In 1919, British astronomers Arthur Eddington and Frank Dyson organised an expedition to Príncipe, a forested fleck of land that hovers above the equator near the coast of West Africa. Their goal was to photograph the movement of stars in relation to the sun during a total solar eclipse, and their findings provided the first experimental evidence for Einstein’s theory of relativity. But it doesn’t take a genius to realise that conventional clocks have no place here.
The phrase “island time” is often associated with the Caribbean. Lying more than 10,000 km southeast of that laidback island chain, Príncipe – a 30 million-year-old volcanic nugget which forms an island nation with neighbouring São Tomé 140 miles offshore from Gabon – shares some remarkable similarities. If you want reliable winter sun, superb beaches, and swimmable waters, this could well be the place for you.
Príncipe’s iconic Praia Banana is known for its golden sands and perfect curve – Ulrich Hollmann
There are no glitzy resorts or flashy marinas decorated with expensive yachts. Instead, the luxury of simple living draws people in. Receiving fewer than one per cent of the annual visitors to Jamaica, it has the feel of the West Indies 30 years ago.
Difficulty of access has been Príncipe’s salvation. The only sensible way to get here is by plane from São Tomé, connected to Europe via a stopover in Lisbon and a touchdown in Ghana. This isn’t – and never will be – a destination for mass tourism.
I arrived at a tiny airstrip where queues snaked from a small bakery serving the doughiest bread rolls cooked in a clay oven, exchanged for a few coins handed through a wooden hatch. As the pent-up skies released a short, heavy burst of rain, children screamed and giggled, sheltering beneath large, glossy banana leaves for umbrellas.
I was visiting in September when showers are common, but between December and February – the winter-sun sweet spot – temperatures are warm and the weather is largely dry.
An eco experiment
Those in the know rhapsodise about Príncipe as a utopia, a paradise detached from the real world. Unlike so many beach destinations closer to the Americas, there are no glossy advertising billboards or shop fronts flaunting fancy clothes. Only a few simple restaurants operate in sleepy capital Santo Antonio and local ale Rosema is served in a plain glass bottle with no label or branding. Palms tower in place of telegraph poles and the limited roads – all made with local stone – have only been in place for less than 15 years.
Santo Antonio, the island’s capital, is known for its charming colonial architecture and churches – Aldo Pavan
Like the oil tankers chugging to so many other destinations within the Gulf of Guinea, commercialisation has thankfully passed this island by.
Development without destruction is a fine balance, largely achieved through the help of a benefactor with big pockets. The story goes that tech billionaire South African Mark Shuttleworth, who spent a year training in Russia to become the first African to visit space in 2002, had an epiphany while staring down at our little blue dot.
Tech billionaire Mark Shuttleworth continues to invest funds in the project, but aims to make it self-sustaining – Gallo Images
A desire to protect the planet ultimately led him to Príncipe, where he set up HBD (Here Be Dragons), a foundation established to support communities and promote sustainable development, in 2010. Initially met with bemusement quickly followed by admiration, he’s described by local residents as “the man on the moon”.
Managing the island’s four higher end properties, HBD now employs 700 people in tourism, agroforestry and conservation work and played a pivotal role in convincing the government to reject commercial palm oil plantations in favour of preserving and capitalising on the island’s natural beauty.
HBD Group’s Omali Lodge is one of the São Tomé‘s most luxurious hotels – Alamy
Príncipe is a living experiment in ecotourism, setting out to prove that a destination can retain its integrity while allowing a steady flow of outsiders to trickle in. Members of the community engaged in conservation of the land are financially rewarded with payments through a Natural Dividend initiative.
Shuttleworth, who lives on the Isle of Man tending to bees and chickens, continues to invest funds, although the long-term ambition is to make the project self-sustaining.
The cost of a cocoa
I’d come to stay at Bom Bom, a former sports fishing lodge on a peninsula that’s been steadily undergoing renovation for the last few years. From the rammed earth walls of a new restaurant area to lamp shade fittings woven with reeds and palm leaves, every part of the property has been built and restored by members of the local community trained in carpentry and masonry workshops.
Eighteen thatched bungalows are spread between gardens and two beaches – one for sunrise and one for sunset. Every morning, I woke up early for long solo walks along amber sands sheltered by steep forest slopes shaded by beach almond trees. Out at sea, fishermen drifted slowly across the horizon, rowing wooden pirogues hollowed from the trunks of breadfruit trees.
Signs of life were everywhere. Herons tiptoed through the surf, mushrooms sprouted from fallen trunks and lustrous malachite kingfishers lit up the dark canopy. Per square mile, there are more endemic species here than anywhere else on Earth.
Bom Bom Island Resort HBD (Here Be Dragons), is nestled on the beach of Príncipe’s northern coast
My reward for an early start was a breakfast of fresh bread slathered with melted chocolate nibs – thick and silky. From the 15th century until 1975, Príncipe was under Portuguese colonial rule; for much of that time cocoa plantations were the powerhouses of São Tomé and Príncipe, fuelled by a supply of workers from colonies in Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique.
By the 1900s, the Cadbury Brothers imported more than 50 per cent of their beans from the islands. By then slavery had been abolished and replaced by contract labour, but the awful living conditions endured by workers remained. International boycotts sparked a spiral of decline, accelerated by a lack of investment and mismanagement after colonial rule came to an end.
A question of time
Driving across the island, I came across multiple ruins swallowed by the jungle. One building restored for a new purpose is Roca Sundy, now functioning as a boutique heritage lodge with a small cocoa plantation on site. Narrow-gauge railway tracks once used for moving goods run around the grounds where the husks of former community dwellings still stand.
São Tomé and Príncipe, once the world’s leading cocoa producer, is experiencing a revival – Aldo Pavan/The Image Bank RF
There is an eery emptiness about the senzala, former slave quarters used as living spaces up until recently. Ghosts of that dark past may have been put to rest, but subsequent generations continue to wrangle with an inferiority complex that’s been hard to shift.
One of Shuttleworth’s many efforts to restore pride and self-confidence was the construction of a new housing development with more space and better facilities for 300 people, an area the community elected to name “Promised Land”.
Ivo Semedo, a craftsman responsible for making the lampshades at Bom Bom, was born in the senzala. He was one of the key figures who vehemently fought against the introduction of palm oil production on the island in favour of tourism, convincing the government to make a decision which would lead to the protection of 53 per cent of Principe as a natural park.
The old plantation house at Roca Sunday is an eco-conscious boutique hotel
I found the subdued 58 year old slicing reeds with a knife outside his house. Clearing forests, he told me, “would be bad for the future” – a lesson learnt from family in Cape Verde, where “they have no rain because there are no trees”.
Like so many people living in Principe, he yearns to return to his ancestral homeland one day. Displaced from former Portuguese colonies as a consequence of the slave trade, many of the local communities have roots running far shallower than the forests surrounding them.
Principe is built on nostalgia. Outsiders come here in search of a lost world. Residents mourn a motherland that likely only exists in their minds. A sense of national pride is emerging as the nation finds its identity. But like everything on remote, forgotten, idyllic islands, change takes time.
How to do it
Rainbow Tours (0203 773 7945) offer tailor-made holidays to São Tomé and Príncipe, including a seven-night Discover Príncipe holiday, starting from £3,725pp. The price is based on two sharing on a bed and breakfast basis and includes international and internal flights, two nights at Omali Lodge in São Tomé, two nights at Roca Sundy (with dinner) and three nights at Bom Bom on Principe.
Sarah Marshall was a guest of Rainbow Tours.
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