Calanga Beach & Dunes Tour | 2 Days | All Inclusive

Come and join us on our 2 days / 1 night camping to Calanga’s Beach, perfect for a weekend gate-away from Maputo City (only 100 km far away).

Calanga is a peaceful, remote, unique and less explored beach, hence very clear, and it has spectacular scenery, white sands and large dunes, and is located between Macaneta and Bilene.

Our Calanga Camping tour starts at 6:30 am, departing from our office at CoWorkLab 4 at Avenida Kwame Nkrumah, so we have plenty of time to do as many things as you want, and explore every corner of Calanga.

This tour includes guide, all camping gear (tents, light, mattress and sleeping bag), transport, tolls, snacks, drinks, water, lunch, dinner and breakfast the second day. Feel free to bring your extra drinks, gin and tonic or a bottle of wine, as we always carry cooler boxes and ice for you.

You need to bring hat/cap, sunscreen, water bottle, camera, towel and swimming clothes; you can bring your snorkelling equipment as well. And don’t forget to carry your passport or ID with you, because it’s compulsory to be identifiable at any time.

The people living around Calanga speak Xitsonga and very few people speak English, so communication with locals is by boy language. 😀

Some people would say Calanga means tranquility in Xitsonga, and you will understand why once here: no doubt as this place is very peaceful.

Most of the local people live from fishing and keeping livestock like goats, ships and cows. They also practice some farming, mainly cassava and maize for family consumption, and the yield mostly depends on the rain every year. As many people don’t afford to have some irrigation system, for drinking and washing water, they use water from the few fresh water lagoons that they find around.

These fresh water lagoons are home to a few water birds that we find in the area, like storks, egrets, herons, ducks and a lot others.

We will drive passing Costa de sol, and few kilometres before Manhiça we will turn right and drive through the sugar plantations. Did you know that Mozambique is the Africa’s biggest sugar producer, and this sugar plantation brings a lot of employment to the local people of Manhiça District, including most men from Calanga?

After the sugar plantations, we will stop again in order to calibrate our tyre pressure as we are entering a very soft sandy part of our trip –this also means we are getting closer to the paradise.

We will enjoy some local villages and few fresh water lagoons, so if you want to stop for a picture or to admire some water birds or views please let the guide know.

Upon arrival at Calanga´s beach, we are sure by now you must be hungry, hence our guide will quickly set up the shade, table and chairs and serve you the breakfast and snacks. After done with your morning welcome snacks, it’s time for you to enjoy the paradise: you can swim, relax and read a book, take a walk along the beach, do some dunes hiking or try fishing from the shore -note for fishing you have to bring your own fishing gear as we don’t provide- Apart from water activities, we always carry some soccer and/or volley ball for you to play on the beach. If you are a fan of music, feel free to bring you JBL Bluetooth speaker to play.

Around 1 p.m. or at any time you wish to have lunch, our crew will take care of serving your stomach. Whilst you enjoy the day and beach, we will serve you lunch, then you can have a nap, relax, or read your book. Lay under the sun and enjoy some sunbathing; sun bathing is good for you: research shows there can be benefits from sun bathing and spending time in the sun; exposure to sunlight can boost mood, result in better sleep, and helps vitamin D production, which strengthens bones and may help fight certain diseases.

If you want to have a shower after your day’s activities let the crew know; they will take you to one of the campsite or we can boil some hot water for your shower.

As the sun sets, you see little boats from Calanga local fisherman coming to land offshore. You are free to go and have a look to what they bring and will be surprised to the amount of fish and the size of the fish they bring in land. They have gone out early in the morning in their small dug-out canoes, and they have spent the whole day in the ocean fishing, this is day-to-day activities there. After landing they carry their catch for selling in the village and sometimes to the lodges and camps around Calanga’s beach. Some of them fish using dung-out canoes and some do spear fishing.

When they use the dug-out canoe they catch fishes like king mackerel and barracudas, just to mention two important ones. A barracuda is a large predatory ray-finned fish and its known for its fear appearance and ferocious behaviour. It is a saltwater fish. Barracuda is known to be aggressive and dominant predator, and often relies on the surprise tactic in order to catch its prey, just because barracudas grow to be very large sized fish, they have few natural predators aside from sharks, giant tunas and dolphins.

Barracudas are very delicious and perfectly safe to eat, if you consume the small ones, barracudas have a full flavour, meaty firm texture with large flakes, low fat content and flesh which is light tan when raw and off-white when cooked.

