Represent BigUps: KayaKweru in Ponto D’Ouro
BigUps to Clive and his team at KayaKweru in the village of Ponta D’Ouro in southern Mozambique for their wonderful hospitality. Some of you will remember the competition we held earlier this year – the prize was a 5 days of bliss holiday at the Kaya Kweru resort for two Represent subscribers. According to our winners, it was a great break from Jozi and a must-do for some peace of mind (remember to subscribe to Represent to enter future fabulara competitions).
Unfortunately Editorista could not make it, but her chommies Ips and Eug accompanied the winners and took great care of them. Sharpile dudes for your love and support! Click here to see all the photo’s of Ponta, KayaKweru and our winners having a blast. How about your next holiday at KayaKweru http://www.kaya-kweru.com/ in Mozi? Here’s the story from Ips that may just convince you:
Bongani has won a competition on http://represent.johannvisagie.com/ and his prize is a trip to Ponta D’Ouro, Mozambique with a partner. We, Eugene and I (Ipuseng), are the lucky buggers that get to take them there.
We had concerns when we were told the names of our co-travellers. Bongani was taking Jabu with him, so naturally the image that comes to mind is two Jozi chaps, with hormones in tow, a free trip to Moz and the scary notion of showing this place a thing or two. This, in our minds, would entail stalking the local female species, overindulgence in alcohol, and the inevitable lateness for every activity lined up. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Bongani was taking his girlfriend Jabulile. They turn out to be a really cool young couple that care about little else but each other…phew, relief!
Most are accustomed to getting to Moz via the Komatipoort border. We were going to the Southern most part and to get there you essentially follow the N2 and N17, passing towns like Trichard, Ermelo, Piet Retief, Pongola. I mean who do you know that has been to these places? Perhaps one’s eyes as the weather report flashes past after the news.
It’s a beautiful drive though, nature showing off at every opportunity. The toll gates you pass through are two in total and the damage is a laughable ten rand. A pleasant change when you imagine the R200 you pay in toll money to get to and from Durban. You must be warned though that those snoozy towns also breed a particular kind of over-eager driver every so often. We were bullied by a Baba Sibanibani, in his ‘been to hell and back on these wheels and I’m not tired yet’ nineteen ancient white Cressida. He overtakes when you least expect it with a kind of vengeful energy that makes you almost hear him think ‘bloody GP drivers, I’m just someone trying to get some place just like you’.
So we get to the border, we pay R17 at customs and we are welcome to Mozambique. The border is housed on patch of tar where your seven hour drive abruptly ends. This is the last time we see a tarred road until we return. The terrain beyond this point is only navigable by 4X4, so you can either walk wherever you are going (ha!) or pay R50 per person for the border pick arranged by Kaya Kweru where we are staying.
KayaKweru is a comfortable resort on the beach front in this amazing untouched, virgin town (village really) called Ponta D’ Ouro. There is absolutely no development here, except for a few restaurants, camp sites and resort type places like Kaya Kweru that occupy a strip along the beach, that’s it. For the most part its thin and dense forest, every so often giving way to homes built in this hilly and sandy environment. Its rural…but interesting because it isn’t quite like what I know back home.
We check in and take a walk to a nearby pub, have tasty fish and chips and quickly learn that Zulu gets you further than English here. The community is Shangaan speaking and the similarities in language is a bonus for South Africans. We walk the beach a short while and head back to KayaKweru to flop on our beds. The day has been punctuated with an emphatic full stop as travel fatigue sets in. The ocean is a most appropriate lullaby and sleep comes easy.
My last thought before disappearing into my pillow, “God lives here, I just know it”…zzzzzz.
The days that follow are filled with absolutely nothing and something all at the same time. Clive, who is the manager at KayaKweru, put it quite simply: “if you are looking for pace of any sort, you wont find it here. You must relax and enjoy simple pleasures to know why you are here”. He was so right. We did sweet vokol. I mean we swam; spent hours on the beach with a book or a note pad, took walks and drank. It’s a good idea to bring a fully equipped cooler bag because alcohol is expensive here…but man, it’s such a pleasure to be sitting at the beach and sipping your sweet somm’ somm’ as the sun goes down. Only then do you realise you have been chilling all day and can savour the feeling of doing sweet vokol.
Your sleep is likely to abandon you at the most ungodly hour. My theory is that when your mind is at ease, and nature is constantly massaging your taut city disposition, your sleep is deep and sound and when your body decides it is complete, you are released. This could be at 5am daily. So Eugene and I took to taking walks to see the run rise. I think we must have walked a good 7km along the soft beach. The Indian Ocean is always warm, dusk or dawn. My feet flirt with the water, as the ocean comes to me in a masculine rumble.
As the sun begins to show, it calms me and I notice the waves have become subdued and the water has settled into a feminine kind of play. Eugene is clicking away with his camera as these postcard frames reveal themselves in this gift that is Ponta D’Ouro. We spend the rest of this day dopping at the beach too.
On our third day we have a two hour quad biking adventure on our programme. So after breakfast we are off. The boys struggle a bit with the bikes (I sense a definite irritation with our spirit of encouragement which I’m sure to them sounds like a meaningless shrill) but once they get the hang of it, we are all in paradise… had a ball in the sand dunes, Jabu handles her stuff too. I think I can quite proudly say I dispelled any misconception that it is dangerous to have me (a chick) behind the wheel. Adrenaline is a drug, I tell you. The soft sand makes this place quad bike heaven.
We return to KayaKweru, fairly exhausted (by the sun mostly), pick up towels and goodies, vegetate on the beach. Later we have supper…dop dop dop… sleep.
Wednesday was a bit of a cold day. Eugene is in the pub watching television for the first time and I spent my time reading, working (a bit), snoozing and dopping as usual. Bongani and Jabu were only spotted later in the day. They had stayed in for most of the day and gone quad biking for a bit. We had supper together and dopped some more.
We leave on Thursday, its kind of sad but one will always have memories and the option to return. It’s a bumpy ride to the border, we pick up our car (which you can park under the shade for R25 a day) and we are off. Back to the chaos of that crazy city we love Jozi.
Contact Clive on mailto:clive@kaya-kweru.com%20for for bookings and enquiries at KayaKweru.
