It is admittedly an ordeal to get to Kisawa Sanctuary, a new resort on Mozambique’s Benguerra Island, almost no matter where you’re coming from. I first flew 15 hours from New York to Johannesburg, arriving too late to catch a connecting flight. The next morning, it was a two-hour plane trip to the resort town of Vilankulo, where the sun-cracked tarmac was visually at odds with the modern glass-and-metal airport that stood before it—an emblem of Mozambique’s rising tourism industry. After a quick drive through town, two attendants from Kisawa met me on the beach, where they nimbly hoisted my luggage atop their heads and led me to a boat that would speed through the Indian Ocean toward the Bazaruto Archipelago.
The Bazaruto Archipelago, officially a national park, comprises five islands, renowned for their white beaches and diverse marine life—the second largest of them all, Benguerra, has quietly emerged as a wild and stealthy getaway. When I pull up to its shores, only a handful of Kisawa’s thatched roofs are visible amid the African bush. Kisawa founder Nina Flohr says she took cues from the tropical modernist movement as well as the work of local craftsmen for Kisawa’s integrated ambience. “It’s a modern-day interpretation of Mozambique,” she says. At my residence (lodgings are arranged in one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations), one of Kisawa’s on-site butlers, Isaias, hands me the keys to a baby pink Mini Moke while flashing a smile. He could drive me around the property’s 740 acres, he said. Or, even better yet, I could do it myself.
FOR THE BIRDS
Tranquil scenes from the resort, where flamingos and the odd dhow dot the shore.
