM (that’s Normal for Mozambique). Staying in a remote resort in the country’s empty southern extreme, I’ve made friends with the monkeys (I think they wanted my papaya) who patrol the trees around my room and eaten breakfast while pods of dolphins stage their aquatic jamboree in the surf below. With all this blissfully empty time, I’ve even become a dab hand at chess.

Nothing can truly prepare you for the moment you first look a whale in the eye. It is like gazing into a dark pool and having all that is wise and ancient staring back at you. I half expect it to start talking to me in the booming voice of James Earl Jones.

Even better, it slaps the water with its vast tail and introduces us to its calf. A mere stripling in whale terms, this youngster is nevertheless the size of our boat, playfully breaching and blowing just yards away.

The boat is rocking. Tears of joy are being shed. By the time mother and calf return to the depths and their long journey north, a fair few hearts have skipped a beat.

These vast whales feed only in the summer — on krill and small fish in the rich polar waters — and spend the rest of the year migrating thousands of miles to their mating and breeding grounds in the tropics. And they pass by White Pearl Resorts on their journey between the two.

As we sip our cocktails with the burning orange sun going down and the smell of a wood smoke fire floating on the air, we spot more of them, breaching against the pink horizon. For the rest of the holiday, they are our near-constant companions.

This hotel in Ponta Mamoli is only just inside Mozambique — 70 miles south of the capital, Maputo, and 20 miles or so north of the South African border.

The best way in is by helicopter, a dramatic 30-minute hop from the capital over empty beaches, pristine bush and, in our case, a herd of elephants.

“You’re lucky,” says the pilot. What an understatement.

Given the location, there’s nothing around the 21 villas except butter yellow sand, thick forest and ocean — which suits me.

The day after our whale encounter, I go scuba-diving on a nearby reef, a magnificent underwater garden populated by three species of turtle, giant rays, barracuda and constellations of tropical fish. And all the while we are accompanied by the eerie bars of humpback whale song.

These songs, performed by the males, carry for miles through the water and sound truly out of this world.

The diving here is a revelation. Even the real pros, recently returned from diving among bull sharks and oceanic white tips (the only shark truly to give Jacques Cousteau the jitters), are dumbstruck.

There are other activities — horse riding, for example — but much of our time is spent lying around. I’d never realised there were so many different ways to do nothing.

At night, guests gather to swap tales over gin and tonics. We make plenty of friends — although you could remain in blissful isolation for weeks.

After a few days, we decide to experience a little of Mozambique’s more frenetic side. It’s a former Portuguese colony and Maputo — previously known as Lourenço Marques — retains a sizzling Iberian flavour.

In fact, if you have your fill of fat buttered prawns, pepped up with peri peri sauce and washed down with chilled vinho verde wine, you can take architectural tours of the city, including the spectacular train station by architect Gustave Eiffel.

You may even find some of it familiar —– because much of the Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster Blood Diamond was filmed here.

At night, the city truly comes alive. We start with a feast of Portuguese and local specialities at the charmingly dilapidated seaside favourite, Costa do Sol, before cocktails at Mundos, a former burger stand that is now one of the city’s liveliest bar/restaurants. And to finish? It has to be Coconuts, the noisiest club in this part of Africa.

By the time we check in at the sparkling Chinese-built airport for our flight home, it’s been a wonderful week of whale song, wilderness — and disco dancing till dawn.

Then again, I suppose that’s just NFM.

 

If You Go...

TURQUOISE Holidays (turquoise holidays.co.uk, 01494 678 400) offers an eight-night holiday to Mozambique from £2 750 (about R44 000) pp (two sharing) including half-board at White Pearl Resorts in a pool suite with private butler and return flight and transfers between Maputo, Ponta D’Ouro and White Pearl and return international flights from the UK to Maputo (via Johannesburg). - Daily Mail

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