General information about Santo Antao and Cape Verde: Santo Antão, Cape Verde. Dramatic nature and exciting hikes.
The crater Cova de Paul
A classic hike on this beautiful island is up the Paul valley and further up the path to the Cova de Paul volcanic crater. Or, maybe down from the crater. Most people choose this variant because it is very steep from the valley upwards. I chose to climb up because I think it puts the least strain on the knees, and it’s good exercise.
But in order not to have to walk all the way up to where the trail begins, I took an aluguer (read in general post) up as far as I could.
I have to admit it was a tough ride up. 700 meters elevation in countless hairpins. The longest flat section was probably 20 meters.
The path is quite wide, stone cobbled all the way and with a low stone railing on exposed parts. So it feels completely safe even though there are quite a few vertical meters down.
The crater is at 1,300 meters and the high mountains catch the clouds. So from 900 meters up it was quite damp and partly slippery to walk. Probably worse for those who went down. I met around 10 people on their way down. Only one more chose the way up.
The view down into the valley was formidable before I entered the clouds. But as I cross the sharp ridge that surrounds the crater, the miracle happens. Suddenly the sky is blue, with only a few small wisps of mist sailing past. The clouds are clearly caught on the valley side of the mountain.
I sit down at a vantage point to enjoy the now traditional lunch of tuna and a bun. The crater is perfectly round, about 600 meters in diameter. The bottom of the crater, 100 meters below the rim, is completely flat and covered with fields. The sides of the crater are dramatic with their colorful volcanic rocks, and all the time small mists slide down the mountain sides.
The path continues down into the crater, past some house ruins and up to the old main road on the island that runs from Porto Novo to Ribeira Grande.
I had little desire to go back down and sat down to wait for a car. Since most people go downhill there is a lot of traffic here in the morning, but now in the afternoon it is quiet. Not many people live up here. Fortunately, after half an hour an aluguer appeared and dropped off a couple going up to Pico da Cruz, the highest peak in the area. Since I was the only passenger, I had to pay as a taxi and was able to negotiate a price of 20 EUR to Ribeira Grande. A fair price, it’s a long way down there. After a short while we picked up a couple, and the price was reduced to 15 EUR
Rental prices are always negotiable when you drive a taxi. If, on the other hand, it is a collectivo, the price is fixed and reasonable, 2 EUR for the same route.
The trip down to Ribeira Grande was absolutely worth the price. I have hardly seen more dramatic nature. On one side of the road you have the Ribeira Grande valley 1,000 meters down, on the other side an equally deep valley with wild, undulating mountain sides. The road was partly carved into the mountainside. It cut through cliffs and in some places it was vertical down on both sides of the road at the same time.
The driver stopped for photos whenever we wanted.
Onward from Ribeira Grande back to Paul there was a collectivo for 1 EUR.
Other hikes in the Paul valley.
Parallel to Paul runs the smaller Figural valley. It offers a nice little round trip, up the valley and over the mountain back to Paul, marked X on the map. If you start at the bottom of the valley, you must follow a newly built road one kilometer uphill before the path takes over. There is an easy-to-walk stone path that leads to the few houses that are up in the mountain. At first it goes through sugar cane and banana fields. As it gets steeper, smaller plots of land take over on built-up terraces. Those are small plots of land of only a few square meters.
Every now and then you meet people carrying the crop down for sale. The women usually carry on the head, the men on the shoulder. The housing becomes poorer the further up you go. Some have donkeys, but donkeys need food, and that reduces the arable land, so most have to carry instead.
At the top, about 400 meters up, there is a small bar where you can buy water and coffee. The view down the valley is great. Down again is steep and you are soon back on the road.
Brown trail marked X on map.
Along the valley floor from Eito
After a few days of climbing it can be good to rest the legs. If you still fancy a short walk, I can recommend the path that goes from Eito upwards, on the other side of the river. It goes to the houses on the valley side, is cobbled and easy to walk without many uphills. At the top, it turns into a dirt path through sugar cane fields. The sugar canes are raw materials for the distilleries that make grouge, a rum variant that is popular on the islands. It comes in many qualities, but the one I tasted was like a bad moonshine.
On the map, it looks like the path stops at the top of the hill, but it goes down to the road again at the end. Well marked all the way with white and blue Brown and gray trail, marked XX on the map.
The slope down from Cova de Paul
I found it so beautiful in the area around the crater that I took another trip, this time by car from Ribeira Grande. The plan was to follow the paths through the pine forest that covers the top, and north-eastwards down the valley. Unfortunately, the clouds lay heavy over the top. It can be sunny down by the coast, but dense fog on the peaks. Impossible to predict, but if you are going up, stay on the leeward side of the mountain.
I therefore chose to jump off a little earlier, at Espongeito to get away from the clouds. In the area here there are many criss-crossing paths. Don’t count on meeting other tourists. A good map app is absolutely required. See below. Some trails can be quite overgrown and difficult to see.
Easy-to-follow paths lead you through open pine forest and further down through cultivated land. I only met 3 people who were harvesting tomatoes on my way down.
Even with the map app, I managed to get lost because the trail I was supposed to follow was overgrown. I followed a clearly visible trail, but soon it disappeared down vertical mountain sides into a gorge. The path was narrow and carved into the soft mountain sides. In addition, the paths here are covered in sand and gravel, so you have to be extremely careful with each step. I was so focused on stepping correctly that I completely forgot to look at the map.
When I finally did, I discovered that I still had 200 hundred precipitous altitude meters ahead of me. I didn’t like it, but chose to turn around and crawl back up.
I have a Garmin In-Reach with me that can send emergency messages via satellite, but there’s no reason to take chances. The rules of mountain law apply to the highest extent here as well. Turn around in due time.
I got back up from the ravine and found the path I was supposed to take. It went peacefully through the countryside to Corda where I quickly got a ride back to Ribeira Grande.
Eito towards Pico da Cruz
From Eito there is another path towards Pico da Cruz, which with its 1585 meters is the highest peak in the area. Marked XXX on map. The path descends towards the river, crosses it and disappears into a narrow gorge. Quite quickly it starts to go uphill on a nice stone-paved path through the gorge. After 200 meters of altitude, the path flattens out, passes a few simple houses and cultivated land, before it then rises again.
I gave up after a while and returned the same way, but if you have strong legs you can continue for a total of 1400 meters of altitude to the top. From there there is a road so you can drive back via Ribeira Grande.
According to the map, it is possible to break off at 900 meters and follow paths down into the Paul valley again. But it looks pretty steep and rough, so I don’t know if it can be recommended. In any case, I would have followed the top of the gray paths on the map. The gray shaded areas on the map can be risky.
The maps are taken from the map app Locus Maps with openandromaps. Read more here: Navigation apps for overlanding and hiking
I would recommend a paper map for planning. See here ab-kartenverlag.com. Here the most important routes are plotted with data on time, altitude etc.
More hiking destinations: Hiking in the Canary Islands and warmer regions
