Aida

hike | 2023-02-04

We started our day trip to the south of the island with a short and easy hike to Aida Peak. We left our car at the oil palm plantation and walked along a rough road, greeting a few locals carrying breadfruit on their heads. One of them followed us and later explained that he lived on the peak. Friendly guy and he offered to take us to the real summit, which we accepted. The real summit is a few hundred metres from the ruins of Villa Irene, perhaps a more popular tourist destination for many. A little bushwhacking and we found a broken trig pillar.

There are oil palm plantations at the trailhead. There are quite a few of them on the south side of the island.
Pico Maria Fernandes 861m P522 ??
View from ridge (left)
Ilhéus Sete Pedras (right)
Alpinia purpurata (??), commonly known as Red Ginger or Ostrich Plume and Pink Cone Ginger
Friendly local with breadfruit. He lives on the hill (left)
Polypore (right)
Views from the lower peak
Rob on the lower summit with Pico Cão Grande in the background
The ruins of Villa Irene and a typical ‘modern’ house (top right)
Rob next to the broken real summit trig pillar
He fed us delicious grapefruits and lemons from his own garden. Thanks!
Polypore
Views from the summit and Ilhéus Sete Pedras in the background
Views from summit
Pico Cão Grande is a 663 metre volcanic peak that rises 370 metres above the surrounding terrain. It was formed by magma solidifying in the vent of an active volcano. Technically very difficult 5.14 grade climb.

On the way down, our friendly local cut some delicious grapefruits for us and gave us a few more for the road. It was a lovely start to a promising day. We continued on to the southernmost peninsula of São Tomé with the Lama Porco peak.

  • Cover Image – Pico Cão Grande
Aida243 m altitude
158 m prominence
RangesWest Africa Mountains - Bight of Benin
Countries/regionsSão Tomé and Príncipe - São Tomé Province
Distance1.40 km up1.40 km down
Elevation138 m gain138 m loss
Time
0h55 up
0h05 other
0h50 down
1h50 total
Trailhead104 m altitude0.0930270, 6.5889160
RouteWe left the main tarmac road and turned into an oil palm plantation, but after less than a kilometre we parked the car and walked south along the forest road. The road ended at the crest and we continued east along the track through dense grass. The lower summit was a large flat grassy field. Then another few hundred metres through less dense jungle led to the actual summit. We followed the same route down.
DifficultiesSome light bushwhacking is required to reach the actual summit, which is a few hundred metres from the popular lower summit.
LinksGPX trail