Hiking and Relaxing on Santo Antao

A day of rest is nice, but Santo Antao invites you to do more, including exploring the sea. That became clear on the next evening. If I had looked closer at the next excursion, especially on the map, I might not have gone on this tour. Just to get it out there, the tour was 12 km long and involved climbing 930 m up and down again. And that was consistently uphill and downhill. The ultimate goal was to reach the summit of 'Pau Sec'.

Up, up, up... I didn't want to go any further, and my legs didn't want to either. Was it just a bad day or was it simply due to my fitness level? I think it's the latter - it's just exhausting. And when the summit seemed within reach, the path, or rather the trail, disappeared into overgrown vegetation. I simply followed my instincts and climbed up towards the highest visible point in sight. Stupid mistake - the trail was overgrown, not with grass but with knee-high shrubs. At this point, the fun was over. With internal unrest and a slight feeling of self-hatred, I finally fought my way to the summit. Phew, I collapsed exhausted on the ground. Unfortunately, the view over the valley on the other side was once again poor. And I hadn't been sitting there for long when the clouds began to move up, threatening poor visibility and complete disorientation. I also abandoned the plan to continue the circular route because of this and simply marched back the same way.

I enjoyed another peaceful day in 'Paul', only taking a short walk around the surroundings of Paul in the afternoon. The area and the landscape are simply stunning, you can't get enough of the view.

Another small hiking highlight awaited me the next day. For this, I took the 'Aluguer' to the very north of Santo Antao to 'Ponta do Sol'. The place itself can be forgotten, in my opinion, it only serves as a starting point for today's tour. The highlight was 'Fontainhas', a mountain village nestled in an unbelievably beautiful mountain scenery. It's truly incredible when after about an hour's walk around a left turn, you suddenly get a glimpse of the mountain massif with the colorful little village. Really beautiful, definitely worth a visit.

As beautiful as Santo Antao's hiking paradise is, I needed the sea, the beach, and a hammock. And yes, you can find all that on this island too.

All I had to do was take the 'Aluguer' back to 'Porto Novo' and from there, in 90 minutes, take a pick-up truck across another mountain massif to the western end of 'Tarrafal'. And that's where I found it all. A beautiful little village in the middle of nowhere. Currently, hardly anyone finds their way here, I was practically the only one who had traveled here.

I simply absorbed the total village tranquility for a few days. Simply beautiful.

I spent my last day before taking the ferry back to 'Sao Vicente' in Porto Novo, the port city and starting city here on Santo Antao. And this city is also worth a visit. Everything moves at a slower pace here too, except for two times a day when the ferry docks and the entire town seems to gather at the harbor for an hour, and then the straw bales are blowing through the streets again.

Fact: 'Santo Antao' is definitely worth a visit and should not be missed on any Cape Verde trip.