We had been wondering what to do for the Easter holiday. Harriett and I have less than 6 months left on our passport so need to renew it (as we need more than that to get back into Mozambique if we leave). But our passports have our residency permit in, and the British refuse to give us a new passport without handing in our old one first. That would mean living illegally in Mozambique without the correct documentation, which doesn’t seem tempting. Anyway, that leaves Harriett and I in a stalemate with our passports and unable to leave the country. So we decided we’d better stay in Mozambique, tempting as another trip to South Africa or eSwatini might be. While we were thinking about this our neighbours told us they were going to Bilene and asked if we’d like to join them. So last Saturday we set off for our first trip to Bilene.
In Mozambican terms it’s quite close, being only about three hours away. It’s even quicker when you can tuck in behind your neighbour’s car as they have diplomatic plates so don’t get stopped by the police as we often do. There are tarmac roads all the way into Bilene and the roads only turned to sand on the edge of town as we were approaching our house.
We had booked Casa Lagoa Ruru, which is right on the edge of town,three or four km from the centre of Bilene. Bilene is a holiday town on a huge lagoon. The lagoon is a couple of km wide and about 10km long. It has a small connection to the sea making it saltwater. This means we have rare access to still water without having to worry about crocodiles and hippos.
The kids instantly loved it and after a quick run around the house, had their swimming costumes on and were pestering for stand up paddleboards to be inflated and kayaks to come down off the roof. Before long we were all on the beautiful warm, but not that calm water, enjoying an afternoon paddle. The wind had picked up (as it tended to in the afternoon). This made for quite a choppy lake and made the paddleboards quite hard to control. They also didn’t have their fins in place on the bottom, meaning they were very easy to tip (usually every time I tried to stand up) and tended to go in circles.
Before long the kids had abandoned the boats and were just swimming in the water, jumping on and off paddleboards and the four of them were having a great time.
We had a wonderful spot on the lake. The back garden of our house, which was complete with its own crazy golf, pool, table tennis (with badminton rackets) and outdoors cinema screen (but no projector), led out on to the beach. The white sandy beach had a few trees higher up to give some shade and then led down to the water’s edge. The water here is fresh as a river was coming in from the right. Off to the left was a long expanse of beach leading a couple of km away to the centre of Bilene. To our right were reeds and scrub surrounding the river, giving us quite a different outlook on both sides.
There was a small pool where we stayed, but it wasn’t needed, the children almost lived in the lagoon, often being out hours at a time three times a day. Coming back to rest, get some food, and then to take another adult away to take them out onto the water.
Where we were the lake was about 1.5km across, so Zoe decided she’d like to swim it. We’d found the mornings were generally still on the lake, and then a thermal wind built up during the day, blowing onto the shore. So Zoe and I set out by kayak one morning. Zoe in her wetsuit ready to swim back. White water kayaks are not the quickest boats for longer journeys, but it was a pleasant paddle across the lagoon. Close to the shore, the lagoon is shallow. 100 meters out and it’s still only waist deep. But then suddenly the bottom drops away and the lake gets very deep and becomes a wonderful dark blue/green. Half an hour later or so and we were on the other side. I towed Zoe’s empty kayak back while she got in the water and started to swim back. My job as a rescue boat was, luckily, not needed. But it was useful, from time to time, to point out to Zoe that she was now swimming at 90 degrees to the direction she was intending to travel in. Once we were almost back we passed the kids, busy as usual jumping on and off paddleboards. Their latest game was to have two people on a paddleboard standing. The aim of the game is then to get your opponent off the paddleboard, simply by wobbling it from side to side. I soon discovered I was rubbish at this game as all of the children beat me at it. I’m sure it was something to do with them having such a low centre of gravity.
The week passed in much the same way. We did manage to find a nice restaurant in town. And probably more importantly a garage that sold fresh bread, good coffee and Magnums. An almost perfect shop I thought. On the last afternoon as we got back to the house I spotted a Vervet monkey on the wall by the house. I called over the girls and Zoe (quietly). Once we looked around we realised there was a whole troop of them all over the garden. Climbing trees and scampering over the grass. We saw a baby with its Mum up on the roof. Once I realised they were hanging around I went inside to get the camera. Once inside I could hear them bounding around on the roof. I also spotted the front door open and a young monkey kept poking his head around the door looking to see if he could sneak in. But when he saw me he kept ducking back outside. He kept checking then ducking back out. It was like playing a game of hide and seek with a toddler. I then saw he had clearly been in already as a load of bananas were missing and there were lots of scraps of fruit thrown around the floor.
It was an hour or more before all of the monkeys finally left. We enjoyed sharing time with them as they preened, squabbled and climbed around the canopy near the house.
Bilene was a fantastic place for a relaxing break away from the roar of the Indian ocean. We will certainly be back.
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