TRAVERSAL OF THE SERRA

A track crosses the Serra da Tronqueira from the Northeast to the Povoação road, in the south, in a magnificent landscape of peaks and parades, against a magnificent background of green and blue horizons. This twenty-kilometre track can be in very poor condition (especially in winter), or even impassable with a conventional car; the fog is persistent on the heights, but in clear weather the trip is really worth it. Isolated landscapes, naturally authentic. A detour leads to Pico Bartolomeu via the recent Parque Florestal de Cancela do Cinzeiro, which features many varieties of endemic plants, a playground for children, picnic areas and paths that get lost in the cryptomerias forests, in a beautiful site. The road to Pico Bartolomeu is superb. We enter one of the most remote and wildest corners of the island. After the Florestal Park, you reach a ridge line from where the view is spectacular on the east coast to Agua Retorta and the mountains inland covered with dense vegetation. We reach a radio antenna that marks its highest point. From there, the view of the road we have just taken, winding along the ridges, is striking, not to mention the remarkable spectacle at our feet; a panorama that does not encompass the entire island, as in Pico da Vara, but which proves extraordinary when the light splits the clouds and splashes at random the mountains and the sea in the distance.