Casa Rei Beach LodgePomene Bay, Inhambane (Prov), South Africa Lodge (familie-eenhede vanaf R 1,500) | R 1,500 |
Wake up to where dolphins come to play. Casa Rei is a beach lodge situated on the north shore of the Pomene Estuary, approximately 650 km north of Maputo and 50 km off the main road between Maxixe and Vilonculos.
The estuary is nursery to an abundance of sea life, flamingos and the occasional sighting of very rare dugong with kilometers of tidal water washing through untouched mangrove swamps. There is access to 30 km of uninhabited coastline stretching to the north. A multitude of fishing sites within an easy cast from the shore are available, where game fish are regularly caught including the warrior ignoblis kingfish and the feisty king mackerel, also known as cuta.
If ski-boat fishing is your passion or scuba diving your pleasure, all reefs are within a 20-minute boat ride. Depths can start from 6 m and drop to 200 m and beyond; this only miles off the coastline. Billfish, wahoo and dorado will challenge your angling skills and whale shark, grouper, manta ray and turtle please the eye at world-class dive sites.
Between all the fishing and diving you may choose to partake in the more surreal activity of birding. Spot flocks of flamingo, lilac breasted rollers in the woodland, crested guinea fowl foraging around the coastal bush, sightings of saddlebilled stork in the shallows and the familiar cry of the fish eagle out of the blue yonder above. Many a lifer have been claimed to be seen here.
Should you fancy yourself as a wax foot or merely a sponger, Pomene Point offers one of the longest sand-bottom right-hand point waves you will ever experience, or if you prefer the A-frame wedges in board shorts and no one hustling you other than your fellow rent a crowd, enjoy.
If all this is too busy for you, maybe you are one of us who just wants to get away from it all and experience Africa the way it should be. Pop in for a visit.