The other type of fish the fisherman might catch on a good day fishing is the king mackerel or kingfish. Kingfish is a big oily fish, similar to tuna, and it is said to be a good source of proteins, and has been found to lower blood pressure in men. Kingfish produce large and thick fillets and they tend to be oily, so they are an outstanding choice for long and careful low-temperature smoking. They are delicious and good when grilled. Kingfish is a migratory species, it is an important species to both the commercial and recreational fishing industries.

On the other hand, some local fisherman practise spear fishing, this is normally implemented with a shaft and barbed point used for catching fish, it is a good way of selecting at the exactly thing you want to catch, so you choose on what you want to kill, although it has its own disadvantages, which is drowning (saying that you could drown during diving). There are few different reasons that could lead to drowning, which are shallow water block-out, caused by fainting due to lack of oxygen. In this case they catch some squids, octopus, etc.

Octopus inhabit various regions in the ocean, including coral reefs, pelagic waters, and the seabed. Most species grow quickly, mature early, and are short lived. In most species, the male uses a specially adapted arm to deliver a bundle sperm directly into the female’s mantle cavity, after which he became senescent and dies, while the female deposits fertilised eggs in a den and cares for them until they hatch, after which she also dies. To defending themselves against from predators they produce ink, also they use methods like camouflage and threat displays, they have the ability of jet quickly through the water and hide, all octopuses are venomous, but only the blue-ringed octopuses are known to be deadly to humans. Octopuses are not classified as fish, because they have eight arms and no skeleton of any kind and a beak. The only one thing that octopus have in common with fish is they all live in the ocean.

The other “fish” they get is the squids. Squids are not fish, but marine animals which also have gills. Squids contain a high content volume of minerals and vitamins: potassium, iron, vitamin B-12 and copper.

These essential nutrients aid in the performance and health of blood cells, bones and the immune system. Mozambique is characterized by a high diversity of fisheries according to economic and social importance.

Economically the shallow water shrimp fishery is the most important fishery in the country. And socially the artisanal fisheries sub-sector is the most important source of food and employment for local communities.

Watch sunset from the beach, having a gin and tonic, a glass of wine or a 2M, and do it hiking on top of the dunes. Sun and bush will become one.

Meanwhile, our crew will be setting up the camp, with the tents where we will spend our starry night. Never leave the tents opened as there are friendly curious small monkeys (vervet monkeys) around and sometimes come to say hello and see what they can get. And no worries about mosquitos as this beach line is clear.

We will camp right on the beach and if you want to watch the stars whilst you are sleeping in your tent let us know and we will not put the roof on your tent –it’s magical–. Beach camping is very unique, and sleep in the thousand-stars hotel is… WOW!

Star gazing from our beach camp is amazing, and we will make a bonfire and you can sit and warm yourself. This time is for story-telling.

The following day we can watch the sunrise from the beach –it’s really touching. Did you know that the Sun is the closest star to our planet? Probably yes, but it’s pretty amazing to think that our own sun, located a mere 150 million km away is an average example of all the stars in the Universe. Just one more question for you: how many starts are there in the Milky Way? You might be surprised to know that there are 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy, each one is a separate island in space, perhaps with planets and some may even have life. But then, there could be as many as 500 billion galaxies in the Universe and each of which could have as many or more stars as the Milky Way.

As for their purpose, stars are very important for life to exist. As we know, the earth orbits the Sun at an ideal distance that cause life to thrive on its surface. The Sun’s rays allow plants and algae to photosynthesise and store energy while also releasing oxygen into atmosphere.

The Milky Way contains over 200 billion stars and enough dust and gas to make billions more. Our solar system lies about 30,000 light-years from the galactic centre, and about 20 light-years above the plane of the galaxy. The Milky Way is a large barrel spiral galaxy. All stars we see in the night sky are in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is called the Milky Way because it appears as a milky band of light in the sky when you see it in a really dark area.

A planet is a large object such as Jupiter or Earth that orbits a star. Planets are smaller than stars, and they do not produce light; a star and everything which orbits it are called a star system. There are eight planets in our Solar System, and “Planet” is a word used by the ancient Greeks to describe stars, visible to the naked eye, that moved in relation to the fixed background stars. The word “planet” comes from the Greek word “planets” which means “wanderer” and likely has more ancient origins.

Working up in the morning hearing the sound of the water from the Indian Ocean is just cool. You can take an early morning walk along the beach, or simply watch the sunrise.

We will serve you a brunch at the time you choose, and we can also make you a cup of tea or coffee early morning before that -let us know what you like. We will spend the morning exploring the area, walking, playing games or just relax on the beach.

We will leave Calanga’s beach after brunch (2 p.m.), so you have plenty of time to enjoy, have fun, take as many photos as you want. We will be in Maputo around 5 p.m. willing to have a hot shower with a shining smile on our face.