Sao Tome and Principe Part Three

 Sao Tome and Principe, September 2022, Part 3

Thursday 15th

Luckily we didn’t have to get up early this morning and we had a leisurely breakfast at 7.00. Lynne was suffering after last evening’s exertions and took the day off to rest while the rest of us drove down to the quay and boarded our small boat to go and try for the Principe Thrush.

Our little boat

Heading out towards the sea

We hadn’t realised the full extent of what this trip entailed: a two-hour boat trip followed by a two hour hike up hill just to get to the area where the thrush was. I was expecting a much shorter boat trip with a few seabirds thrown in. In the event we saw half a dozen Brown Boobies on the way out before the swell picked up and we got totally drenched by the spray. Before we arrived it then started raining and the outward journey took three hours. Then we had to disembark at the so-called beach which was actually a bay with a rocky shore. We had to take off shoes and socks, roll up trouser legs and step carefully off the boat into the sea which was about knee height. We then had to wade ashore, slowly clamber over the rocks and up to the top of the beach where we could sit down and reboot.

The rocky beach where we clambered ashore

The trail started by an abandoned plantation building and followed the coast along the route of the former narrow-gauge train that took the cocoa and coffee back to town. The plan was to follow this trail then hike uphill. 

Heading up the trail

We soon realised we were not going to be able to manage this and complete the return crossing before dark so we decided to abort and instead made our way to a sandy beach where we had lunch and saw a few birds. 

Western Reef-Heron

'Beach elephant'

This was another expedition that groups do by camping overnight and I don’t think they had really thought it through. After a sufficient rest we headed back to the rocky beach, finding a tame Blue-breasted Kingfisher along the way, then unbooted and waded back into the sea. 

Blue-breasted Kingfisher

Climbing back up into the boat was trickier but eventually we all made it aboard and began to head back. It was still rough on the sea and raining so there was nothing to see and we got even wetter. After about two hours we turned the corner onto calmer sea and saw some whale blows. We stopped the engine and watched them for a while, working out from the bushy spouts and tail flukes as they went into a deep dive that they were Sperm Whales. Not long afterwards we saw some more whale blows ahead of us and on our way towards them there were more even closer. We approached the nearest ones and could see that it was a group of six pale grey cetaceans with a prominent dorsal fin that we later identified as Risso’s Dolphins. We sped over to the other blows and could see that it was a mother and calf Humpbacked Whale.

It ended up being a superb finish to our day’s trip to hell and back and it was almost worth the pain. On our final approach to the town it started raining really heavily, soaking us once more. We drove back to the guesthouse and tried to dry off before going out for dinner.

Friday 16th

We had an early breakfast and checked out of our guesthouse at 6.00 and drove towards the airport. We had some time to check out a few sites along the way as we still had had some more Principe endemics to find. We had better views of the Golden Weaver and Speirops but couldn’t find the two missing endemics here: Principe White-eye and Principe Starling. There were also plenty of African Green Pigeons which don't occur on Sao Tome. 

African Green Pigeon

Before long we had to make the short drive to the airport and check in. In hindsight it would have been better to not attempt the thrush but spend longer looking for the other birds.

Flame trees amid the native rainforest

We didn’t have long to wait before we boarded the plane and headed back to Sao Tome.

Leaving Principe over the main town

There’s only the one terminal there so we had to mix with all the international arrivals at the carousel and had a long wait for our luggage. We drove for an hour up to the north of the island going through an area populated by large Baobab trees and stopped at a nice restaurant that had been converted from an old colonial plantation house. 

Baobab trees

Restaurant with sea view

It had a terraced dining area so we could do some birding as we ate. We saw our only Island Bronze-naped Pigeon of the trip (an endemic shared with Bioko) as well as a few Blue Waxbills.

Blue Waxbill (Southern Cordon-bleu)

Island Bronze-naped Pigeon

We had a short walk up the hillside. It was quite hot and dry here and the birdlife was different too. We found a small flock of White-winged Widowbirds and some Yellow-fronted Canaries but couldn’t find any of the bishops that are usually here. 

White-winged Widowbirds

Yellow-fronted Canary

Common Waxbill

Another endemic: Giant Weaver

We then drove to the coast and had a short walk along the beach behind a mangrove swamp. There were a few common waders around but nothing out to sea. A Malachite Kingfisher flew past us and perched up on a post in front of us.

Malachite Kingfisher

Sunset over beach

We drove back to the same hotel we were in on our last night in Sao Tome, arriving just after dark. We went to dinner straightaway and discussed plans for our final day.