By Okorie Uguru, [email protected]
The clean, clear beachfront seemed to be brimming with tiny movements in the dark. Meanwhile, the mild ocean waves that lashed at the beachfront are gradually giving way to stronger current as the night progressed. One could feel that with every contact of the ocean waves with the beachfront. As the light illuminated the shore, these tiny movements turned out to be that of thousands of crabs, small and big covering the whole of Rolas Island shore.
Rolas Island is a tropical island about 75 kilometres from Sao Tome, the capital of the small island country of Sao Tome and Principe. Getting to the island from the Sao Tome airport takes special arrangement. A tourist is driven through beautiful pristine forest with tall trees on a winding, single lane road. The forest is so dense that the sunlight could just intermittently pierce through the foliage. After about 45 minutes, one gets to the ocean shore. Rolas Island could be seen across the ocean.
Years back the island used to have a beautiful, world class resort built by the Pestana group from Portugal, called Pestana Ecuador. The resort is still there, but no longer in good shape. The Pestana resort had a boat at the bank of the ocean ready to convey tourists on a 30 minutes boat ride across the ocean to the island. However, these days, the resort is no longer what it used to be. One could only visit Rolas Island by making other alternative arrangement.
The island and other parts of Sao Tome and Principe are Portuguese speaking. It is in the Gulf of Guineas. However, it is just about 200 kilometres from the Democratic Republic of Gabon. With a population of less than 230,000, Sao Tome is the second tiniest country in Africa, second only to Seychelles with less than a 100,000 citizens.
There used to be regular commercial flights from Lagos to the islands of Sao Tome and Principe. For many years now, this has stopped. Direct flight to Sao Tome is by chartered flight which takes about an hour from Lagos. Alternatively though, one could connect through Taag Angola Air and connect through Luanda.
Rolas Island, like most beaches in Sao Tome charming island in the south of Sao Tome acknowledged for its splendid beaches and a monument pointing to the equator, which crosses the island. One may wonder what is so alluring travelling so many kilometres to visit this island.
The island has the three; sun, sand and ‘sea’ (the ocean). Some part of the island had tiny rock formation jutting out of the ocean, the ocean water crashing on them and spreading beautiful white foamy water all around. On the beach front, one could catch groups of dolphins swimming around and generally at peace in their natural habitat.
The vegetation around Rolas Island is tropical with dense foliage all around. Behind the Pestana Ecuador Resort complex is a hill. On top of the hill is a place where the Equator line crossed.
The exact spot is indicated with the map of the world showing exactly where Rolas Ilsand equator line appeared on the map. Pestana Equador Resort actually got its name from this exact spot.
Although it is said that there are many experiments that could be carried out on the equator line, but as at the time this reporter visited, he could not do any of these.
Apart from visiting the spot the Equator line passed, Rolas Island like most part of Sao Tome and Principe is rich in sea food. While on the beach, watching the ocean, hoping for another sight of the dolphins, the island children would comb through the small jutting rocks, clutching palm front searching for octopuses. They are a common delicacy in this part of the world. Once one is sighted with the clammy multiple tentacles clinging to the rock, the children have a way of using the palm front to beat into the clean ocean, and it is swimming to escape, they will pick them and put them in their containers.
Outside Rolas Island, Sao Tome, the capital city of the country is another destination worth spending quality time in. The sparsely populated city has imprimatur of the Portuguese all around it. It is seem in the architecture of the city. Most of the buildings are old but grand. Moving around the city is not too difficult. One could navigate by foot enjoying history and heritage of the people.
Even though it is more than 50 years, there are still relics of the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970 etched on the country. There are few among them that bear Igbo names, probably from some of the children ferreted from Biafra land to Sao Tome by aid groups during the war.
Sao Tome has a population of about 60,000 people. It was made the capital by the Portuguese King in 1535 and has been ever since. Today it still bears its colonial history in the form of buildings from the period that have either fallen into disrepair or have been refurbished and now stand out with their bright colours, along with one of the oldest sub Saharan cathedrals. As with any African country, there is hustle and bustle – be it the yellow taxis jostling for position or the street traders dealing in their various wares, all in the vicinity of the market. It is what can only be described as a small working African city, meaning that it’s not clean and not necessarily all that pretty, but still it more than captivates and offers some superb photo opportunities and insights into San Tomean life. There is also the National Museum, which displays Santomean art.
The history of Sao Tome can also be seen in the people. Majority of the population are half-caste mostly from assignation between the Portuguese plantation owners and the local women. The products of these unions are beautiful island women that at times make tourists stay longer that they had planned.
Nigerians holidaying in Sao Tome are sure to have a wonderful time savouring the culture and ambience of the country. For those who want to explore off the popular destinations, Rolas Island and Sao Tome places to be!