The Ribeira Brava streambed, sheltered from the merciless trade winds and regularly flooded, offers flora conditions that were lost in the rest of the island in half a century of Sahel draught. The wild and man-made vegetation resembles a unique botanical garden of Cape Verde. The plant lover spends a day without effort and will return safely.
The large trumpet-shaped flowers of the barbiaca roxa and barbiaca branca fascinate just as much as the balloon-shaped pseudofruits of the bombardeira, the small bright yellow flowers of the climbing plant called Sã Caetan' and the bright orange inflorescences of the freira on the otherwise unattractive shrub with half-burnt grey-green leaves. With a little patience you will find mimosa. In addition to the wild bushes and flowers, there is a rich selection of subtropical crops in the gardens, various bananas, mango trees, papajas, sugar cane, lemon and orange trees.
Starting point
is the water house at Rua Amilcar Cabral, at the end of Vila Rª Brava towards Água das Patas. VILA03] (105m) The small road in the brook bed ← changes after a short time into a donkey path. Passing gardens you reach the waterhole of Talho [TALHO] (180m). About 150m further uphill in the creek bed ↖ a rocky steep place follows.
After overcoming it, you follow the valley bottom again for about 100m, and then by turning to the right shoulder you avoid a correction dam blocking the valley bottom and reach the road. [CAMP11] (220m)