Orango Island Beach

Orango is one of the Bijagós islands, an archipelago of eighty-eight islands off Guinea-Bissau of which around twenty are inhabited. The beaches are long, tidal and almost entirely empty, and reaching any of them takes a pirogue and a day.

Two things make the archipelago unusual. It holds a population of hippopotamus that moves between fresh water and the sea — saltwater hippos, one of very few such populations anywhere — and Orango National Park exists largely for them. And the Bijagó are matrilineal: women choose husbands, own the houses, and control the sacred sites, and the islands' religious geography is administered by them. Certain islands and groves may not be entered by outsiders at all, and the rule is not negotiable or explained.

The whole archipelago is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Tidal ranges here are large, the channels between islands are complex and shift, and navigation is by local knowledge rather than by chart. Green turtles nest on Poilão in numbers that make it one of the most important sites in the eastern Atlantic; that island is sacred and effectively closed. Tidal range across the archipelago reaches five metres, which is why the channels between islands are only passable at certain hours.

There is essentially no tourism infrastructure — a handful of simple lodges, no reliable power, no scheduled transport. Guinea-Bissau has had a turbulent political history and travel advice should be checked. Bubaque is the archipelago's main island and the practical base, and João Vieira and Poilão to the south are the turtle islands, both sacred and largely closed.

Saltwater hippopotamus, a matrilineal archipelago where women hold the land and the sacred sites, and islands outsiders may not enter at all. Getting anywhere takes a pirogue and most of a day, there is no infrastructure to speak of, and Poilão — one of the most important green turtle beaches in the Atlantic — is sacred and effectively closed.