Donkeys, sea caves and rum

A red pick-up, outfitted with wooden benches along the bed is ready at 11am to take Ørnulf and me on "safari".

We´ve just watched the long São Fraciscão procession snake its way along the strand road, through town and up to the little blue church. White-smocked alterboys lead, red-smocked clergy at the end, the S.Franciscão statue aloft. A brightly colored crowd of young and old walking slowly to the chants and psalms blaring out of a loud-spleaker on the pick-up following. Occational fire-works punctuate the march. At the church shiny cars and police vans pull up and the President of the Cape Verde Islands and his men go in. They´re here for a four day visit at Terrafal.

Our guide, Jãoã Pedro Domingos, is in the back of the pick-up with us. And off we go, first north along the coast, by Cape Verde's first lighthouse, at Punta Barril. The coastal road starts out as smooth lava-stones, white ones for the stripes. At the outskirts of town the road is lined with new grey, concrete buildings, a tourist center, unfinished, and quite a few "emigrant" houses, large and fancy, but also far from finished.

Along the flat plain between the mountainsides and the coast the lava sand and dust drift onto the road, the stones getting rougher. Later appearing only at the steep, almost vertical bits. Small leafy trees grow on parts of the otherwise bare grassy savannah. It's part of a French re-forestation project. The hope is that the tiny trees will hold the soil and the moisture in this volcanic rock island.

We drive up into the craggy "Swiss alp" mountains. The steep, partly stone-paved roads become bumpy, uneven. It's a real roller-coaster ride. No boring fenders or stones to interupt the view over the vertical drops. As we bounce along on the back of the red pick-up.

First stop, Praya Branca, home of our guide, Sr. Domingos. Small stone and cement houses, steep stone-paved lanes. Chickens, goats and donkeys share them with us. Young girls with children in their arms or loads on their heads walk by. Our guide knows everyone, so we stop for a chat at "every other house".

On we drive towards another, smaller village in a green ravine, right at the edge of the red volcanic peaks. A lovely, narrow, fertile valley. A yellow church on a open clearing is built into a boulder almost as big as the church.
Here we meet a pleasant, quiet and knowlegable local, sometimes resident, Carlos Silva. He grows sugar-cane here and produces a very good rum. We know because we got a taste! Carlos, who grew up here, lives now in the island's biggest town, Vila do Ribeira Brava. He is the director of water supply there. His electro-engineer background is from Holland. We meet him at the village here at his mother´s house. And we hope we will meet him again the next time we make a trip to São Nicolão!

Our guide takes us along the narrow donkey paths into the village, and to the water source here. This green ravine is even greener in the summer, during the rainy season. But in the past years the rains have been fewer and less heavy. There's some irrigation here but women have a long, steep and narrow way back to their homes balancing the heavy water on their heads. A dam would be nice. We pass small woven corrals with goats and cattle. And I think I've taken pictures of every donkey we've passed. Further up the path there's another village higher up in the mountains. We´ll have to go there next time.

Back down the ravine we hike under the jagged volcanic peaks and pinnacles and the hot sun. We climb onto the red pick-up, hump, bumping along. Wonderful cool breeze! Along our way we pick up various hitch-hikers as we head towards an amazing volcanic "sculpture" on the coast.

We leave the rough rock road and follow dusty car ruts, marked here and there with volcanic rocks. Up and around a butte, goats munching on the dry straw that looks like soft duck´s down, on the hillside. On the sea side we get out to walk down to the edge of the cliffs. Amazingly sculpted caves and columns and fabulous forms in sandstone and lava. We climb down them to the sea. There we enter an amphi-room which the tidal waters fill to a natural pool. Now, at ebb, it's mostly dry, so no swimming. But fascinating to see. The next time we see this will be from the sea as we sail westward.

A magic tour of the red mountains, hidden valleys and wild coasts of Terrafal.