If you find yourself in the Galician port of Vigo, in the northwest of Spain, at the end of the day, climb up to the Castelo de San Sebastian. In a city of sunsets, the view from this little-visited fortress is the most dazzling, with a river of fire flowing west across the Bay of Vigo to the Atlantic and the New World.
On October 23, 1702, the biggest Spanish treasure fleet to make it back from the Americas was anchored in these waters with an escort of French warships. By an extraordinary stroke of good or bad fortune, depending on whose side you were on, a fleet of Anglo-Dutch warships sailed into the bay, and blew the French and Spanish apart.
What happened to the estimated 13 million pieces of eight sent to the bottom that day remains a mystery. The British share, according to Isaac Newton, then Master of the Mint, was a paltry 3.5kg of gold and 2,000kg of silver. The whereabouts of the remainder was the inspiration for Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
“Here Captain Nemo came, according to his wants, to pack up those millions with which he burdened the Nautilus,” Verne wrote, but the true treasure of the Bay of Vigo is much easier to find. It lies three leagues — or nine miles — to the west, appearing at sunset as black mountains in an ocean of gold.
Praia de Rodas is a mile of white sand that makes you think of the Seychelles
ALAMY
This is the Cies archipelago: the prettiest jewels in the Parque Nacional de las Islas Atlanticas de Galicia. There are just three islands — Monteagudo and do Faro, joined at the hip by a barrier beach, and San Martiño, accessible only to the birds. No cars, motorboats or jet skis are allowed; there are no hotels and the only permitted way of getting around is on foot or by kayak.
Access is strictly controlled (see below) and there’s an old joke that it’s easier to get into the other heaven than this paradise. Some describe the Cies Islands as a little bit of Caribbean in the North Atlantic, but that’s a lazy comparison — there’s nowhere like this in the Antilles.
As the ferry approaches the islands, the first beach you see is the Praia de Rodas — a mile of white sand that makes you think of the Seychelles. But when you step ashore and follow the boardwalk north the glimpses of blue through a forest of pine and eucalyptus bring Australia’s Whitsunday Islands to mind.
That doesn’t last long. Drifts of angelica suggest the Turku archipelago in Finland. Swathes of hot pink thrift say Sardinia, but the clothing-optional sands of the Praia de Figueiras, ten minutes from Rodas, are definitely Corsican — although the delightful coolness of the water is more akin to California’s Santa Catalina island. Then you find the Praia de Margaridas, half an hour north, where the coarse, silver sand and mussel-clad rocks drop heavy hints of the Hebrides.
By now you’ll have left the crowds behind. Under 2,000 visitors a day are allowed to visit the Cies and most, mindful that they’ve got eight hours or less to make the most of their visit, seem happy to turn left at the jetty and stay put on Rodas beach.
Rent one of the park’s ready-pitched ridge tents
But the islands are so small that you can easily go for a wander and still have time for a swim, lunch and a kip in the sun. The footpaths are well maintained and it’s impossible to get lost. It’s quite possible, though, to get thirsty, so take water.
Birdsong fills the silence: I watch ravens playing in the thermals, a pair of green woodpeckers, stonechats and alpine swifts. There are shags, storm petrels and gannets too but the yellow-legged gull is king here, with 22,000 breeding pairs making up the biggest colony on Earth.
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I take the lonely path out to the Faro do Peito lighthouse, through a zone where those alien pines and eucalyptuses are being cut down and replaced by native species, and find a stone causeway zig-zagging down to a stone jetty.
It seems like a peaceful spot for a picnic, but as I unwrap my sandwich, a crowd arrives. Clumsy and needy yet unexpectedly polite, the gull chicks emerge from their roosts to stand patiently, heads cocked, in expectation of a free lunch. Now I’m thinking of the Galapagos.
The gulls really don’t need my charity. Nutrient-rich waters off the Cies Islands create a Billingsgate of choice for the seafood lovers, with crab, lobster, sea urchins, octopus, shellfish, sea bass and mackerel plentiful in these pure waters. There are five species of turtle here and 22 varieties of whale and dolphin — as I’m eating I watch a hunting pod of bottlenoses thrashing the water white while gannets — known as alcatrazes in Spanish — divebomb the killing zone, the panicked prey attempting escape in flashes of silver. There are rumours too that a pair of otters have swum over from the mainland to take advantage of the dining here, but I see no signs.
The very reason Vigo thrives as a port, why there are fish farms in the bay, and why that ill-fated treasure fleet dropped anchor there in 1702, is the protection afforded by the archipelago from the Atlantic, and the western coast of the island shows the terrifying power of that violent ocean. Here, cracked granite cliffs drop 200m into a maelstrom of exploding waves. They call the highest point here the Cadeira da Raiña — or Queen’s Seat — and the views compare to the Nusa Islands in Indonesia. A group of brave girl scouts are posting selfies from the edge, watched by a pair of ravens.
From here I backtrack two miles to Rodas, then follow the path through the dunes beside the lagoon called the Lagoa dos Nenos. There’s a campsite on the other side, nicknamed Camping do Suspiros — the Site of Sighs. That’s because daytrippers sigh when they see it — either because they had no idea you could stay overnight on the Cies, or because they’d tried and failed to get reservations that sell out quicker than Oasis tickets.
Razor clams are foraged from the island’s rocks
GETTY IMAGES
You can bring your own kit from £17 per night, or rent one of the park’s ready-pitched ridge tents, complete with camp beds and sleeping bags, from £63 a night with a two-night minimum stay (reservations open March 1; campingislascies.com). There’s a left-luggage facility at Vigo’s Maritime railway station, so you can travel light to the islands, and the restaurant, run by the Monzonís family since 1962, is possibly the finest campsite diner on the planet. Try the octopus a feira, or percebes and razor clams foraged from the island’s rocks.
There’s another lighthouse 35 minutes south, but the glittering sands and sheltered waters of the Praia de Bolos are only six minutes away, so I go for a snorkel around rocks where octopuses hide under ledges and wrasse give me side eye. It feels a lot like Naxos, since you ask.
On antique maps of Galicia the Cies are marked as Insulae Deorum, or Islands of the Gods. That’s the name the Romans gave the archipelago, and there might be something in that, because, as I’m half-dozing on a flat rock in the afternoon sun, it strikes me that if all those gods had been invited to bring the best bits of all the world’s islands to build the perfect archipelago, they’d have probably created the Cies.
Chris Haslam was a guest of the Xunta de Galicia and the Spanish Tourist Office (spain.info). Fly to Vigo
Getting there
Over Easter and from May 15 to September 15, only 1,800 visitors are presently allowed to visit the Cies Islands per day, and you need authorisation to travel from the Galician environment ministry (autorizacionillasatlanticas.xunta.gal). Permits are issued free of charge, up to 90 days in advance, and application involves filling in a four-page online form.
Authorisation is granted immediately, after which you receive a code with which you must book your ferry tickets within two hours, otherwise you need to reapply.
There are three ferry companies based in Vigo. These are Mar de Ons (from £21 return; mardeons.es); Piratas de Nabia (from £23 return; piratasdenabia.com); RG Naviera (from £23 return; rgnaviera.com).
From July 1 until September 11 the first boat to the islands departs from Vigo at 9am and the last boat back is at 8.30pm. The crossing takes about an hour. If you’re planning to spend time on the beaches, take a parasol because there’s little shade.
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