Three of the Azores islands have excellent canyoning : Sao Miguel, Sao Jorge and Flores. Flores offers the greatest diversity of routes from steep drops to easy routes. Sao Jorge  has harder routes which are more difficult to reach as most of them are only accessible by boat. While Sao Miguel’s routes are mainly in the interior of the island and are less steep. Canyoning is still very new to the Azores and only on Sao Miguel are there currently qualified and licensed guides operating but several groups a year choose to go on their own or take their own guides as many of the routes are now bolted.

Flores canyoning
With the greatest potential for canyoning, Flores had its first route opened in 2004. 3 expeditions later, there are now 25 routes mapped  ranging from relatively easy to technically difficult. The longest route is 500m and the biggest vertical height difference on a route is 220m. However, there are some shorter routes which take just 1 hour to complete and are suitable for the less experienced. Many of the routes have beautiful natural pools and are centred around Faja Grande, the west coast between Mosteiros and Lagedo and the southeast coast between Santa Cruz and Lages.

Sao Jorge canyoning
The first route on Sao Jorge was explored in 2006 but this island has some wonderful medium grade routes due to the abundance of water and geology of the island which has resulted in some impressive waterfalls. There are 17 routes on Sao Jorge ranging between 1 to 6 hours.

Sao Miguel
With 11 interesting routes, Sao Miguel’s canyoning is mostly in ravines and the routes are generally not that steep. The first route was opened in 1997 and now there are a few companies offering guided canyoning days on the island mainly in the Nordeste area.

With almost 50 canyoning routes bolted and with waterfalls ranging from 3-200m, Santo Antao in Cape Verde must be one of the most exciting undiscovered canyoning destinations in the world. Click here for more information on canyoning holidays and holidays on Santo Antao.

“Eduardo and his girlfriend Leia were my guides for my canyoning day which was on the northeast coast of Santo Antao, by far the best island for canyoning in Cape Verde. Eduardo had all the necessary equipment with him (wet packs to put all bags and dry clothes in, airtight containers for phones, cameras, wallets etc, climbing ropes and harnesses and lunch).

We set up the side of the canyon, stowing the lunch bag in a handy bush to begin with!  The walk to the starting point took about 45mins and wasn’t too difficult, quite steep in places but there was no hurry and we stopped a couple of times for Eduardo to tell us things about what he does and about the island.

At the start we stopped and put our harnesses and helmets on.  Eduardo went through how to attach ourselves to the rope several times until we got the hang of it.  Then we were off!

Almost immediately we reached the first section where ropes were required.  There are loops concreted into the rocky canyon sides for attaching the ropes to. The first rappel was very short but good to get to grips with how it works.  Leia went first each time so that she could then hold the rope secure for us to come down.  Then Eduardo would come down and detach the rope to take to the next section. 

There were about 8 descents all together, some short and some quite long.  There were also rocky slides to negotiate which were great fun – Eduardo first, then bags, then us! 

At the end of the route we walked to a pool, had a much needed swim and changed into dryer clothes. Then it was back up to the bush to collect our lunch and make our way back to Ponta do Sol…

All in all an excellent, exciting day and a great introduction to canyoning. ”

Jake