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Asociación CAUÉ - Amigos de São Tomé e Príncipe |
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The impressive Caué Peak |
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Vista
del Pico do Caué o Cão Grande desde Ribeira Peixe (foto X. Muñoz, dic. 2006) |
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The Caué Peak or Cão
Grande is an impressive torre
de penedo (a basaltic pillar) of 663 m
high, placed near the old plantation of Emolve,
on the Southern part of the São Tomé Island. It gives name to the
administrative district which capital is the town of São João
dos Angolares and now it also gives name to our
association. It is one more
piece of the set of panes de azúcar and torres de penedo which
are spreaded on the centre and the southern region
of the Island (panes de azúcar: Maria Fernandes Peak 861 m, Fraternidade
338 m, São João 351 m, Sinaí
254 m; torres de penedo: Cão Pequeño 390 m). Its
existence is related to climate conditions of warm and humid regions and to
nature of rocks: phonolithic rocks, constituting
necks, disemboweled and modeled by erosion [sic. F. Tenreiro].
Good examples of this kind of landscape can be found in all the Mount
Cameroon's diagonal, but may be it is in the Island
of São Tomé where it is possible to find the most contrasted samples. In fact, it is the
kitchen of an ancient volcano which was freed from its original covering by
the hardly erosion. Its verticality also made to reduce the covering
vegetation to brushwood and lichens and then the basaltic column is clearly
shown, standing up between leafy forests and plantations of dende palm that are in its base. So that its impressive and majestic image. On its bed it is also
possible to find the rests of original covering materials. We don't know
whether the Caué Peak has any kind of magic meaning
for southern islanders, but, with no doubt, it is indeed the local sign. At
least that is the impression that travelers take when finding suddenly on the
jungle landscape, just arriving at the highest point on the road to South,
immersed as often within a sea of foggy, which it gives it an enigmatic look. The phallic
reminiscences are obvious, such as suggesting perhaps a virile masculinity of
land or to make us remember hour by hour the permanent sensuality of the
island nature. |
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