Paúl da Serra

Paúl da Serra is an anomaly on an island that is otherwise all ridge and ravine: a broad flat plateau at around 1,400 to 1,500 metres in the west, roughly twenty-four square kilometres of open moorland with heather, grass and no trees, grazed by cattle and sheep that wander onto the road. It is the island's main water catchment - rain and fog drip feed the aquifer that supplies the levada system - and it carries a wind farm. Because it sits at the altitude where the trade-wind cloud layer forms, it is fogged in a great deal of the time, sometimes to a few metres, and the roads across it are genuinely dangerous in those conditions. On the rare clear day it is a wide open landscape with views to both coasts and the central peaks. The Rabaçal and Fanal trailheads are on its edges.

What you actually see

• The plateau - twenty-four square kilometres of flat treeless moorland at 1,400 metres.
• The catchment - the fog-fed source of the levada water system.
• The livestock - cattle and sheep grazing loose, including on the road.
• The wind farm - turbines strung across the open ground.

When to go

Year-round; summer offers the best chance of clear conditions, though fog can arrive at any time. One to three hours crossing it, with stops.

Honest expectations

Fog reduces visibility to a few metres regularly and driving becomes dangerous - do not cross in thick cloud. Cattle on the road are a real hazard. Cold and windy even in summer. There are no facilities on the plateau.

Nearby

Fanal is on the north-western rim; the Rabaçal and 25 Fontes trailhead is on the western edge.