Mozambique's city of grace — dhow port, whale sharks, and Tofo Beach
Inhambane is one of Mozambique's oldest and most charming towns — a graceful Portuguese colonial city on a wide bay, connected to the mainland by a fleet of wooden dhows that have sailed these waters since Arab traders called it 'Land of the Good People' in the 9th century. The surrounding coastline is world-famous: Tofo Beach, 22km away, is one of the planet's top dive sites for manta rays, whale sharks, and leatherback turtles. The town itself is a UNESCO-recognised historic centre of hand-painted azulejo tiles and mango-tree-lined avenues.
Inhambane's Arab roots stretch to at least the 9th century; it was visited by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and became a Portuguese trading post for ivory and slaves from 1534. The town reached its colonial peak in the 19th century as a centre for coconut-palm processing and peanut oil. Its gentle character — Mozambicans say 'people smile more in Inhambane' — is attributed partly to the relative prosperity of the coconut economy, which kept large-scale plantation slavery less brutal here than elsewhere. The town was spared much civil-war destruction and retains its faded Belle Époque colonial archite…