A Herd in Exile: Riding Horses on Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago

With a map in one hand and a cold beer in the other, I sat alone at the bar of the Baobab Beach Backpackers Lodge in the coastal town of Vilankulo, gazing out at the sweeping sandbars and vivid turquoise waters that surround Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago. I’d planned to leave the following morning for Zimbabwe, and I was chatting with the bartender about the logistics of my trip. Then, suddenly, a car’s headlights lit up the bar, and I saw a familiar face heading toward me. I had a feeling my plans were about to change.

I’d met Mandy Retzlaff a few days earlier; she and her husband, Pat, former residents of Zimbabwe, are the founders of Mozambique Horse Safari, a family-run horseback safari company that I’d had the pleasure of riding with in Vilankulo as a special treat for my birthday. My friend Alice and I had traveled some 200 miles from Tofo — a small coastal village well known for its diving, snorkeling and whale shark sightings — for a ride with the company after we’d heard about their extraordinary story and the magnificent excursions they offered.

On the morning of my birthday, Alice and I had enjoyed an exhilarating ride at low tide along Vilankulo’s palm-tree lined beach. Pat was our guide, and his introductory words — “We’ll have to ride fast to reach the red dune before the tide comes in” — were music to our ears.

Riding side by side atop spirited and exceptionally well-trained horses, we thundered over the white sand, pausing to give the horses a break before cantering up the steep red dune. From the top of the dune, a palette of bright blue hues stretched over the peeping sandbars toward the five islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago. Traditional dhow boats dotted the seascape. We watched as fishermen pulled in their nets and local women carried their catch ashore.

A few days after our ride, while I was seated at the bar, Mandy drove to the Baobab Lodge to ask if I’d be interested in helping run their horse program on nearby Benguerra Island for a few weeks because of an unexpected staff shortage. Promptly abandoning my plans to travel to Zimbabwe, I found myself on a boat heading out to an island paradise.

About eight miles from the mainland, Benguerra Island — the second largest island of the Bazaruto Archipelago — is a scuba-diving haven that’s famous for its white-sand beaches and luxury resorts. Though their main herd of over 40 horses is based in Vilankulo, Mozambique Horse Safari also maintains an…