Things to Do in Ponta Do Ouro

Swim with wild dolphins

The launch is a sandy ramp behind the petrol station. By 6 a.m. the ocean is glass. You hear dolphins exhale before you see them. Slide in; within minutes spinners spiral past, skin flashing sun-lit bubbles against your mask.

Quad bike to Ponta Malongane lighthouse

The trail starts behind the market and drops into dunes that smell of hot pine. You buzz past mud-and-thatch homes, skim crimson aloe clumps, then burst onto a cliff where the lighthouse leans like a drunk over turquoise surf.

Sundowner beer at the thatched deck of Fernando's

Fernando's perches on stilts; a wobbly plank is the only way in. At low tide you hear urchins crunch. Order a 2M, ice-slushed, and watch the horizon bleed orange while kids hawk prawn skewers, smoke curling through dusk.

Ocean kayak to the reef edge

Launch from the curved bay south of the bottle store. The first 200 m are surf. You taste salt every stroke. Past the break the water turns indigo and you peer down on coral heads where parrotfish graze. A turtle may slide beneath.

Night-time turtle nest patrol

Between November and February leatherback and loggerhead females lumber up the same beach you fried on earlier. Volunteers meet at 20:00 by the lifeguard tower. You walk by red torch, counting tracks that look like tractor tires in moonlit sand.

Backpacker lane behind the market: dorms where reggae leaks from communal bars every night

Beachfront cottages south of the main drag, so you fall asleep to wave thump

Campsites under casuarinas. Showers reek of salt-sulphur but the stars cost nothing

Self-catering condos on the dune ridge, perfect if you stocked groceries in South Africa

Higher-end eco-lodge tucked in coastal forest near Ponta Malongane, generator power only

Simple family pensões near the school - roosters crow but the price leaves beer money