Mesmerising Mozambique,
VAMIZI is unsettling. Everything about this extraordinary island — which, shaped like a whale, sits off the coast of Mozambique in the Indian Ocean — is so seductive that you don’t so much regain a sense of perspective about life as dabble with the idea of starting a whole new one.
Mind you, it is something of a mission to get here.
We fly from South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, to Pemba Island in Mozambique, from where we think it will be a quick hop to Vamizi — when, in fact, we fly in the opposite direction to drop off four men with a licence to kill.
There is not much game left in Mozambique, but these chaps look like they mean business.
It is dark by the time we reach Vamizi, the landing strip lit by the headlights of a Land Rover (albeit with a constellation of stars looking on knowingly).
The island is seven miles long and little more than a mile wide. There are about 1,500 inhabitants ( many fled here during the Mozambican civil war that ended in 1992) who live in mud huts, fashioning a living of sorts from fishing. They have close to nothing, and there is no fresh water on the island.
So, Vamizi is a microcosm of the wider world. There is extreme poverty alongside great luxury in the form of six beautiful, privately owned villas, each with five or six bedrooms, available for rent.
Until a year ago, there were also one-bedroom villas on the beach, but these are closed awaiting renovation — which should happen shortly now tour firm and Beyond is running the island.
This swish company employs as many locals as it can, and d buys its fish from the villagers at t better prices than on the e mainland. Then there is thee Friends of Vamizi Trust, set upp by the villa owners, which hass established a school and d community clinic.
Each villa is staffed by a host or hostess (other places would talk grandly of a butler), a chef, a housekeeper and a driver. Ourr crew is charming, especially y Fiona, the hostess, who has a three-year-old son living back in n Zimbabwe with her mother.
One day, she hopes to returnn home and find work in the hospitality sector. We think she should be on the cover off Vogue. ‘ Yes, please’ is herr catch-all phrase. ‘What a lovely day, Fiona.’ ‘Yes, please.’ ‘Can I have another four cans of lager?’
‘Yes, please.’
TO UndERSTAnd the glories of Vamizi is to know what there isn’t. There is no restaurant (you eat in your villa and discuss the menu with your chef). There is no spa (but Tasmin, a charming young South African, will give you a personal yoga class at dawn or a massage at dusk).
There is no air conditioning and there are no TVs in the bedrooms. The wifi is so slow that you tend not to bother, and there is not much of a telephone signal.
When you arrive, you are told that Vamizi time is an hour ahead of what it should be to make days longer. The result?
One of the most heart-warming and beautiful places I have ever experienced — where you awake to duets from yellow-breasted weaver birds, the rustles of Samango monkeys, the sun rising above acres of mangrove trees and the turquoise sea gently ebbing and flowing over powdery white sand.
It is the perfect honeymoon destination, but taking a whole villa for two people is prohibitively expensive — unless you are Prince Albert of Monaco, who spent his honeymoon here, or daniel Craig and his wife Rachel Weisz, who stayed recently.
The style is boho chic, with
lots of driftwood, copper basins, reclaimed metal, seagrass and African art — with every effort made to bring the outside inside.
it works best if you are a group of five or six couples or a large family ready to splash out on the holiday of a lifetime. And, i promise, it will be the holiday of a lifetime.
Vamizi harbours some of the most significant and endangered habitats and wildlife, with more than 180 species of unbleached coral and more than 400 varieties of reef fish. Which is to say that the diving here — both deepsea and just bobbing about with a snorkel — is some of the best in the world.
And don’t forget the turtles — the largest recorded population of green turtles in Mozambique. Guests are encouraged to join an earlymorning patrol or spend time with the resident marine biologist.
BOB DYLAn sings about spending time in Mozambique, where the ‘sunny sky is aqua blue . . . and everybody likes to stop and speak . . . magic in a magical land’. But dear old Bob has never been to Vamizi. He will have to add a whole new verse if he does.
Vamizi is high-end but lowimpact. the water is heated by solar panels, and the island has its own generators. We remove our shoes on arrival and do not put them on again until leaving.
it is quite possible not to see another guest if you’re here for a week. Each villa is at least 200 yards from the next one — and even within the villas themselves bedrooms are spaced out so that it feels completely private.
this is understatement of a different kind. For example, when i ask a senior member of staff when Vamizi first opened, she says it was in 2006.
And then drops into the conversation that the proverbial ribbon was cut by none other than nelson Mandela — whose third wife, Graca, hails from Mozambique.
Any other resort would go to town on this, with plaques, framed photos et al.
But that’s not the Vamizi way, thank goodness.