Sommaire pour Autumn 2023 de Zigzag

 The road is long. So we stop under the shade of a giant old mango tree for a xixi, and to peel a mango and have a nip. The beetles are buzzing, a chicken squawks; the smell of a wood fire drifts by on the warm breeze. A man saunters over from the house across the road. He has dreads, silver front teeth, and a sleeve of tattoos running down his arm featuring a compass and a cassette tape. He approaches; and with natural comic timing, says:  “So… you are here!” The three of us smile and nod, bemused at this introduction. Because it cannot be denied: indeed, we are here. “And I am here too,” he says. We all laugh at these obvious statements of fact. It must be…

By 1975 the liberation struggle and subsequent civil war had put a hard stop to the early journeys of intrepid South African adventurers, holidaymakers and pleasure seekers. But as soon as peace returned, so did they… with friends. And by then, many more of them were surfers. “I first came to Ponta in 1994,” remembers Mark Eardley, aka Spigs, a South African expat who has called Ponta do Ouro home for over 20 years. Spigs hails from Empangeni, northern KZN; and as an intrepid young skipper and dive master, he began travelling up north in search of reefs, spleefs and a life of freedom. “When the border at Kosi Bay opened up, it was nothing but dust, a caravan and a cattle gate,” he chuckles in his Tom Waits growl.…

In November 2018, during the inauguration of the Maputo-Catembe bridge and connecting roads, President Filipe Nyusi said the bridge was a vision of the late Samora Machel – Mozambique’s first president after independence in 1975. Nyusi’s mention of Samora Machel puts Mozambique’s historic relationship with China in perspective. During the armed struggle in the 60s, China supported the liberation movement (led by the same Samora Machel) that claimed independence. In recent times, the China-Mozambique relationship has materialised in the form of infrastructure and commercial/economic development. The Maputo-Catembe bridge is an example. A 3km-long suspension bridge, it connects Maputo to Catembe further south, and the 187km connecting road goes to the southernmost beach town of Ponta do Ouro in Matutuíne district, bordering South Africa. The whole project reportedly cost $785 million,…

If Inhaca lit the match, the Gotcha Experiençia poured petrol on the fire. SA surfing’s finest – Cass Collier, Sean Holmes, Davey Weare, Byron Howarth and many others – lit up perfect 8-to 10-foot Ponta do Ouro, for a legendary invitational competition that everyone still talks about. "It was like 8to10 feet and cranking. Waves were crazy good, I was super nervous at the time because there was just so much water moving and it was solid but it was so perfect! So good to surf with all the guys in waves of consequence. It was so perfect with no one out. Opened my eyes to what Mozambique has to offer." Davey Weare…

Ricky Basnett, Simon Fish, Chris Leppan and photographer Greg Ewing follow a cyclone to Inhambane to enjoy the points and catch an early glimpse of a mythical freight train sandbar further north. "That trip was wild as fuck, and we had such asolid crew together too. We heard murmurings of that wave before the trip, comparisons to Skeleton Bay being thrown around, but aright, and in the tropics. I was sold! But at the time I was still drinking heavily so to be honest I was there for the jol, and the waves were a bonus! We dossed under the stars on the beach right there, ous goofed, sleeping in board bags. But the one wave I had is ingrained in my mind forever, I can still vividly picture the…

“ I DON'T NEED TO GET MARRIED, SURFING COMPLETES ME.” Julia Fernando Ginge “I don’t need a husband. I have surfing,” says Julia Fernando Ginge – Tofo Surf Club’s trailblazing coach, and the first woman surfer in Mozambique to be sponsored by an international surf brand. “The expectations for girls in my village are very basic: cooking, cleaning, looking after the young, and waiting to get married,” she continues. “Before surfing, my mind was programmed that way: 'When I grow up, I have to find a husband.’ “But with the way things are going now and what I have learned, I don’t need to get married. Surfing completes me. I will continue to surf, and continue to grow.” Julia Fernando Ginge represents the revolutionary potential of surfing in Mozambique. Her…

The Surf Shack in Tofo is exactly what you’d expect: a wooden shack, with a thatched roof, on a sandy beach. At the back of the shop, past the selection of second-hand boards and surf gear, Manuel Augusto Nhamussua is grinding away at a dinged-up Al Merrick. He’s in the process of building his own shaping bay a few blocks down; but in the meantime, Dave Rupping – an ex-Llandudno local now living in Tofo, and the current owner of the Surf Shack – is letting Manu shape out of his shop. Manu looks up, briefly acknowledges my presence, and then goes back to the Merrick. He’s in the zone, approaching that old Merrick like Jordy in J-Bay, all flow and precision. But he takes one more look down the…

