This week’s dream: an east African island that time forgot

The seat of the colonial government of Portuguese East Africa for four centuries, and a former trading post en route to India, the Island of Mozambique is like “a vision of 16th century Africa”, says Gavin Bell in The Daily Telegraph. Joined to mainland Mozambique by a two-milelong causeway, this tiny, crescent-shaped reef has a “dilapidated” yet “magical” fortified old town, known as Stone Town, with the continent’s most “formidable” fortress: it withstood assaults by the Dutch and the Omani Arabs in the 17th century. Today, the island (a place of refuge during Mozambique’s 16-year civil war, which ended in 1992) is a haven of peace; laid-back, friendly and safe. It is reminiscent of Zanzibar, but receives far fewer foreign visitors.

A wonderful quiet reigns over the warren of alleyways at the centre of the Unesco-listed Stone Town, which occupies the northern part of this tiny island. The old palace of the colonial governor houses a museum with a fine collection of Ming dynasty cups and bowls, and treasure recovered from a Portuguese ship wrecked in 1558. Towering over the town’s limestoneand-wood villas and warehouses is the Fortaleza de São Sebastião, where 65ft ramparts enclose a chapel believed to be the oldest European building south of the equator.

Most of the island’s people live in Macuti Town, however – a lively sprawl of mud houses, fish shops, and bar shacks offering home-cooked food and cold beer. Elsewhere, there are several decent hotels and restaurants (most of which have sprung up in the past ten years). Or you can stay at Nuarro, an “upmarket” ecolodge on the mainland nearby. Wherever you end up, leave time for the short trip by dhow to the Isla de Goa, “a quintessential desert island” where the “translucent” shallows teem with tropical fish. Expert Africa (020-8232 9777, www. expertafrica.com) has a six-night trip from £3,420pp, incl. flights.