Bilene, southern Mozambique’s wondrous beaches

To say Mozambique is blessed with spectacular beaches, is to state the obvious and to be guilty of understatement at the same time. Mozambique is the home of the spectacular beach. Leaving the peace and tranquility of northern Mozambique behind, we headed south to attend the wedding of two friends at the beachside town of Bilene. This tiny town seemed pretty cosmopolitan after a couple of weeks spent on Ibo Island and in Pemba. There was a strong mobile phone signal and even internet access – although Mozambique isn’t blessed with spectacular internet speeds.

Bilene is only a few hours from Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, and in a low key way is geared towards tourism, including many people from South African. Situated around a calm and warm lagoon, there are numerous accommodation options and a pleasant lagoon beach. However, it is the roaring waves, sand dunes and endless golden beach of the Indian Ocean that make Bilene special.

We took a boat across the lagoon and, as we walked through rolling sand dunes, we could hear the waves crashing into the beach ahead of us. Our first sight of the turquoise water was magnificent, and the beach really does stretch endlessly and emptily into the distance. For all it’s beauty, the ocean here has to be respected. The waves are fierce, and a powerful rip tide and undercurrent that could easily drag an unsuspecting swimmer under the waves.

The beach at Bilene, Mozambique, Africa.

After a day of lounging on the beach we headed back to the lagoon to inspect the sunset…pretty impressive as well.