A hike on the end of the earth.
This hike was to one of the most remote places I’ve ever been. Tarrafal, where we’d been staying, is a town at the end of the road. It’s an absolutely gorgeous spot, with the ocean on one side and sky-high cliffs on the other. After the journey to just get to the remote island of Santo Antão in Cape Verde, we had to drive from sea level up to 5,000 feet and back down again just to get to Tarrafal. But, where we were about to hike to was even more remote. There are no roads to Monte Trigo, it’s only accessible by boat and by foot. So, in the morning, my family and I set out on a journey to the westernmost town in Africa, from Tarrafal to Monte Trigo.
We began by walking through the town of Tarrafal itself. Before we had even left the town, the road had begun to resemble Roman aqueducts, with cobbled stone and slotted ramparts bridging the gaps between deep valleys.
Once we left Tarrafal, we were totally isolated. There were no buildings or constructions besides the path we were walking on. However, we kept on running into cute goats that would wander around this desolate landscape.
The surroundings were striking, as we followed the winding path up, down, and side to side, as it forged a way through the steep cliffs that neighbored the coastline. Sometimes, we would come across canyons where we could imagine water might flow in the rainy seasons. Here, the trail would cut inland and go down to meet the valley, and then cut a course back up to meet the intended direction of travel.
My favorite one of these dips in the path was a dried riverbed with very steep, canyon-like walls on each side. My brother Ty immediately ran into the canyon to see what it was like, and I followed. The river clearly flows fast here when it rains, because the rock walls were taller than us. He was only few steps ahead of me, but I still couldn’t see him because the turns of the canyon hid him from view. A very worthy detour!
Once we’d rounded a bend in the topography, we could see the striking Topo da Coroa, a dormant volcano and the highest peak of Santo Antão. The volcano dominates the landscape and it was humbling to be walking in its shadow. It continued to stay in our view for the rest of the hike, with the very summit obscured by clouds.
Hiking in the shadow of the towering Topo da Coroa volcano
As we neared the town, our attention was caught by a few donkeys in the path. One of them came right up to Ty, asking to be petted! They were all very friendly and it was a very cute addition to the hike.
After 3.5 hours, we’d made it to our destination, the small village of Monte Trigo. It definitely felt like we were at the end of the world, as we’d had to walk to get to here, the westernmost town in all of Africa. We were warmly welcomed, with the occupants of the first building we saw welcoming us to their patio for some refreshing water and menus. We obliged, as we were happy to be finally sitting in the shade! They only had two things on the menu, chicken and fish, so we got two of each and waited for them to prepare it. It was clearly a home, and these kind people were doing their best to chef up a meal for us! We even saw them coming back from town with carrots and fish that they had clearly just bought for our meal. When the food came out, we were happy to see that they’d made everything in heaping portions! The food was great, and we felt very at home in Monte Trigo.
After finishing up grub, we were ready to see the rest of the town. This took just a minute as it’s not a large settlement at all! We passed by a few houses and the trailhead for the second part of the Santo Antão Precurso Principal, which takes you up behind the Topo da Coroa. I hadn’t read anything online about this string of hikes before getting here, but the maps around Santo Antão are really well made and if I ever come back, I will definitely attempt this thru-hike!
At the beach, there were some fishermen that we’d met the night before that were waiting for us, so that they could take us back to Tarrafal by boat. Monte Trigo doesn’t get many tourists, so they were happy to have the business, and three guys helped out as we got into the small wooden boat, powered with a small motor. Once on the boat, it was just us with a local, and he kept the boat steady over the 50-minute journey back to Tarrafal. It was amazing to be able to see the hike from a different perspective, marveling at how it cut through the steep cliffsides and winded through canyons.
Back in Tarrafal, there was once more a crew of three guys waiting on the shore to help get the boat through the surf. This ocean was no joke and their help was definitely needed to get us safely to shore. We were happy to be back at Mar Tranquilidade, the quaint hotel where we spent three wonderful nights, eating our fill of fresh fish and delicious food at the buffet-style dinner!