The Old Pomene Hotel
Pomene Bay, while famed for its pristine waters and vibrant coral reefs, has a deep, rich history beyond its stunning marine life.
Check out the magnificent Old Pomene Hotel – this iconic ruin is more than just a landmark – it’s a silent witness to a bygone era.
In 1954 a man with the name Vic Preen and his son Brian decided that Southern Mozambique was getting too busy for them, so they decided to explore more further North looking for untouched fishing grounds away from the maddening crowds. This led them to Pomene, where they had to cut a path through the dense forest to the West shore of the estuary where they could cross by boat and set up camp on Pomene Point. For many, many years, they were the only people living in this pristine paradise aside from a few local fishermen.
About six years after their arrival a ship called the Berea, carrying a cargo of sugar, was shipwrecked on the South Beach of Pomene Point and Pomene was suddenly discovered when a road was built to try and recover the valuable cargo.
This in turn led to the development of the Old Pomene Hotel, but as luck would have it, this grand old lady, which was once known as the holiday home of Samora Machel, was abandoned in 1974 after only six years of operation because of the war and the Portuguese people being forced out of Mozambique.
Walking through these ruined old walls you can almost feel the charm and grandeur of yesterday and imagine just how impressive this hotel would have been in the 1970’s. Even today Pomene is really off the grid, cellular network comes and goes, there is only internet if you supply it and barely electricity. Some accommodation facilities have solar whilst others have generators that run for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening.
Now for someone like us in the tourism industry, we can just imagine back then what an enormous challenge it would have been to run this hotel at the standard of entertaining heads of state, royalty etc.
After the evacuation the Pomene area largely became a strong hold for Renamo during the 20 year civil war. And from the day of Mozambique’s independence, only a hand full of very small lodges have made their way into or back to the Pomene area, leaving you wondering why someone hasn’t scooped up this precious gem and restored it to its former glory.
Word has it that a large hotel consortium has purchased the property and paid all the locals their dues, so who knows maybe next time we visit Pomene we will stay in the “New Grand Old Hotel”.
Let’s hope that if they do develop this area, they keep it authentic and full of its rich history.
Source: Some of this content has been changed to reflect the now “up to date” scenario and some older excerpts (including feature image) remain and are taken from: https://codiveblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-old-pomene-hotel.html