Expecting a speedy drive to the top, we hit a roadblock three kilometers out due to police intervention. We found ourselves in a bustling parking lot nestled between two hills, filling rapidly. As newcomers circled in search of spots, I changed shoes and swiftly moved ahead of the pack. As I climbed up to the…
Country: Portugal
Pico da Torre
Pico da Torre is another drive-up peak. When I arrived, there was a barbecue party at the top, complete with music, which made the climb more enjoyable. Otherwise, it’s just a parking lot with a cross and a viewpoint. The views of the urban areas below are decent. I snapped a few photos before heading…
Pico do Galo
Pico do Galo is located right next to Cabo Girão, a tourist hotspot that claims to be “one of the highest cliffs in the world.” I’ve seen at least three taller cliffs: Croaghaun on Achill Island in Ireland (688 m), Cape Enniberg in the Faroe Islands (750 m), and Preikestolen in Norway (604 m). And…
Pico Ruivo do Paul da Serra
As I drove down from the island highpoint towards Santana, I saw a lot of cars lining up for this dead-end road. No problem, though—I’d already climbed it earlier that morning. From there, I took the scenic northside route to Ponta Delgada, where the old coast road caught my eye. It’s often closed to cars…
Pico do Remal
Pico Remal wasn’t on my radar, especially since my original plan was to reach Pico Ruivo do Paul da Serra from the north. But plans have a way of changing, right? The northern route turned out to be too rough for my small rented car, so I drove all the way around and approached from…
Pico Ruivo East Peak
As I trudged with hundreds of tourists to Pico Ruivo, I kept wondering how to shake up this monotonous routine. Then, out of nowhere, I spotted a narrow trail leading to the Pico Ruivo East Peak. It was barely visible through the bushes, but it was definitely a trail—clearly used occasionally by the adventurous. The…
Pico Ruivo
La Palma’s Roque de los Muchachos was cool, but now I’m all about Pico Ruivo in Madeira, Portugal. This peak is the island’s highest, with ultra-prominence and nearly 450 km of isolation. It’s clearly captured my interest. After a bumpy landing, a good dinner, and a comfortable night’s sleep, I had a hearty breakfast before…
Iberian Peninsula 2023
We land in Lisbon, Portugal at 5am and our next flight is at 7pm, so we have plenty of time to bag the peaks around here. The only problem is that many of them have already been climbed by Rob, me or both of us. However, we found one regional highpoint that neither of us…
Cabeço Raínha
Last peak planned for today, so we drove to the lower summit of Besteiros at 1080m to check out the views and a large black and white conical trig pillar. We then drove to the highest point where we found a huge concrete trig pillar (unfortunately impossible to climb) with two smaller ones on either…
Zibreiro
Fifth of six summits today, and the fifth drive up. We reached the summit on a reasonably good road. An auto-moto-peakbagger would be excited as he or she could touch the base of the trig pillar with a car. Perhaps that is why the trig pillar has been raised by two metres. And the lookout…
Povoínha
The good news about windmills is that one could almost always find the road. It might be private, closed or bumpy, but it will be a road. This time it was a good gravel road and soon we reached the top of Povoinha, which is surrounded by windmills and has a raised trig pillar. We…
Alvaiázere
We climbed the third peak today and again had a tarmac road all the way to the top. There was a windmill farm, a lookout tower and a trig pillar on a 2m tall plinth. It was nice to be able to climb the trig pillar as there was a ladder on one side. The…
Ourém
This legend tells the story of a Christian knight, Gonçalo Hermigues, who kidnapped a Moorish princess named Fatima on St John’s Day in 1158. The knight took her to a small village in Portugal and she fell in love with him and converted to Christianity, taking the name Oureana. As a reward for her conversion,…
Aire
The highpoint of the Santarém region in Portugal. Rob and I found that neither of us had bagged this mountain, so there were few arguments against visiting it. We checked previous reports and expected to have to leave our car a few miles early, but when we arrived we found a reasonably good road all…
Lisbon to São Tomé
The journey from Lisbon to São Tomé is long, but the scenery is spectacular. The aircraft passes through Portugal and Spain before crossing the Mediterranean and entering Algeria. After flying over the Sahara, the route passes through Niger, Nigeria and a small corner of Cameroon before reaching the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea and…