In the fourth year of a five-year world kiteboarding expedition, we sailed 600 miles across the Mozambique Channel from Madagascar to the Bazaruto Archipelago, off the southeast coast of Mozambique. It’s considered one of the most beautiful destinations on the African continent. As we made landfall, a massive 20-mile sand dune grew off our bow. No words were said, everyone just ran for their wings.
The east side of the dune juts out into the Indian Ocean at a perfect angle for paragliding a few hundred meters above the sea. The hard part was getting there as there is a huge shore break that denies access to the beach. So we plotted our attack at low tide. Keeping the dinghy ashore wasn’t an option so we anchored it a hundred meters off the beach. In no time we were soaring and exploring a place by air that had never previously been flown. It is the stuff that even vivid dreamers cannot imagine and as a photographer it was perfection. The way the light danced and played along the sand was mesmerizing.
It was perfect until we spotted our dinghy washed up on the beach. By the time we reached it, there was no obvious damage but we would still have to wait again for low tide to make any attempt to leave.
We ended up sleeping on the dune that night in our paragliders and awoke again the next morning to more perfect flying conditions. Being quite possibly the most playful and stunning soaring site on the planet, we had to keep flying. Only after we were sunburnt, exhausted and dehydrated did we manage to get the dinghy through the shore break and back to our catamaran.
