Travel Diaries

São Tomé and Principe

Children smiling and playing on a boat made of wood and filled with hay, on a beach near the ocean.

Two Islands, Many Stories

My sister and I had always said we would go somewhere really special for my 50th birthday. When she suggested São Tomé and Príncipe, the decision was made – and the four of us started planning our trip to the islands.

Over the next two weeks, we discovered dense tropical forests, volcanic coastlines, beautiful beaches and wildlife that often appeared when we least expected it.

But what stayed with me just as much were the encounters along the way. Speaking Portuguese opened many doors, and our guides and drivers shared far more than the places we had come to see.

For two weeks, we travelled from the north of São Tomé to Príncipe and back to the south – hiking through forests, exploring mangroves, travelling by small boats and, whenever conditions allowed, seeing the islands from above.

These are some of the photographs and stories I brought home.

Lush green jungle with a distant mountain and a cloudy sky.

A sunset over a river with silhouetted trees and hills in the foreground.

Tropical landscape featuring lush green palm trees surrounding a small waterfall flowing into a calm river with rocky banks and a cloudy sky overhead.

Fish are being cooked on an open fire outdoors near a body of water with a boat in the background.

A wooden house on stilts with an open balcony, surrounded by banana trees, near a rocky shoreline with boats, and a clear blue sky with some clouds.

A scenic coastal road with tall leaning palm trees on the right, a rocky hillside with green vegetation on the left, and the ocean in the background under a cloudy sky.

Along the Way

Some of my favourite memories from São Tomé and Príncipe came from the encounters we had along the way.

A driver who was simply supposed to take us to our next lodge made detours because he wanted to show us places along the way. Another, an ambulance driver by profession, took us through his village after our trip to the mangroves and told us about everyday life there. Our guides shared stories, answered endless questions and sometimes became as much a part of the experience as the places they were showing us.

Speaking Portuguese made a real difference. Conversations started easily, and our guides and drivers often told us far more about their lives and their country than we would otherwise have learned.

On Príncipe, a group of children gathered around while I was flying my drone at Praia Banana. They were fascinated by the screen and wanted to have a go themselves. Handing over the controls seemed a step too far, but I showed them how to take the photos. Soon I had several very enthusiastic assistant drone photographers.

These spontaneous encounters are some of the things I remember most about the trip.

Children and adults on a rocky beach bathing and collecting items with the ocean in the background.

A young boy in red shorts playing on a sandy outdoor area, climbing a tree and smiling with arms outstretched.

Four men walking on a concrete path in a lush green forest, with one carrying a large branch with green leaves on their shoulder.

A woman with braided hair and a red tank top balancing a blue cooler on her head while holding a young girl with colorful braids in an outdoor park with trees in the background.

People standing and walking on a stone pier near the water, with a yellow floating platform in the background.

A man standing on a small boat with a sail made from a repurposed advertising billboard, sailing on calm water with a mountainous background.

A person sitting in a small boat on the water during a sunset with a cloudy sky.

Aerial view of a beach with turquoise water, large rocks, and a green tree on the sandy shore.

From pod to chocolate

Cocoa is part of the landscape of São Tomé, and visiting a plantation gave us the chance to see where chocolate actually begins.

The trees were covered in colourful pods growing directly from their trunks and branches. We followed the process from the fresh fruit and beans through the different stages of preparation – a very different view of something that normally reaches us only as the finished product.

A close-up view of a caterpillar on a tree trunk, with a green, elongated body and a brown head, blending with the bark.

Close-up of a pile of dried, dark brown oysters with rough, textured shells.

An industrial setting with a metal machine and a black pedestal in front of a wooden wall. There is a round gauge or scale with a needle and markings on the front of the machine. The background features unfinished wooden beams and paneling.

Wild Encounters

Wildlife seemed to turn up everywhere, often when I wasn't particularly looking for it.

Fruit bats flew over us on Príncipe, monkeys appeared in the trees around our lodge and later accompanied us through the mangroves. Even the pigs seemed to be everywhere – on the beach, along the road and surprisingly deep in the forest. We learned that they belong to local families: they wander off during the day and make their own way home again before dark.

And then there were the yellow-billed kites.

My first encounter with one was while flying my drone from a beach on São Tomé. The next day, another appeared while I was flying from a small fishing boat. I managed to get away from it and thought the problem was solved.

It wasn't.

The kite returned with company. A lot of company. Suddenly I had a whole group circling and diving at the drone while I was desperately trying to get it back to the boat.

Fortunately, I did.

The drone survived São Tomé – although Príncipe had a few more challenges waiting for it.

A small straw coloured fruit bat hanging upside down from a banana flower

From Above

Flying the drone gave me a completely different view of São Tomé and Príncipe. From above, the dense forest meets the Atlantic almost without transition, interrupted by small bays, volcanic rock and beaches that are sometimes difficult to reach from land.

Getting those views wasn't always straightforward. On São Tomé, yellow-billed kites took a rather persistent interest in my drone – on one flight, a whole group started circling and diving at it. On Príncipe, the challenge was the wind and trying to bring the drone back onto a tiny boat.

A small wooden boat with two people on a shallow, clear, turquoise body of water near a sandy shoreline with rocks.

A scenic view of a misty, mountainous landscape with dense green forest, a body of water in the foreground, and a cloudy, overcast sky.

An aerial view of a tropical beach with palm trees, sandy shore, and clear turquoise water, with a few people walking along the shoreline.

Two boats floating in shallow clear water with visible sand and rocks underneath.

On the Water

Being on the water was part of almost every stage of the trip – from small fishing boats and mangroves to snorkelling just off the coast.

In the south of São Tomé, we travelled by boat through the mangroves, watching monkeys in the trees, kingfishers along the banks and yellow-billed kites overhead. Later, near Ilhéu Santana, we snorkelled among huge schools of fish, constantly shifting shape beneath the surface.

But my favourite trip came on our final morning. I had asked a local guide if there was any chance of seeing whales, and at six the next morning we headed out in a tiny fishing boat.

We never found the whales. Instead, we found a large group of dolphins.

They stayed with us for more than an hour, swimming alongside and playing around the boat. Photographing them from a rocking boat was challenging – I came home with an impressive number of photographs of empty water – but every now and then everything came together.

At some point, trying to handle both my camera and GoPro became impossible, so I handed the GoPro to our guide. He looked at me and asked, “Can it go underwater?”

It could.

And what he filmed beneath the surface became one of my favourite memories from the trip.

Four dolphins swimming underwater beneath a boat's hull.

Underwater scene with colorful fish swimming near rocks and coral.

A large school of small fish swimming in the ocean

Found Nowhere Else

São Tomé and Príncipe are home to an extraordinary number of endemic species – animals found nowhere else in the world. For me, the birds were particularly fascinating, even if photographing them was often challenging. Many stayed high in the canopy, surrounded by dense vegetation and very little light.

Not every encounter resulted in a perfect photograph, but sometimes simply seeing and documenting these species was enough.