Metamo Island

After a lucky escape from being bitten to death by the many mosquitoes that entered my tent when I unknowingly opened the door in my sleep (I think I must have been too hot!), we set off to Metamo Island. We’d arranged for the captain of a dhow to drop us off at Metamo on his way to taking his other passengers to the mainland. We managed to get a good spot on the back of the boat with a nice amount of room, although someone’s feet were still a little too close for my liking. There was the usual procedure which seemingly needs to take place before setting off on any boat trip - waiting around for no apparent reason long after we were due to have set sail, then having some sort of problem with the motor, the sail or the anchor, then eventually setting off for a short distance before turning back to pick up someone else who arrived about three hours late, and then finally setting off for real. It’s always an adventure travelling here, full of the unknown and the unexpected. This could potentially be a little frustrating, especially if you like things to run on time. But for someone like me who’s quite used to running late, once you begin to expect the unknown then it’s a very entertaining and relaxing way of life.

A few of the unexpected things on this boat trip:

• a very manly looking man wearing a fluffy pink baby’s hat
• turning around to see the captain’s assistant’s bare bum right in my face, as he was bending over to sort something to do with the sail (he was just wearing a tee shirt and his underpants, which were very more full of holes than material)
• stopping quite a way off from the shore to transfer a large fridge and it’s owner from our boat to another one – this took all of the men on board to achieve and looked a very awkward and risky process, especially for the fridge
• there being a very fishy plastic sheet available to cover our bags when the waves started to splash into the boat

Nearing Metamo, we past perfectly white sand islands and the sea became such a beautiful colour and was so clear that you could easily see down to the ocean floor which must have been quite a few metres below. At Metamo we had to jump from the boat into the shallow sea and then walk up onto the most perfect and completely empty beach, with bright white sand surrounded by stunningly turquoise sea, and palm trees lining it’s edge. Immediately we were so very glad we’d managed to come. There aren’t any towns on this part of the island, just a few pretty little villages. There is one very expensive and posh lodge which apparently is quite popular and then one campsite which is where we stayed. With some good bargaining by my friends, we were aloud to stay in the otherwise empty little bungalows next to the beach for the same price as if we’d stayed in our tents. That evening we watched such a beautiful sunset and then saw a sky full of stars. There was no electricity in the village and so no lights to pollute to sky. As we returned to our bungalows with the light of our torches we discovered they weren’t empty after all. It turned out that the porches were a favourite hang out for pretty little hermit crabs.

My main reason to come to Metamo apart from to see another island in the Quirimbas Archipelago was to do some diving. I’d heard it was very beautiful, and as not many people come here the coral was supposed to be almost completely undamaged. It was better than anything I’d imagined! There was so much coral that most of the time you couldn’t see the bottom because of it. I saw some that looked like a cactus, some like mini holly bushes, and so many other different types all amazing shades of pinks, purples and reds. Along with such wonderful coral were thousands and thousands of fish. The area was protected and so not fished and there were endless shoals of multi coloured fish, beautiful little sea slugs (nudibranchs), lobsters, huge puffer fish and all sorts of different coloured and patterned starfish. I was the only person diving (with a dive guide) and although I only paid for two dives I got a mini one for free – we were following the directions of a GPS to find one of the reefs and when it said we were there we jumped in a began to descend. My dive guide had said that if we couldn’t see the reef when we went down then we’d just need to swim along for a bit and it should appear. So we went down and down and swam around but all we could see was nothing, just endless dark, empty water. In the end we decided to come back up as the reef definitely was not anywhere near. Back on the boat we did eventually manage to find it. Not sure what the GPs was up to!

The only dive company on the island was at the posh lodge. My guide was really nice and said that I was welcome to make use of their facilities. Not one to pass up free stuff I quickly enquired as to whether my two friends could make use of them too, and also established what exactly we could make use of. By the end of the day I returned to our camp with free sandwiches and bottled water and news that we could all go and use the lodge’s pool, beach, restaurant and snorkelling gear!

So the next day this is exactly what we did. In the morning we went to the beach and snorkelled above the rocks, and then we returned to lie by the pool in the afternoon. The food in the restaurant was rather expensive so we skipped lunch and instead had the most delicious cocktails I’ve perhaps ever tasted. Then as we began to get really hungry we made use of the outside shower (our camp only has buckets of cold water to wash with), and then headed to back our home.

We took some walks into the villages where most of the time it was strangely quiet. People must have been about but they made no noise. In the day time you’d bump into a few people but in the evenings when it was dark, the only sign that there were people in their homes were the little fires burning which were used to cook dinner on. The exception to this quietness was the children. If any child saw you they immediately began to chant ‘mzungu mzungu mzungu…’ whilst clapping their hands and marching towards you. They’d then run back to wherever they’d come from screaming ‘mzungu’ to get reinforcements from more children and eventually you would be followed by any numbing of excited children all chanting and clapping and marching and getting themselves into quite a frenzy.