Morongulo to Pomene Hideaway, November 2022

Back down the road to Massinga. A quick coke zero, beer and veggie run and then again we are heading for the coast-line. Back on the road we took to Macachula but take the right-hand fork at the first village this time. We have had over a week of sunshine in this area now. The sand is fine but easily manageable with the 4×4. The trees open up quickly after the village. In front of us is a desert of beach sand where an old lagoon must have been. Some sparse vegetation and grasses hold the sands together. It is a remote and wild feeling.

A dune more like a mini mountain range appears and we engage 4×4 low range before the sand becomes too deep. Could be done in high range probably but I don’t feel like digging the hilux out of the beach sand. Keeping the accelerator down we pass over easily and are congratulated with the sight of the Pomene Nature Reserve gate. The fee to enter is reasonable and we are only charged once for entry as opposed to an amount for each day we’re planning to be in the reserve.

The vegetation becomes more lush and tropical once past the gate and the sand deeper. Our instructions are to pick the keys up from the caretaker’s house which we stop outside of but fear not being able to get going again out of the sand pit. The caretaker’s wife greets us with a big smile and gives us directions to our hide-away. It turns out the key is actually for the light-house road gate and not for our cottage.

We found a place called Pomene Hideaway by chance after days of searching the internet. A Whatsapp to a nice lady and we somehow were lucky enough to get the place for four nights at a ridiculously low rate. Low-season and nice people rock!

I am thinking unkind thoughts about the nice owners when we get to the lighthouse gate however. The sand is now even deeper and the incline after the turn-off and gate is significant. I can barely turn the car onto the side road through the deep sand but it is achieved once we get the angle right. I have to leave Kirsty way down the road by the gate to walk up by herself in fear of getting the hilux stuck in the sand. Then, slightly frightened, slightly exhilarated, we drive up the side of what must be an ancient dune on a single lane track. The track is more deep fine sand, with hopefully some harder ground underneath, and runs along the edge of an almost sheer drop. Tree tops from many metres down are at our eye level. We can see below us the entire land-based portion of the Pomene nature reserve stretching into the distance. We keep the hilux going in low range and after a fun few minutes we pass the turn-off to the lighthouse and leave the cliff-edge track behind us.

The sand gets even softer but we’re in a 4×4 hilux and reduced the tyre pressure ages ago at the Pomene National Park entrance gate. We can conquer most terrain now after six month’s plus experience. We float, drift and sough down the other side of the dune on a shallow gradient. Small groves of trees hold the top of the large dune together. After choosing one of a few tracks we round the corner and find a small timber compound in front of us.

Ridiculously, there is a simple carport set in the now very deep beach sand and so we gun for it doing a quick ninety degree turn to settle in between the wooden posts. I’m not expecting to be able to get out of the carport easily later.

Our cottage is more than we hoped for! Low season and nice owners. What a bargain! The facilities are simple but all together the effect is excellent. There is a compound of three separate small buildings. Building one has a store room and two bedrooms. Building two has three bedrooms en-suite.

The third building has a well supplied kitchen and a comfortable lounge leading out to the beach. The view from outside the lounge is panoramic with the expanse of the Indian Ocean in front. The final part of the dune dips down to the shore line in front of us. To the side someone has handily built a shady bamboo shelter with two hammock seats eagerly awaiting our arrival. There is a large and sheltered braai area at the back of the compound.

The caretaker and his assistant greet us and walk us through the place. We carefully intimate to them that we are fairly independent travelers which they understand. This leaves the two of them to busy themselves as they like by working on small jobs on the compound and fishing when the tide is right. A nice lady arrives each morning to help with the cleaning up.

The next few days go by slowly with a lot of activity. There are decent rock pools a little further north and we spend hours walking and snorkeling through them. The rock pools are the perfect breeding places for a few species and we find baby moray eels and baby lion fish in and amongst a panoply of crabs and fish.

The rains are starting to threaten again after a good week of blue skies and sunshine and so we head further north along the beach on the day with the best window for weather. We’re lucky and spend the whole day exploring the Pomene bay area from the south side this time after having had some adventures from the Macachula side a few days back. There is an old hotel sitting up on a rocky cliff at the entrance to the bay. A very decent surf break runs off from the side of the cliff towards a kilometre long stretch of shallow emerald coast line, white sand beach and a forest of palm trees. This is close to where the MSC cruise ship disembarks for a single day every few weeks December to March. I guess there are not enough passengers outside of school holidays in November.

We run all the way to the hotel ruins from our hide-away. About three or four kilometers along the beach. A few fishing folk along the way otherwise it is all deserted. The rocks that the old hotel sits on begin deep in the blue waters and we find great view points and more rock pools along the way. Just before the hotel is a small tidal lagoon the size of an olympic swimming pool. The water comes in through rock arches. No photos unfortunately due to the running gear.

There are very few people around but we find a caretaker of one of the empty lodges who directs us to a potential pizza bar. Turns out the pizza bar is closed also but the nice joint-owner from Kansas shows us around the camp resort. I gratefully buy two cold cans of coke and fanta and deeply regret that the restaurant with pizza is closed.

We spend a few hours clambering over rocks at the tidal lagoon, finding more baby moray eels and other creatures before returning to our hide-away. A local fisherman catches a big silver fish in front of us on the way back. Subsistence in action. In the afternoon sun we wave and smile to a few of the other local people along the way. I find a sea louse which I hand over to a man searching for bait. We while away the evening under the stars and listen to the endless crash of the ocean a few metres away.