Ponta do Ouro

Ponta do Ouro is the southernmost point of Mozambique's coast, immediately north of the South African border, reached historically by a sand track that only four-wheel drives could manage and now by a road that is tarred most of the way.

It is known for the dolphins. A resident population of bottlenose lives along this stretch, and swimming with them has been run here since the 1990s under a code that is unusually strict: boats do not chase, people enter the water quietly and only if the animals approach, and encounters end when the dolphins leave. The research programme that developed the code has published on the effects of tourism on the population, and the honest position is that even well-run interaction has measurable costs.

The bay is a crescent of golden sand facing the Indian Ocean, with a point at the southern end that produces a right-hand wave. The water is warm and clear, and the diving on the offshore reefs — Doodles, Bass City, Pinnacles — is what the town's economy actually runs on. Whale sharks and manta rays pass through, and humpbacks migrate between June and November.

Development is a low village of lodges and dive shops on sand roads, with the Maputo Special Reserve behind it and turtle nesting on the beaches to the north between October and March. Ponta Malongane, a few kilometres north along the sand, is quieter and has the same dive sites; the Maputo Special Reserve inland holds elephants that recolonised it after the war.

Resident bottlenose that people swim with under a code the local research programme wrote — no chasing, quiet entry, the encounter ends when the animals leave — and published work on what even well-run interaction costs them. Launches go off the sand through the surf to the reefs, which is what the town actually runs on. Bring a vehicle that can handle sand.