In a long story cut short, the Carr Foundation engaged with the Mozambican government; and together, in 2008 – happily for the people and wildlife of Gorongosa – they formed the Gorongosa Restoration Project, a public-private partnership for the joint management of the park. Their aim was far bigger than just the rehabilitation and management of a park; key to their joint mission was redefining the role of national parks, as envisaged by Nelson Mandela, to include ‘human development’ in the surrounding communities. Much like the surf-therapy initiatives to be found on Muizenberg beach, this new ‘people and parks’ iteration of Gorongosa is intentionally inclusive. This is essential context for visitors to understand the values that underpin the park, in harmony with its compelling wildlife and spectacular landscapes. Take the…

On the north-eastern side of the Park, some three hours from Chitengo – an hour of it on the good road through the park – is Kodzue Caves. The road was okay, relatively; though my anticipation for this little adventure was tempered by the number of Chinesefronted logging trucks hauling out tonnes of rosewood. But apart from that obvious downer, everything was safe, beautiful and thoroughly African, and the drive spoke volumes about this very rural corner of roughly ‘middle’ Mozambique. We arrived in mid-afternoon. Camp manager and 'cook' Silveiro Domingos and the landowners, brothers Baptista and Jeremiah Chimbatata, welcomed us as we pulled into the parking space on the edge of a woodland, in ‘the middle of nowhere’. We were seriously removed from anything that most westerners (and Russians…

Ilha was the capital of Portuguese East Africa up until 1898. Walking the sandy streets of Stone Town, you can see the incredible history in the buildings and streets that are still in use today. While many of the buildings on the island – particularly in the northern half of Stone Town, the Portuguese area of settlement – are clearly run-down and have been unoccupied for decades, there are enough restored buildings (many done up by young and enthusiastic Europeans starting guesthouses and restaurants) to generate the lively and optimistic atmosphere of an up-and-coming travel destination. There are several offshore islands in front of Ilha, open to long-period winter groundswell from the Indian Ocean, and numerous right point set-ups on the mainland, to both the north and the south. One…

PONTA DO OURO Acturo Camping This recently renovated beachside campsite is situated right in the heart of Ponta Do Ouro and boasts all new amenities, plenty of shade, and powered sites. Private beach access directly onto Ponta’s main beach makes a surf check as easy as rolling out of your tent! WEB www.actupocampingponta.com FB Actupocampingponta IG @actupocamping FAROL DA BARRA Inhambane WEB www.faroldabarra.co.za CELL +258 842836933 EMAIL faroldabarra.inhambane@gmail.com TOFINHO BEACH COTTAGES Tofinho r TEL Gideon (+27) 81 438 5511 TEL Ricardo (+258) 842 9922 83 WEB www.tofo.co.mz EMAIL info@tofo.co.mz FB TofoBeach UNDERWATER EXPLORER Ponto do Ouro Welcome to Underwater Explorer in Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique. Our camp is situated right on the beach with the best surfing waves in the region. Yes, that’s right –…

A cyclone gurgles off the coast of south-western Madagascar; causing widespread local flooding, death and destruction, while slinging heavy waves and weather across the channel towards a perfect sandbar in Mozambique. Skimming over the humanitarian nightmare of a natural disaster, the prospect of endless tropical barrels kicks more than a dozen professional surfers into action – and generates real FOMO in thousands more. Triggers are pulled, 4x4s loaded, jetskis cleaned and hitched, plane tickets booked, accommodation scrambled for. James Ribbink is flying in from Hawaii, Mikey Feb is boarding a plane out of LAX. The whole circus is on the move, and racing towards this point. Where did I put the matches? I’m lying awake in Ponta do Ouro, listening to the sea growling through the casuarina trees. It’s been…

“There is no single thread of history that leads us to this moment, on a north-facing beach along the south-east coastline of Africa.” The Mozambican coastline was created when Madagascar cracked off and drifted away from the Gondwana supercontinent 180 million years ago. This prehistoric event opened up a strip of ocean, the Mozambique Channel – and carved the shore into a series of distinctive zigs and zags that now stretch 2 500 kilometres between South Africa and Tanzania. Out back, at a mythical sand-bottom point near Inhambane, near the top of that first zag of coastline, Mikey February strokes in and swoops down a perfect line like a seagull on the breeze, barely skimming the surface. A very modern surf moment in Mozambique. There is no single thread of…

