7 reasons to cruise to Ilha
This seven-night voyage to the old capital of Mozambique and back is the stuff memories are made of, writes Paul Ash
1 There is nothing like doing nothing at sea
The voyage to Ilha de Moçambique is one of the longest cruises you can do in local waters. The island is a long way from Durban, which means four days at sea in which you get to stare at the deep navy blue of the Indian Ocean, listening to the sea rushing past and watching flying fish and puffy white clouds and dramatic thunderstorms burst on the faraway horizon.
2 The ship becomes your home
With just 2 500 passengers, the MSC Sinfonia is positively tiny by modern standards and after a couple of days she feels like home. I quickly adopted a fine routine: breakfast brought to my cabin at 7.30am, a quick amble around the boat deck for some sparkling sea air then a morning nap with the balcony door open to hear the sea crashing past. A late lunch at 2pm, followed by another nap or a dip in the pool. Early dinner, maybe a show, another amble round the deck to check the stars, then bed. Sleep. Deep sea dreams. Repeat.
3 You will meet interesting people
Last year on the same voyage, I dined alone, which was sort of weird. This year a full ship meant I was seated at random at a table with seven other people. Who says the art of conversation is dead? Our dinners were lively and funny and after a week we were firm friends. You don’t get that on a three-night cruise.
4 Time stops
By the time I staggered aboard the vessel, I had been travelling non-stop for four months. I needed to catch my breath and a week-long cruise proved just the ticket. On a sea voyage like this, the days blur. You breathe, you eat, you sleep, your mind wanders and you regain some of your humanity. It’s like you’ve entered a parallel universe where the clocks move slower and people smile more easily.
5 Ilha de Moçambique is as exotic as it gets …
Those slow-moving clocks will put you in the right frame of mind for the time capsule that is Ilha. Seafarers have been calling here for more than 1 000 years. The Portuguese arrived with Vasco da Gama in 1498 and stayed for 500 years. In 1508, they began building the fort of Sao Sebastiao, the largest fort in East Africa, but first they built a little church, the Capela de Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, which translates as the Church of Our Lady of the Bulwarks. Both were built to last and there is something quite stirring about standing in the nave, where ancient mariners probably fell on their knees and gave voluble thanks for their being spared the various horrors of those long voyages from Europe to India. The fort itself could use a curator to develop its potential but it is still an absorbing place, where heavy cannons point out to sea from bastions overrun with green grass and bougainvillea. Then you can wander Ilha’s old, quiet streets and dream about long-ago lives in the fantastic ochre-painted villas.
6 … and there is treasure there
We all dream of an island with buried treasure. Ilha has that, although not in the usual way. In the vast reception rooms in the governor’s Palace of Sao Paulo (built comparatively late by Ilha’s
standards in the 17th century) are artifacts gathered over half a millennium — paintings, furniture, tapestries, jewellery and, oddly enough, a proper, functioning kitchen.
Amidst this are at least four Ming vases, which local legend says came from a wrecked Portuguese merchant ship in the bay but which — given their astonishing condition — may have been presents to local traders when Chinese explorer Zheng He’s massive fleet came calling on one of his voyages between 1406 and 1433.
The other marvel, which never fails to stun me, is a huge tapestry in the dining room of a despairing shipwreck scene with emaciated, forlorn castaways on the beach and faces peering at them from the jungle beyond. We don’t know when the tapestry was made or who the artist was but it is a stark memorial to the many Portuguese vessels lost on these shores and whose few pitiful survivors often came staggering into Ilha years later after a bitter trek up the coast.
7 … and fine places to eat by the bay
Ilha has taken a long time to waken from its postwar slumber. Ten years ago, eating and sleeping options were paltry. But its Unesco World Heritage status — and the regular arrival of the MSC Sinfonia — have given local tourism a shot in the arm and there are now a number of restaurants along the shore. This year’s happy discovery for me was Rickshaws, an American-owned restaurant and pensao where I fought the heat with dark, icy Laurentina Preto and guzzled chorizo and freshly made bruschetta while watching dhows sail past as they have done for hundreds of years.
As a fellow traveller once advised me, you should go. And the best way to go there — even if only for a day — is by ship. — Ash was a guest of MSC Cruises
It’s a parallel universe where the clocks move slower and people smile more easily