Cape Verde - January 2008
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January 2008 saw a WSAC group head off for the hope of some January sunshine to the island of Sal, one of the Cape Verde islands off the coast of North West Africa. Sal (Portuguese for salt) is a small volcanic island, 12 km east to west and 30 km north to south with a population of approx 15,000 and is flat, barren and windy. |
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| We were based at the beach front Djadsal Hotel in Santa Maria on the south coast of the island. The hotel was a short walk to the town where there were numerous excellent restaurants ranging from the expensive European styled and priced to more local cafes. The food was generally great, with local fresh fish, usually seen on the jetty earlier that day being the main star on most menus. |  |
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So what about the diving? We dived with Romina and Fabrizio of Cabo Verde Diving www.caboverdediving.net They have a good set up based at the Djadsal setting out from the jetty each morning on spacious 10m RIBS with helpful dive guides Kush and Walter. We were not lucky with the weather, although we were expecting 22C in the water and winds, the week we visited was mainly cloudy. The lack of sun didn't give us much chance to warm up between dives and on some days the visibility could have been better. The diving was a mixture of reefs, two wreck dives and trip North to dive Buronga caves. We enjoyed the diving and there was a lot of underwater life but generally reefs are lacking the diversity found in other diving areas such as the Red Sea. Favourite critters included the diversity of Morays, especially the tiny ones in the wrecks and reefs, Arrowe crabs and the Nudibranchs which we saw on most dives. |
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| As break from the diving some of the group hired 4x4 for some off-roading on Sal's bleak desert like terrain. We had a fun day travelling round the island taking in the sights including the fishing village of Palmeira, the capital Vila dos Espargos and the salt lakes in the crater at Pedra de Lume. After managing to get slightly lost as the sun set we very nearly spent a night in the desert but managed to find our way back to the main road. |
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