17/10/2022
Between dunes and more dunes, about 80 km from the mouth of the Cunene and the southern border of Angola, in front of the Namibe desert, an unexpected island holds what remains of an ancient settlement erected by daring Algarve fishermen, which has come to be the center the most important eye shop from Angola. After decades of abandonment, after 1975, the Bay of Tigers is today the skeleton of itself. A spectrum of semi-buried buildings in the desert calling for help, some abandoned fisheries, so many other living houses, a splendid Chapel, a school, a health post, a hospital, a maritime delegation, a post station, gr walk number of which built on cement pillars, in the form of palate, to to let go of the strong winds of the garrow that covered everything in its passage. A truly amazing scenery!
The semi-buried structures of the small town, founded in the 1865s, show us what the town looked like, divided by a single street that was also an aviation runway. In 1975 the Bay of Tigres was abandoned, and the population, isolated, with no drinking water or transportation, succumbed to definitive abandonment.
The Bay of Tigers was first described in 1485, during Diogo Can't's second trip to the shores of Angola, under D's command. John II "Sand sleeve", that's what the Portuguese navigator called it.
How about the designation "Bay of Tigers"... Why? If in reality along the 35 km island, ten km wide, there is no news of a single tiger? And apparently there never was!
There are several theories about the origin of the name of the Bay of Tigers. Some say that the name Bay of Tigers was inspired by the strong noises caused by the wind blowing south of the bay, similar to the howl of an animal, resulting from the movement of the sands of the dunes driven by the strong winds that was walk in the Bay, now turned into an Island. Others point to the games of light and shadow reflected in the sands by wearing striped skin, similar to that of tigers. Still others claim that the place was infested with listed hyenas and herd-fishing wild dogs, who would have been mistaken for tigers. There's also the theory of seals, the "sea tigers", who ride there from the icy waters coming from the south.
Between the 15th century and the date of the population of those sands, in 1865, cartographers witnessed the periodic transmutation that took place there. Maps and navigation maps from around the world witness the cyclical transformation from restinga to island, and island to restinga. The last time the Bay of Tigers lost its connection to the mainland was March 14, 1962. On this day, witnesses of the time say, a strong reef with waves of more than ten meters broke the fragile sand cord connecting the Bay of Tigers to the mainland and turned the population into an island. And that's how it stands today. At this time, the channels that carried fresh water from the mouth of Cunene to the Bay of Tigers had broken.
The Bay of the Tigers, or better known Tiger Island, is today an abandoned arid, salty, ghostly place, a sacred place in the middle of the dunes that do not stop moving under the force of gusty winds that cover everything in its passage. A place despite everything, fascinating, and with each passing day increases the risk of its complete disappearance.
