Cape Verde = Pit Stop

HOWDY!

Nat here :)

(*waits for the cheering to stop*)

This blog is going to be about… our WHOLE SINGLE DAY in Cape Verde! This is going to be sooo interesting, YAY!

***

Okay, so we got to Cape Verde on the 7th of December - it took us a week to get there. And now it’s my turn to be in awe about how long ago we were somewhere - we were in Cape Verde 5 MONTHS AGO??? Time flies - or should I say time sails? :)

It was Helen's birthday, and she turned… actually, I can’t remember. I’ll ask her later. She got a VERY fluffy coat/robe/wearable blanket. Colette was in AWE (for those of you that know the pink fluffy jumper, imagine that white, as tall as Helen and EVEN FLUFFIER.).

AAAAANYWAY, back to Cape Verde (curse ye, fluffy wearable blankets, for sending me off track!).

We had our Atlantic crew with us (they had been with us for 8 or 9 days now) - Penny, Maddy and Ollie. Oh, in case nobody mentioned it - the 7 days down to Mindelo were a full on Hazard-Ball spew-fest.

Basically, we anchored in Mindelo (MUCH JOY!) and went straight to customs - because, no, we couldn’t wind down and relax after a 7 day crossing. Have you met us?

Customs was boooooooring and sadly lacked AC which was a shame because IT WAS SO HOT IN THERE.

After that, we did a lot of walking. A LOT OF WALKING. We split up, though, so it was a divide-and-conquer sorta situation - and forgive me, if I get this wrong, because it was a long time ago and I’m really hungry. I’m pretty sure that I went supermarket searching with Maddy and Penny, and Colette, Ollie and Helen went… hmm, I forgot what they went to do - maybe they did the same thing? I’m confused (and hungryyyyyyy). Oh, at some point, Helen, Ant, Colette and I went looking for a vege market - which was successful and unsuccessful, because we found one, but we were looking for avocados and lettuce, and we couldn’t find avocados and lettuce. Thus, our atlantic crossing was avocado-less and lettuce-less.

Cry me a river.

The vege market was very authentic. Basically, a giant old warehouse filled with super long tables and so much fruit and vegetables it can’t all fit on the super long tables. There was a lot of cinnamon, in the stick form, not crushed-and-powdered form.

Back to supermarket finding - it wasn’t really going well. Tip for you people, if you ever go there on holiday - bring all of your food with you. There are BARELY ANY SUPERMARKETS. We found ONE. ONE!

The one supermarket was badly stocked, and didn’t have any fruit/veg. Not many cans, or long lasting stuff. Apart from milk. There is ALWAYS too much UHT milk in the world.

The search for food was fruitless.

We did find a hot sauce in the supermarket, so it wasn’t totally a waste of time. Hot sauce makes life worth living.

This particular hot sauce, we still have - which makes it 5 months old. I think that’s the record for longest surviving hot sauce. We actually refilled it (I wanna say twice, but I’m not sure. Let’s go with once and a half.).

It was Dad’s Christmas present from the people on Tu Meke. We did a lot of Christmas shopping in Mindelo. Ant, Colette and I got a cushion for Helen after a scouting mission done by Maddy and I. And I guess Ollie and Penny were there, but they got bored and left after taking one look at a fish-shaped chopping board, so they don’t really count. Maddy got a plate for Helen at the same place.

I’m honestly kinda surprised that the plate even SURVIVED the atlantic crossing. Lots of waves.

We also found a shop with a bunch of Greek symbols - the Mati (evil eye) - which was weird, because Cape Verde isn’t Greece and it wasn’t saying ANYTHING about how it was greek - it was saying that it was Cape Verdian (is that right? Cape Verdian?). Which is incorrect. Or is it? I don’t know.

We had lunch at this cute little place across from the fruit market (the very same, sadly avocado-less and lettuce-less one). It was really cute, with grave vines on the terrace/porch/outside entrance to the restaurant. We didn’t know it was a restaurant until someone asked if we wanted to eat somewhere when we were discussing tactics on food-finding outside - you know the drill: divide-and-conquer, go-back-to-the-boat, etc. Food-finding is surprisingly difficult in Cape Verde. Anyway, the restaurant was yum. Apparently, a bunch of famous people ate there once (if memory serves, Barack Obama was one… but my memory doesn’t often serve, so thats anyones guess to whether that’s correct).

Then we kept going. We tried to find this tourist’s market, because Ollie needed a ‘fake watch’. Not sure why. But he got his watch. The Cape Verde’s special ‘thing’, I guess, are these colourful weaved bowls. Penny and Helen were looking for one within their price range. Colette and I went with them, Maddy, too.

Once they got one each, we realised we couldn’t find Ollie or Ant. Helen almost started asking people ‘Have you seen a really pale man with a bad shirt?’. (For those of you that don’t know Ollie’s special talent, it is enjoying wearing bad shirts. Because there is no way that is natural.) We found them eventually, and they were like, ‘why did you leave?!’.

Men.

At this point, we were POOPED. I mean, we spent 7 days walking under 100 metres, and then suddenly, 10 kilometres. With no air conditioning. So we decided to get some drinks.

There was this floating bar in the marina area. And I’ll be honest with you - the main reason we went there was because of the free wifi.

I know. Can you believe it? The Naulls family going to a bar for INTERNET? The very same that drag people through mud and freezing cold water with 10kg packs to remote places that have no internet and you have to use a STINKY long drop?

I know, it’s hard to believe. But it’s true!

We also got some drinks. And ice cream - yom. Colette and I were realllllly bored at the floating bar because all the adults were typing away on their phones. For a full 45 minutes.

And they tell us to get off the phone after picking it up to check the time.

Colette was wearing someones sunglasses, and putting on a really deep voice - which looked and sounded ridiculous.

But then I WAS BORED ALL ALONE because Helen gave Colette her phone to spam Jemima with.

When she gave it to me (after 30mins), I sent a few messages to my friends (the ones who seriously don’t talk to me at all - SAD FOR THEM!). Oh, correction: I sent a few messages to my friend’s parents. Because I don’t have a phone.

Sadness beyond compare.

There’s this sunken boat in the bay, with crabs crawling all over it and so much bird poop. Ew. Most of the hull isn’t submerged, so naturally, we had to walk on it. It’s pretty cool, actually.

We had dinner at a place called Nautilus. Yom yom yom. Penny and Ollie and Maddy arrived 10mins after we arrived (they were doing something). And the food there was so delicious. Wellllll… it could have been average food, but unhealthy deep-fried food was like heaven compared to three days in a row on dehydrated lentil dahl (I’M SORRY, MUM!).

Then we went back to the boat and slept.

So interesting.

In the morning, we woke up and refueled at the fuel dock near the floating bar.

We also got a bunch of jerry cans from a dude on the dock, and Colette sat on one and it turned out that that jerry can had a hole in it. I can’t believe I’m typing this, but thanks, Colette, for sitting on something!

And then we left.

Yup.

Hello, Atlantic ocean!

I’ll warn you in advance -

The crossing was fruitless.

💀💀💀

BYE FROM NAT!

(Here are ALLLLL the pictures we took in Mindelo. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Lucky you!)