“He began travelling up north in search of reefs, spleefs and a life of freedom.” For a decade-plus, Ponta remained relatively quiet. In 2000, Spigs settled here permanently, and gradually the place shifted gears. “I was living in a reed hut,” he remembers, “and then, when electricity came in about 2002, things changed. We were able to sink a borehole and get water. I was the first vittoke to move to the village and live in an actual house… I had a laaitie on the way. Slowly but surely, it became more accessible. They tarred the road to Kosi Bay, and tourists from Durban and Joburg started pulling in.” In recent years, two massive changes transformed this corner of Moz forever: the tar roads to Ponta, and the Maputo-Katembe bridge…

MOZAMBIQUE IS THE PLACE THAT INSPIRED ALL THOSE DRAWINGS AND DOODLES IN TOUR NOTEBOOK DURING MATHS. OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS, KEY MOMENTS HAVE BEEN CAPTURED THAT HAVE DRIVEN THE IDEA OF MOZAMBIQUE AS A SURFER’S PARADISE. THESE ARE THE SESSIONS THAT HAVE INSPIRED SURFERS TO CHASE THIS VAST CHUNK OF AFRICAN COASTLINE FOR A FLEETING TASTE OF WONDER.…

With the intention of recreating the magic of the original Inhaca Search mission, this trip was coordinated by Zigzag’s sister publications at the time – Saltwater Girl and blunt. They linked up with a yacht named Zanj (skippered by Grant Ruffel) and pulled together an eclectic crew featuring Brode and Kasia Vosloo, Lee van Vuuren. Lynne Mackey and Matt Wilson, the lead singer of Saffa punk band Sibling Rivalry. Barry Tuck was dispatched as the photographer. Apparently, things got messy. They launched from Maputo in a storm, so the trip to Inhaca took 11 hours in heavy seas. Later the yacht ran aground, the dinghy got lost, and Barry Tuck snapped this winning shot of Flea van Vuuren while driving the dinghy himself, because the captain wanted to surf. Good…

A rare and deep Ponta slab gets all the attention in 2013, featuring the habitual Mozam crew of Chris Leppan, Beyrick de Vries and Casey Grant. Greg ‘the Sheriff’ Ewing pulled the trigger while the crew explored these rare kinks in the reef, in near-perfect conditions. "There are many profound moments that come to mind when I think of Mozambique. My love for our neighbouring country is really an accumulation of the many events, people and experiences! On this trip, instead of the usual low-tide sand-bottom point break we all know as Ponta do Ouro, we scored ahigh-tide rock slab that required serious commitment to the take-off from behind the peak." Chris Leppan 2014 TOFINHO 2016 PONTA…

In the middle of Tofo, just up the from the market and across the road from the police station, you’ll find the Tofo Surf Club. A line of well-used surfboards in wooden racks along the one wall, a screeded concrete floor and a roof made from woven palm fronds – which will soon need replacing – provide the entirety of this humble structure. Sung Min Cho, known simply as Mini, provides the leadership. He’s the Country Director, and runs the day-to-day operations of the club; while also setting the benchmark for the kind of performance surfing that both the club and the broader surf community aspire to. Born in Inhambane, to a Korean father and Mozambican mother who met when the former arrived in Mozambique and needed Portuguese lessons, Mini…

The scenario Dadiva described was unimaginable until the rebirth of Gorongosa. Most of rural Africa – not just Mozambique – is traditionally a patriarchal stomping ground. Few women growing up here have been able to consider a life beyond collecting water, having babies and tending crops. And this part of Mozambique, in and around the Gorongosa National Park, went through its own hell in the 30-year civil war that began in the 1970s. Women and girls in particular experienced hardship and trauma at the hands of both government and rebel fighters. With this in mind, and driven by Carr’s determination to offer young women the possibility of a different future, the Gorongosa Restoration Project established roughly fifty Girls’ Clubs in the villages around the Park boundaries; not only restoring identity…

However, back inside Gorongosa, the park’s influx of tourists is growing with every season. The main Chitengo camp (dating back to the days of John Wayne’s Hollywood set) has been well restored, with large thatched and airconditioned chalets and a central eating area, not unlike those in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. A short drive from here is the now almost ubiquitous luxury alternative, the long-planned Muzimu Tented Camp. Sited on a bend in the Park’s meandering Mussicadzi River, Muzimu recently had a soft launch, with the full opening planned for this year. The camp looks out over a floodplain populated by hundreds of waterbuck, and with game paths leading to the river. With the coffee project on Mt Gorongosa, along with the honey and cashew industries, the Girls’ Clubs…

