Aida - p600.org

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.

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)

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!

Views from the summit and Ilhéus Sete Pedras in the background

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

Aida	243 m altitude	158 m prominence
Ranges	West Africa Mountains - Bight of Benin
Countries/regions	São Tomé and Príncipe - São Tomé Province
Distance	1.40 km up	1.40 km down
Elevation	138 m gain	138 m loss
Time	0h55 up 0h05 other	0h50 down 1h50 total
Trailhead	104 m altitude	0.0930270, 6.5889160
Route	We 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.
Difficulties	Some light bushwhacking is required to reach the actual summit, which is a few hundred metres from the popular lower summit.
Links	GPX trail