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Some Google Earth shots of Barra and Kaya MJ




Images 1 to 6.  Annotated pics at the bottom

Here are a series of Google Earth images, taking you right down to the house.  The satellite snaps are rather old now. Kaya MJ itself has been extended since and there's more development around Barra now.  We should also mention that the pics don't give a sense of the green, tropical nature of Barra -- it looks very dry here, which it isn't at ground level.  Just keep in mind that everything vaguely coloured green on the satellite pic are palm trees, baobab trees, etc.  Also, the pics don't show topography. Kaya MJ is up on a rather large sand dune, looking down over the water.

Of course, you can go to Google Earth yourself. Fly to Latitude  23°47'25.81"S and Longitude  35°30'36.07"E


Inhambane, Maxixe. Barra and Tofu, courtesy of Google Earth


Here's the entire beach, with the mangroves in the centre/left and the dune on which our house sits to the right.

Barra peninsular

Here's a bit of a closer look at the dune. The coast on the right heads down to Tofu.

East end of the beach

On the following couple of pics you can see our house quite clearly. But the pics are quite old.  Kaya MJ has been extended since they were taken, with a kitchen measuring approx 5m x 4m added to the (left hand) side of the house.

Also, the pics don't give a proper sense of the fact that the house is up on a dune -- to get to the sea we walk down a path and through the group of houses you can see between Kaya MJ and the sea. The houses, which were the first holiday dwellings to be built on Barra after the civil war are all owned by one white South African family. They are about 100m away from us, at the bottom of the dune.
Closer Google earth shot of Kaya MJ

Barra is not a sparse as these pics suggest. While there is sand all around, the vegetation is quite dense in parts, and there are lots and lots and lots of palm trees.

There has also been plenty of property development over the last 2/3 years.  From Kaya MJ you cannot actually see any of the neighbouring houses, other than the tips of the roofs lower down the dune towards the sea.  But further back on the dune is a development called Montana Lodge, which so far has about a dozen double story houses. The owner is supposed to be building a pool and a restaurant at some stage. In front of Montana, and next to our house, is a small spread-out village of locals. (The dwellings are too small to rely show on the Google pics.)  George, our housekeeper, has family living here.  They all came along to a party we held when we bought the place in the summer of 2006.

Annotated pic showing the road, Montana lodge and the lighthouse

You should find descriptions of all these places elsewhere on the site.  The total length of the beach, from the lighthouse to the White Sands campsite, is about three miles. But the sands beyond the campsite stretch out another couple of miles west (left) at low tide.  (Europeans -- remember this is the Southern hemisphere.)

You should be aware that the sands of Barra change regularly  -- the beach alters quite dramatically with each equinox.  Back in 2003 the Barra Reef Resort was under serious threat from the encroaching sea, while now, in 2006, the place has loads of beach in front of it. Conversely, Anduca Lodge, to the east, is currently much closer to the high water mark. In short, the sands shift all the time.



Annotated pic of Barra, showing lodges, bars, etc
And here, to put it all in context, is a map/satellite shot showing Mozambique above SA and alongside Madagascar.  You can also see famous locations such as Mauritius, Reunion and, north west of Madagascar, the Comoros islands.  So no, this is not the boring Mediterranean...


Satellite image of Mozambique

































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