Mozambique - Ibo Island

Some pictures from Ibo Island.

With my dad back in Ireland for a week I decided to head up the coast to Ibo Island for a relaxing (hahahah, little did I know) time. Ibo is little island off the coast of Mozambique. Far away from anywhere. I traveled with a British couple Angie and Will that I met here in Pemba, and we also gave a ride to a 60 year old South African hitc hiker that has been backpacking around Mozambique for a few months. Seems like a hard as nails sort of guy, he has been doing the entire thing on public transport, which around here is *not* easy. After a long and tiring drive along sandy, pot holed and bad roads we managed to catch a dhow to the island. Lots of hassle of course, but in-dhow entertainment was provided by the goat that would pee every five minutes. On the island we met Elder and Jorg, two great guys that run a guest house there. They helped us find cheap housing (me at TDM next door, and a hugely discounted room for Will and Angie) and helped us find a great guy Moammed to help guide us around.

The second day on the island Moammed took us out to Quirimbas, an island that can be reached by walking from Ibo. Well mostly walking. First you walk through mangroves, then out through a huge stretch of sand and then across the low tide waters. Which are unfortunately not low enough, we had to swim some parts. Moammed took our bag and swam with it in his hand above his head, definitely *not* as easy as it sounds. I looked like an advertisement for coke, swimming along with two coke bottles in my hands. Probably the funniest part was that a few locals came along with us, but one of them could not swim! Don't quite understand that, but along with everything else he had to be helped across. Quirimbas, once you reach it, is great, friendly people, lots of coconuts, and still untouched by tourism. We ended up eating dinner at Moammed's sister's house, or at least he told us she was his sister, turns out that he couldn't even remember her name and that she was one of his (many) girlfriends :) On the way back we hired a dhow which took us back at high tide at night. Amazing sailing underneath the stars. Well, amazing until we got stuck in the mangroves in the pitch black and had to walk back 40 minutes through the mud, slippery rocks and pointy roots. We were exhausted afterwards, and I think lucky that none of us slipped or fell and was cut badly.

The day after we decided to have a 'relaxing' day and visited the fort on the island and then walked along the coast to the lighthouse at one end. We had been told it was a short walk, but we walked for a very long way along sand, rock, mud, and at one point a big stretch of water covered in millions of star fish. Which actually feel quite nice under your feet, especially after you have just been walking over very sharp rocks. We were so thirsty along the way that we knocked down a coconut and smashed it open and drank and ate it. When I say we I mean mostly Will, I just helped with the smashing a little. Will is a great guy to have around, he seems to know how to do anything, or at least how to figure it out. He and the always upbeat Angie make a great team, I recommend them as companions for going to difficult and out of the way islands :)

After the lighthouse we tried to find an alternate, and easier, route back, but we got completely lost and ended up back in the mangroves and walking along the coast. Tired, exhausted, our feet cut up and with only a few hours of light remaining Will spotted a coconut grove where we found three guys, we bought some coconuts from them and then with a lot of sign language managed to make one of the guys understand that we would pay him outrageous amounts of money if he would lead us back to the guest house. Thank god we did that, because it was a long route back and we were very tired.

The first two days didn't turn out too relaxing, but on the third day we decided to try go fishing with one of the local fishermen. Surely that would be relaxing, lying on the edge of the boat, dangling our feet in the crystal clear water with a line over the side. It did turn out somewhat like that, but only after hours of negotiating with the fisherman. We offered them a good amount of money and they demanded a huge amount of money. After a lot of back and forth, even going to one of their houses, we did manage to organize the trip and went out, and Will even caught a fish, but and I think we were just too tired after it all to enjoy it for as long as we could have. That night we cooked at the guest house I was staying it (TDM), they kindly started a fire for us, some construction workers that were staying there lent us a pot and we ate the fish Will had caught. It was extremely tasty.

Leaving the island the next day we left on a dhow with a motor. Waiting on the beach for two hours while it filled to overloading with fish, 30 people (there was probably room for about 15 people), luggage, bikes and more. It was a long, tiring and very hot ride back to the mainland. Where, of course, the car wouldn't start. Luckily some locals and a foreigner gave us a hand and we push started it. Thank god it started.

Now I am back in Pemba, showered, rested and letting my feet recover from Ibo. I will be going to pick up my dad from the airport soon and then heading west across some remote areas to Malawi.