Mozambique: Bazaruto Map

If you plan to visit one destination in Mozambique this chain of islands should be it. The main islands are Santa Carolina, Bazaruto Archipelago, Benguerra and Magaruque. They offer a quintessential tropical holiday with beaches shaded by isolated palm and casuarinas trees. There are rich tropical reefs, clear warm water and excellent surf, plus rock and fly-fishing.

The archipelago's islands were formed when sand was deposited here hundreds of thousands of years ago by the waters of the Limpopo River. The estuary of this great river has now shifted several hundred kilometres to the south. During low tide many white sandy islands pop up, covered in shells. Six hours later they will be ten meters underwater again. Legend has it that the Portuguese disposed of prisoners by leaving them on a beautiful deserted island at the mercy of the tides.

Santa Carolina, the smallest and most northerly of the islands, is an ecological divergent from the jungle paradises of the other Bazaruto islands: it is composed of rock and coral. In the 1970s the islands and the channel were declared a national park, and now funding and management are provided by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, the South African Nature Trust and the Endangered Wildlife Trust. Their rules govern long-line fishermen, the sale of shell-fish and traditional fishing, and conserve the wildlife on the islands.