One of the real pleasures of this job is the opportunity to travel to incredible places all over Africa. On a working trip we usually move at breakneck speed whizzing from one property to another, arriving home with a bundle of notes and brim full of new ideas. Last October however I persuaded some Edinburgh friends to join me on a trip to southern Mozambique - the perfect excuse to slow things down a bit.

Victoria reports on the glorious beaches of southern and northern Mozambique.

Hardened veteran of countless beach resorts, John Spence was not expecting to be won over by the small lodges of Mozambique's Bazaruto Archipelago. But two small lodges changed his mind.