Ruivo do Paul trail head by Estanquinhos.
| Ruivo do Paul from
Estanquinhos Ruivo do Paul |
| Estimated net time | 30 minutes | ||
| Difficulty | Short and easy hike. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (November 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars on the opposite side of the road from start of path. | ||
| Start height | 1550 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 120 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 1.9 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Madeira's capital Funchal drive road VR1 west to junction 1 and follow signs for "Sao Vicente". Drive 4.8 km and turn left towards "Encumeada". Drive 5.7 km and turn left towards Serra da Paul in the pass at Encumeada. From here drive just over 11 km and turn sharp right onto the road signed for "Estanquinhos". Drive another 720 metres and park on the car park on the right hand side of the road.
Start your walk by crossing the road and follow the mountain road 210 metres. Turn right onto a path and follow this path 380 metres to a path junction. Turn left and walk the final 320 metres to the large concrete summit cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
Elisabeth and I had driven from Canico east of Funchal, along the south coast, across to the north coast, then west to Porto Moniz and then finally up towards the Ruivo do Paul plateau. The plan had been to turn west at Encumeada, but because of a land slide the road was closed a little above Encumeada so we had to drive all the way around the north coast in order to get up to the plateau.
After a quick hit-and-run to Remal we continued east towards the planned Ruivo do Paul trail head, in pouring rain, and parked as close to the mountain as we could. From here we walked up the 1000 metres to the summit, which was a really hostile place with rain and strong winds, before quickly returning to the car. We then drove west in order to hit a smaller road back down to the south coast, but as we were driving west the visibility improved considerably and we got some OK views of this very distinct plateau on the else very rugged and alpine island.