Let’s go to the Beach, Beach…Beach?

After a slow start and a delicious breakfast, we went to explore a different beach. This beach was called Shell Cemetery Beach, we found lots of shells on this beautiful beach (hence the name). There were many vibrant shells: mainly hues of white, orange and pink. It was so fun when me  and my  friends were  having a competition on who had the better shells. We took a few of the winners of the competition home. We spent roughly 15 minutes at this majestic place and it was absolutely gorgeous and stunning. It was extremely fun hunting for the perfect shells and we also loved nature’s souvenir! This was definitely one of the highlights of our day. The time spent at this site was filled with nothing but scavenging and joy! It was certainly an amazing experience and a unique beach to remember. -  Myra, Ciara and  Akeila

 After visiting the Shell Beach, we headed back into the centre of Santa Maria and went shopping near the beach. There were a lot of souvenirs shops filled with wooden animals, pretty  bracelets in all different colours and different charms.  There were a lot of people outside their shops trying to get us to come in and it was so funny; one man said the prices are cheaper then Primark!  My trend was asking the price and he said the price and I said that is way more then Primark and he lowered the price a lot. Whatever shop we went in, every one said “no stress” and a lot of people had that same saying on their t-shirt as it is the island's moto. When my  group was finished, we went to a really cool ice cream place and got some ice cream. While we were eating our ice cream a man walked past with a pet monkey on a lead it was so cute.  Shopping  was very fun and me and my friends had such a nice time. -  Eadie

After shopping, we were all hungry and ready for a rest so we headed to a beach front restaurant where We enjoyed a range of different delicious meals.  The staff were so friendly and even brought out some special fans to keep the flies away.  We also spent some time writing postcards to some of the people who have supported the trip – We just hope they arrive! Then it was time to head back out onto the beach for a final swim.

We had an amazing time at the sea. We were at the other end of the beach this time so there were more rocks and interesting creatures, I saw different schoals of fish and larger rocks, it was very fascinating to see how one beach could be very rocky but also covered in soft sand. Each time a giant wave would push towards us we would either jump or body surf the wave; it was hilarious seeing my friends getting hit by waves when they were looking in the other direction, it happened to most of us! We later moved  to a more  shallow part of the water as the waves were getting bigger. I love swimming so even when the water was only up to my knees, I was paddling around. After an amazing time in the sea we dried off, shook all the sand of our towels and went on with the rest of the day.  -Asantewaa

At the end of our long, exciting day, we all gathered on the beach in the dark, to reflect on the wonderful time we have had. We started with imagining there was a campfire in the middle of the circle and sang ‘campfires burning’ around our first ever “campfire” in Cape Verde. We then went around saying our ‘trashes and treasures’ which ranger from getting salt in our eyes to how grateful we were to spend this time with our friends, in this beautiful country. We also had two new Guides and twelve new Rangers make their Guide and Rangers promise, creating a lovely moment with our torches out as the waves were crashing behind us. We ended the night with our favourite song ‘Linger' as a few tears were shed, due to the bittersweet moment of our holiday coming to a close. – Clara, Lou Lou