AS THERE ARE NO LOCAL SURFERS, WE HAD TO WRITE OUR SCRIPT AS WE WENT ALONG, LOOKING AT EVERY POSSIBLE SET-UP. After exploring some of the set-ups in the vicinity of Ilha de Moçambique, we moved south, to the formerly bustling port town of Angoche – to be honest, one of the strangest places I’ve ever been on a surf trip. Whereas Ilha to the north has many new residents, Angoche had the atmosphere of a city that has been deserted, even though many decades have passed since the departure of the Portuguese in 1975. Buildings in the centre of town have jagged broken windows and charred walls from the looting of decades ago, and are completely empty. One has the faded lettering Supermercado (‘Supermarket’) still visible on the façade.…

Days later, a motley crowd of surfed-out fellows with bloodshot eyes and stiff shoulders – many cradling ice-cold bottles of 2M, Manica or Txilar beer – gaze on as Mikey February dances down the sandbar. It’s only four foot; but it’s throwing just as wide, and cracking like a guillotine. Cheneso was the first viable cyclone of the year, and the froth from the surf community, after the usual surf-starved southern summer, was at fever pitch. A roll call, in no particular order, speaks to this: Mikey Venter, Josh Redman, Saxton Randall; Mikey February, Beyrick de Vries, Eli Beukes, Brendon Gibbens; James Ribbink, Aussie Kael Walsh, Laury le Coustour from Reunion Island… And then civilians like Slade Mansfield, Ryan Ribbink, Elton Cuthbert, Scott Rutherfoord, Brett Pengelly, Jason Ribbink, Pat McCarthy,…

When it comes to surfing, Mozambique was Hagen Engler’s final destination. Tofinho was the finish line. The end of the road. But he’s cool with that… Once, I was a surfer. I’m from Gqeberha – the old PE – so I grew up surfing the Fence, Millers and the Pipe, before graduating to Seals, J-Bay and East Pier, Port Alfred. I say I was a surfer, because I’m now in Bryanston, Johannesburg, working corporate gigs. Marketing strategy, comms, business messaging… I won’t bore you with that, but I’m 600km from the ocean, so my surfing career is over like Myspace, Blackberry and rock bands in the Top 20. Don’t laugh – it could happen to you! But hey, I gave that surfing thing a full shake. SA champs, varsity champs, Vic…

The first inhabitants of what is now Mozambique were San hunter-gatherers, ancestors of the Khoisan people of southern Africa. One can expect that they lived peacefully and in tune with nature, as is still their custom today. Then, in the first century AD, a wave of Bantu-speaking people migrated from the north, through the Zambezi River valley. These farmers and ironworkers established the great Mwenemutapa Empire, with its capital in Zimbabwe and its influence extending down to the coast of what is now modern-day Mozambique. The Mwenemutapa empire reigned for close to a thousand years, and both tussled and traded vigorously with seafaring Arab Muslims from the east, Sufi merchants from Yemen and Badi Muslims from Oman, who established settlements and forged trade links with Africa, India, Persia, China and…

Approximately 470km north of Maputo lies the historic port town of Inhambane, in a region known as Terra de Boa Gente (Land of Good People); and the waves that grace the coastal bends nearby, when they happen, are some of the most spectacular on the planet. Bruno Lopez followed the surf to Praia do Tofo (Inhambane’s beach town), and now resides in a house overlooking the point. He’s also president of the Tofo Boardriders Association, and actively involved in many aspects of this small ‘fishing village with a surfing addiction’. “My father is from Inhambane, so I’ve been coming here all my life,” he says from his stoep, as the sea breeze whistles in over the point. “We would come here to party and surf, there was a good vibe.…

The search that lit the fire. Frankie Oberholzer, Tom Curren and Shane Beschen, with photographer Ted Grambeau, score on a boat off Inhaca island. This was the first high-profile editorial surf trip to Mozambique, featuring some of the world’s best surfers.…

The Gotcha Experiençia got everyone fired up. The Roxy Invitational was a women-only invitational surf event that brought the best women surfers in South Africa and the world to Ponta for good times and good waves. Anyone who’s visited Ponta will tell you how fickle it can be… But in 2008 she came alive, offering long, running four-foot walls that would race across the rock shelf at the top of the point before rolling into the bay.…

