Maputo - We’re on a private island in the Quirimbas Archipelago and, yes, we spun in on one of those bubble helicopters, feeling suitably rich and famous.
Then we were asked to move our watches forward an hour – just because the daylight works better that way.
When it’s your island, what’s to stop you?
Wanting to own an island isn’t exactly a unique dream, but a few days of vicarious ownership delivered a host of reasons we didn’t know even existed.
Here are just some of them…
1There is no 4 o’clock. There’s no any o’clock. There’s only high tide and low tide, or a more vague “tide’s coming in” and “tide’s going out”.
The only exception is gin o’clock, which comes around regularly, and that is pleasing.
2Sunday afternoon drives are in a dhow, into the sunset, with a vanilla gin and tonic in hand.
3You have your own orchestra of fish to flirt with while snorkelling from the beach – trumpet fish, piano blenny, flute fish and pipe fish make up the band, with a choir of thousands of other rainbow swimmers creating visual music.
Quilalea lies within a fully protected marine reserve.
4The supermarket comes to you – residents from nearby islands sliding up in a dhow or outrigger, selling huge king mackerel or bonito tuna.
5Some islands may have squatters, but on Quilalea it’s Chippie, a blissed-out hawksbill turtle with nicks in his carapace, and he hangs out a mere snorkel-swim from the main beach.
Apparently Chippie gets a bit high on the coral – and he certainly looked completely chilled as we watched him nibble on the coral before gliding off to the next spot on his underwater buffet.
6Your dining room is everywhere. On the beach at the end of a row of paper lanterns, under towering baobabs, or next to the pool.
7You can circumnavigate your empire and be back by breakfast. Quilalea is uninhabited, but for guests and staff, and is just 35 hectares, so you can walk around the entire island, passing mighty baobabs, before tucking into Eggs Benedict with prawns and crab.
8You can dive on your own reef – no need to share.
9When it’s too windy to fish for supper, the back-up meal is prawns and lobster. How bad can that be?
10Your birdbath has an exotic upgrade, with standard pigeons joined by mangrove kingfishers and red speckled mousebirds, with migrant Madagascan bee-eaters flashing past.
11World-beating foot selfies. Hard to beat a foot selfie taken through the glass bubble of the helicopter sweeping over a turquoise, reef-dotted sea.
12”We’re hoping for wahoo” becomes part of your vocabulary, along with “popping for GTs”. Wahoo, it turns out, is a fish, and according to water sports hero Tristan, “popping for GTs” means bouncing a lure along the surface of the sea, hoping to tempt a Grand Trevally.
13You can get the iconic sunset-through-a-baobab shot – and when it’s silhouetted against a shimmering sea with a dhow sailing by, it has the edge over the bush.
14The island has Manuel stationed behind the Drum Bar at the pool, and he pours the perfect cocktail.
15The wi-fi’s a bit patchy, which means you can reach the wide world if you really have to, but you can justifiably put your computer aside and not do any real work.
16Butter writing. When your world doesn’t revolve around missing the traffic or clearing endless e-mails (see dicky wi-fi above), there’s time for thoughtful things like writing little messages in the butter at every meal (such as “enjoy your lunch” or, on our last day, “have a good trip”), putting a hibiscus flower in the foot rinse bowl, or leaving a bottle of French champagne in an ice bucket as a welcome gift. Now that was so thoughtful.
There are many compelling reasons for having your own island.
But the puzzler is not why you would want a private island – it’s why you’d build a resort on it if you had one.
Sometimes when it’s fully booked, even the owner can’t get in!
What to do
Diving
The fully equipped watersports centre offers full Professional Association of Diving Instructors (Padi) options, from a quick Discover Scuba course, which has you on a dive after just half-an-hour learning the basic skills in the pool, to Openwater courses qualifying you to dive anywhere in the world.
The house reef is a dream – you simply slide in from the beach – and there are two more excellent reefs a short boat ride away.
Kayaking
A boat trip takes you over to neighbouring Sencar Island, where you can kayak along the shady, quiet channels among the massive mangroves, looking out for beautiful birds.
Ibo Island
Azura Quilalea offers day trips to historic Ibo Island, once an Arab and Portuguese trading port for amber, ivory, jet and later people. Now it’s a peaceful and evocative place where you can explore ancient forts and crumbling architecture dating to the 1500s.
Nature watching
Wander the island’s baobab groves and visit Turtle Beach (Praia da Tartaruga) where, if your timing is right, you can see turtles coming ashore to lay eggs. Birdwatchers can look out for over 60 species, including abundant paradise flycatchers.
About Azura Quilalea
Where? Far north of Mozambique, a 20-minute flight from Pemba by chopper. How busy? Not at all. There are four beaches, with nine private chalets along two of them.
Packages
It’s not cheap, but Azura Quilalea offers special rates for South Africans. You can also choose from a variety of packages, from all-inclusive to stay for five nights, pay for four deals. See www.azura-retreats.com, [email protected], or call +27 76 705 0599.
How to get there
Airlink offers direct flights between Joburg and Pemba. Airlink has convenient connections with SAA and its partners and is a member of the Voyager loyalty programme. To book, see www.flyairlink.com or call SAA central reservations on 011 978 1111.
Adelle Horler, Saturday Star