The Islands Of Middle Earth

Sao Tomé and Principe are two small African islands in search of balance on the Equatorial line. This island nation is tiny in size but carries big dreams: Principe Island is home to a unique and unprecedented experiment in sustainable development. Due to their exposure to South Atlantic swells the islands hold promise for surfers, but Carine Camboulives and Manu Bouvet have much more to share than the waves they found.

- Manu Bouvet

Some days we all feel Mother Earth’s despair, today that couldn’t be clearer. As we embarked on our trip to the Chocolate islands (a nickname due to the islands’ cocoa-producing past) news headlines declare that the US has decided to withdraw the country from the “Accords de Paris”, the international symposium on environmental change. It’s such Ironic timing that I am writing these words directly following the devastation of the Gulf Coast of Texas by hurricane “Harvey”; meanwhile hurricane “Irma” is busy destroying Florida. Back to back, Hurricanes Jose and Maria are heading towards Puerto Rico…Don’t think it is a cause and effect relationship, it has nothing to do with global warming, it is a coincidence says ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “One has to be arrogant like men to think we have changed the climate” (14th September 2016).

Such a slap in the face of the environmental cause stuns me, but excitement and good mood reign on our departure. My wife Carine, our two daughters Lou and Shadé (comfortably sat on a pile of board bags) and I are en route with our friends - photographer Pierre Bouras who had his equipment stolen by United Airlines at the SF airport a few months ago but is still in high spirits and film director David Georgeon, acrobat Buddhist and vice versa!

We’re off to discover “Sao Tomé… and…how do you say it?” is the usual question asked, even by the most seasoned travelers. I take this as a good omen since it was Christopher Columbus who wrote in his log book “We never go as far as when we don’t know where we are going.”