Bazaruto Island — island
Image by cotrim from Pixabay

Bazaruto Island

Bazaruto

  • 2 min read
  • 21.655° S 35.472° E

Interesting facts

  • In 1990 a crocodile farm on Bazaruto held around 5,000 crocodiles; it was finally closed in 2002.
  • The surrounding archipelago shelters roughly 120 dugongs, the largest remnant population of these sea cows in Mozambique and in East Africa.
  • Four species of sea turtle are found around the island, and whale sharks, manta rays and humpback whales visit its waters.
  • Three species of skink live nowhere in the world except the islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago.
  • The tide here rises and falls by about 3 metres, exposing broad mudflats around the northern sand spit.
  • Scholars have suggested the archipelago may be the island called Crocodile in an eleventh-century Egyptian text describing the East African trade route.
  • A national park was declared in the archipelago in 1971, but at first it left out Bazaruto itself, the largest island.
  • The island's wildlife includes 74 resident land bird species, 32 reptiles and 10 amphibians.
  • Small mammals here include the Mohol bushbaby and the four-toed elephant shrew, and only a single bat species, the little free-tailed bat.
  • An aerial census in 1990 counted about 2,576 people living on the island.

Why it is worth it

Huge sand dunes, some of them 90 metres high, run down the eastern side of Bazaruto, falling towards the Indian Ocean surf on one side and looking across the turquoise shallows of Bazaruto Bay on the other. The largest island of the Bazaruto Archipelago off southern Mozambique, it is a long, narrow barrier island, about 31 km long and some 110 square kilometres in area, and its dunes are among the tallest found on any barrier island in the world.

The core of the island formed during the Pleistocene, and its older dunes are now an orange-red colour, while younger, pale Holocene dunes line the shore. During the last glacial maximum, when the sea stood about 130 metres lower, Bazaruto stood far higher above the water than it does today; the old shorelines are now marked by coral-covered rock formations offshore. A sand spit around 6 km long extends from the northern tip, flanked by wide mudflats. Inland, grasslands alternate with salt marshes, mangroves and small freshwater lakes. Blue monkeys, harnessed bushbuck and red forest duiker live on the island, and the surrounding waters are a vital refuge for dugongs and sea turtles. Since 2001 the island has been part of the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park.

People have lived here since the late Iron Age, around the third century AD, and the island was part of the Indian Ocean trade network, exporting pearls, amber, tortoiseshell and dugong teeth; Persian porcelain has been found at the site of Ponta Dundo. From the late sixteenth century Bazaruto came under growing Portuguese influence and passed between Afro-Portuguese landowning families and local chiefs; in 1721 the chief Mucissa gave the island to the Portuguese crown. Famine, drought and slave raids emptied it in the nineteenth century, and it was recorded as uninhabited by 1886. A Tsonga community later resettled the island, and their descendants still live from fishing along the sheltered western shore. A lighthouse was built on the northern tip in 1913.

Getting there

Bazaruto lies about 14 km off the Mozambican mainland across Bazaruto Bay; the coastal town of Vilankulo is about 40 km away. Vilankulo Airport (VNX) is about 43 km away in a straight line. The island is reached by boat from the mainland coast, and has an unpaved airstrip.

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From the encyclopaedia

Bazaruto is a barrier island in the Bazaruto Archipelago of southern Mozambique. The largest island of the archipelago, Bazaruto sits near the eastern rim of the African continental shelf, sheltering the mainland coast on the other side of Bazaruto Bay. Formed during the Pleistocene, Bazaruto's sand dunes along its eastern shore are among the tallest of any barrier island, reaching heights up to 90 m (300 ft). Besides the dune system, the island is dotted with grasslands, salt marshes, mangrove swamps, and patches of freshwater wetland. It harbors a variety of wildlife, including blue monkeys, harnessed bushbuck, and red forest duiker. The waters around the island are a vital refuge for dugongs and sea turtles.

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