KaTembe Bridge, Inhaca Island and Maputo National Park

Look out from the clifftops of Polana across the shimmering expanse of Maputo Bay and you see a completely different coastline: the quiet beaches of KaTembe directly opposite, the barrier islands of Inhaca and Ilha dos Portugueses on the eastern horizon, and the coastal bushveld and lagoons of Maputo National Park stretching south toward Ponta do Ouro.

Crossing to KaTembe by suspension bridge or bay ferry

For over a century, the sleepy peninsula of KaTembe on the south bank of the Espírito Santo Estuary was reachable only by boat or a long detour around the bay. Opened in 2018, the Ponte Maputo-KaTembe spans the waterway with a 680-metre main suspension deck rising sixty metres above the shipping channel, making it the longest suspension bridge on the African continent. You can drive across in ten minutes from the western edge of town (or take the traditional passenger ferry from the port jetty near CFM Railway Station) to walk the quiet sandy foreshore of KaTembe, eat crab curry or grilled prawns at a beachside restaurant, and watch the late-afternoon sun light up the entire high-rise skyline of Polana across the water.

Boat day trips to Inhaca Island and Ilha dos Portugueses

Thirty-five kilometres east across Maputo Bay, Inhaca Island (Ilha da Inhaca) and the uninhabited sandspit of Ilha dos Portugueses (Portuguese Island) shelter the bay from the open Indian Ocean rollers. While the public ferry Katembe / Bagamoyo connects Maputo port with Inhaca village, most day-trippers book a faster charter speedboat from the Marina de Maputo or Escola Náutica on Avenida Marginal (roughly 45 to 60 minutes across). Spend the morning snorkelling over protected coral gardens at Barreira Vermelha or Ponta Torres with marine biologists from the Inhaca Marine Biology Station, walk up to the 1894 red iron lighthouse at the northern tip of the island, and picnic on the dazzling white sandbars and turquoise tidal lagoons of Ilha dos Portugueses. Pack reef-safe sun gear and water shoes.

Maputo National Park (formerly Maputo Special Reserve)

Now connected directly to the capital via the KaTembe Bridge and the paved N101 road south toward Bela Vista (though a high-clearance 4x4 is mandatory inside the park's deep sand tracks), Maputo National Park protects over 1,700 square kilometres of coastal forest, freshwater lakes, mangrove swamps and untouched Indian Ocean dunes between the Maputo River and Machangulo. Rewilded in partnership with Peace Parks Foundation, the reserve is home to around four hundred coastal elephants alongside giraffe, plains zebra, hippo, crocodile, reedbuck, nyala and red forest duiker, offering the rare thrill of watching elephants crest a sand dune with breaking ocean surf right behind them.