Why this ride
A 158 km round trip from Guadalupe - roughly 3 h 23 in the saddle. It goes by way of Sao Joao and back through Sao Joao. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Diogo Vaz and The Roças of Sao Tome and Principe: Coloni starting at Guadalupe
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 158 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 23
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Diogo Vaz
Diogo Vaz is a roça, one of the old plantation estates that once covered most of São Tomé, the small island in the Gulf of Guinea that straddles the equator. The Portuguese found the island uninhabited in the fifteenth century, settled it with enslaved labour from the mainland and grew sugar, and later, in the nineteenth century, built an economy on cocoa and coffee. By the early twentieth century São Tomé was among the world's leading cocoa producers, and the roças, each with a manor house, a hospital, a drying yard and a village of workers, were small worlds of their own.
Read the complete Diogo Vaz write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Diogo Vaz is where the day begins. Next is Sao Joao.
2. São João
Sao Tomé is a green volcanic island on the equator, and for a century and a half it was a cocoa empire. The Portuguese planted vast estates called roças across the land, each one a small town with a manor, a hospital, a church, drying platforms and rows of workers' housing, and by 1900 the islands were one of the largest cocoa producers in the world. The labour was brutal. Workers contracted from Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique worked in conditions little better than slavery, and the scandal broke in Europe in the early twentieth century, prompting boycotts by chocolate makers.
Read the complete Sao Joao write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
São João comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Roças of Sao Tome and Principe: Coloni.
3. back through Sao Joao
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sao Joao write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Sao Joao, late in the day. Next is Diogo Vaz.
4. Diogo Vaz
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Diogo Vaz write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Diogo Vaz. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Diogo Vaz to Sao Joao
Diogo Vaz → Sao Joao is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
São João to back through Sao Joao
São João → back through Sao Joao is 1 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sao Joao to Diogo Vaz
back through Sao Joao → Diogo Vaz is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.