PR9 Between the Escalda and Pulo do Lobo

PR9 Entre o Escalda e o Pulo do Lobo is one of the signposted trails that the municipality of Mértola maintains inside the Guadiana Valley Natural Park, in the district of Beja. The official leaflet gives it a length of 4 km and about an hour and a half on dirt tracks and rock. It starts at the gates of an estate on the Pulo do Lobo road, crosses schist country with dense scrub and steep escarpments, and comes back to the same point.

Three places give the walk its shape. The Anta das Pias is a small dolmen built of local schist, a type of funerary monument usually dated between the fifth and the end of the third millennium BC. The Moinho do Escalda is a submersible watermill on the right bank of the Guadiana that worked with the natural channels of the river. At Pulo do Lobo the river drops about 16 metres into a pool and then runs through a narrow rock corridor.

This is the heart of the natural park, also protected under the Natura 2000 network. Black storks, golden eagles and eagle owls breed in the gorge, and the riverside path passes remnants of holm oak woodland with sarsaparilla, laurustinus, myrtle and butcher's broom. Walkers are asked to keep to the marked trails, make no fire, avoid noise and leave plants, rocks and animals undisturbed.

The ground becomes rougher as the waterfall approaches, and floods have torn away rock at the access, so care is needed. The leaflet warns against swimming because of the currents. The municipality does not recommend the route in the summer months or in the hottest hours, and advises caution during the hunting season. From Mértola, take the EN 122 towards Beja, turn off to Corte Gafo de Cima and then Amendoeira da Serra, and follow the signs for Pulo do Lobo; the start is about 5 km beyond the village.