Pico road trip

We woke up to a beautiful sunny second day in Pico which was perfect for our scenic road trip. At 2,351 meters, Mount Pico is the highest mountain in Portugal and has been designated a nature reserve since 1972. As a volcano, Pico last erupted in December 1720. We had booked and paid for permits to ascend to the summit of this huge beast tomorrow…

But back to today and our road trip. After a tasty breakfast of bread, cheese and honey as kindly left by the owners, we left the holiday house and set off in the two cars to explore the centre of the island.

We drove to road EN2 and stopped at some of the designated ‘miradouro’s’ (viewpoints) along the way and on this lovely sunny day we were fortunate to see great views of Mount Pico.

This viewpoint overlooked the town of Sao Roque and from here we could see clear views across to Sao Jorge, another of the 9 islands.

Similar to Faial, you can get a ferry across to Sao Jorge island too.

From a totally clear morning, at around 11 am clouds had begun to form and partially obscured Mount Pico.

Road EN3 is said to be one of the ‘most beautiful roads of Portugal’ and so from the above viewpoint we turned into EN3 and drove towards Mount Pico. On the way we stopped to visit picturesque Lagoa do Capitao. When the conditions are right, i.e. when the lake is very still, you may be fortunate to see a good reflection for a mirror photo of Mount Pico.

From where we had parked the cars, near to the lake we did a 3 km linear walk (6 km in total there and back) through the volcanic landscape to another viewpoint, which again looked over to Sao Jorge island.

By now Pico was hidden again by clouds.

Once back at the cars, we continued driving along ER3 we came across Furna do Frei Matias, a relatively hidden cave which was formed as part of an ancient lava tube.

Next to the cave, the summit of Pico briefly cleared and as I zoomed in x30 I could see what appeared to be steam coming out of the steam vents.

We were close to Madalena by now so we drove through pretty hydrangea lined country roads along the rest of route EN3 and into the town for lunch. Chris and I shared the most tasty and best vegetable and coconut curry ever in ‘Caffe 5 Cinq’ a busy but fabulous little restaurant.

While in Madalena we found a big supermarket where we stocked up on provisions for breakfast and lunch for the following day, to ensure we had plenty of food ready for our Pico summit climb. Next we drove for 25 minutes or so to Sao Mateus village. After a drink in a small seafront cafe it was time for some sea swimming!

A short walk around the headland and down some steps took us to the sea swimming pool.

5 of us went for an embracing dip in the sea (and that excluded me… too cold…)

After showers back at the holiday house, tonight the 6 of us drove to nearby Silveira and enjoyed another wonderful dinner, this time in the Fonte Cuisine. I had ‘Beetroot ravioli with goat cheese and olive filling, (perfectly cooked) sauted vegetables and little crunchy squares of garlic toasts.

We sat outside on a large round table in a pleasant corner of the covered terrace which overlooked the gardens of the hotel, enjoying our food to the strange sounds of cackling frogs… or maybe birds… it was dark and so we couldn’t work out what was making such a weird noise in the depths of the garden! For dessert I had a delicious local Pico pie served with lemon ice-cream.

Summary

Another great day exploring more of Pico island. Tomorrow was to be our planned attempt to summit Mount Pico although the weather forecast wasn’t looking too good…