Pulo do Lobo

The Pulo do Lobo, the wolf's leap, is where the Guadiana - a large river by Iberian standards - is squeezed into a slot in dark schist only a few metres wide and drops around fifteen metres into a pool below, having cut a gorge some seventy metres deep through the surrounding plateau. The name comes from the width: narrow enough, the story goes, for a wolf to jump. It is the highest waterfall in the south of Portugal, about seventeen kilometres north of Mértola, in the emptiest part of the Alentejo, inside the Guadiana Valley Natural Park, reached by several kilometres of unpaved track and then a short walk to viewpoints on the rim, with a path down towards the water for those who want it. Volume varies enormously - in a wet winter the fall is powerful and the gorge roars; by late summer the Guadiana here can be reduced to a trickle over rock, and upstream dams have changed the regime.

What's there

• The slot - the Guadiana forced into a gap a few metres wide.
• The drop - around fifteen metres into a pool in a seventy-metre gorge.
• The schist - dark folded rock walls cut by the river.
• The emptiness - Guadiana Valley park country with almost nobody in it.

When to go

November to April for water volume; spring for wildflowers in the gorge. Two to three hours including the track in. Late summer often shows very little water.

What to expect

Several kilometres of rough unpaved track - a low car struggles. In summer the fall can be nearly dry. Unfenced rim edges with long drops. No facilities, no shade and no phone signal in places.

Nearby

Mértola and its castle are south; the Guadiana park runs along the river.

Key facts