Despite the good work being done here, the establishment of the Tofo Surf Club was not immediately embraced by Tofo’s small and predominantly white ex-pat surf community, who had enjoyed a monopoly on the area’s waves for the last 30 years. “It was very divided,” recalls Mini. “Some were very supportive, and a bunch were very against it. Some who were against it had come here and found this little piece of Mozambican surf paradise, and wanted to keep it for themselves. They didn’t want to grow it among the locals. They didn’t want more people in the water.” Slowly, as the programme took root and had a positive impact in the community, the fears of ‘overcrowding’ and ‘scarcity’ subsided, and the sentiment began to shift. “It was difficult in…

Seven hundred kilometres north of Inhambane and about 140 kilometres inland from Beira – roughly on the same line of latitude as Hwange in Zimbabwe, the Okavango Swamps in Botswana and Etosha Pan in Namibia – the Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique is not what you’d expect. The story of its conception may possibly be Africa’s greatest tale of restoration and rehabilitation. The script is a bit left-field for an account of a national park, with a cast to match – including vintage Hollywood western legends such as John Wayne, Gregory Peck and Natalie Wood, a crumbling Portuguese dictatorship, Frelimo and Renamo fighters, and the big five; all set against a magnificent wilderness of woodland forest, limestone cliffs and a massive lake, every inch teeming with life. Archival film…

We exit the reserve and head north-east to Mount Gorongosa, about two hours away, where the Park is running a significant project with the community. It had been a personal mission of mine to get to the mountain, ever since the late American biologist EO Wilson – after whom the laboratory is named, and described by many as the modern Charles Darwin – made the journey to Mt Gorongosa and found a host of previously undiscovered species. Back on the good road, it seemed that after every 100m there was a bloke selling bags of charcoal, used primarily as fuel for cooking fires. This basic need drives deforestation, perpetuates cycles of poverty, and has a direct impact on climate change. I soon learnt that a splinter group of the Renamo…

IT’S ALONG DRIVE FROM THE SOUTH AFRICAN BORDER, AND WHO WANTS TO DRIVE THOUSANDS OF KILOMETRES, PAST PERFECT WAVES, TO SEE WHAT ONLY MIGHT BE THERE? Despite its long sandy beaches and offshore islands, the beautiful coastline of Mozambique in East Africa has long been something of a mystery to surfers. Following the end of the civil war, and given the liberal visa policy for South Africans, many wave discoveries have since been made. Most have been in the southern half of the country (by South African surfers, driving north from the SA border) on large winter groundswells moving up the coast and filling in the many right points between the border and Maputo, the capital. Less well-known are the many offshore islands; and in a surfing context, very little…

Besides being the province where the armed struggle for independence began almost 60 years ago, Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique was perhaps best known previously for its pristine beaches; and more recently for the promise of the vast natural gas deposits discovered offshore. Over the past five years, however, an Islamic State-linked group locally known as al-Shabaab (with no known links to the Somali Islamist group) has been conducting attacks targeting civilians as well as public and military infrastructure across the province. Aid and conflict-monitoring organisations say thousands have been killed and nearly a million people have been displaced, creating a dramatic humanitarian problem. The insurgency began in 2017, when gunmen attacked government infrastructure and killed police officers in the coastal town of Mocímboa da Praia. According to locals interviewed…

When an email arrived from the editor, the first words my brain saw were ‘Mozambique’, ‘2M’ and ‘peri-peri chicken’. I let out a cry, poured beer over my head and danced an Irish jig right there in my undies. At last! After writing this column for 10 straight years, the Zag is finally sending me on a surf trip. Later, when I’d washed the Windhoek out of my eyes, the harsh reality became apparent. Mozambique was to be the theme of this edition, with “some history, anecdotes and interesting tangents” thrown in. Plus the usual unrealistic deadline. Well, I’ve written about my surf trips to Mozambique on this very page, and I have nothing more to say on the subject. However, I went there with my ex-wife once, so let…

We hung in for a few days after the swell to connect some dots for this magazine and hopefully snag a few sessions at the point as the swell dropped and the tides aligned. (We didn’t). I hit up Nick Tasioulas again, the longtime owner of the Turtle Cove and the area’s first resident surfer, to try and get a comment out of him. Surprisingly, I get invited to a meeting. I arrive with apprehension that we’re going to pick up where we left off at the beach, the words “sell out” still ringing in my ears. Nick is at the bar with Grant Gilmour and Dustin ‘Krusty’ Volker; apparently Bruno Lopez couldn’t make it. To my surprise (the first of many this late afternoon) I get handed a refreshing…