About Pego do Inferno
Pego do Inferno is a rare natural waterfall in the Algarve Region of Southern Portugal, situated near the charming town of Tavira not far from the Spanish border.
This waterfall is also known as the Moinhos da Rocha because it was the site of a former mill.
These days, it harbors a 10m waterfall with a large plunge pool that made it a pretty popular spot for cooling off, especially considering how hot it can get in the Algarve.
Although this waterfall was shorter than the Queda do Vigario (another Algarve waterfall further to the west), I learned that it was artificially enhanced for irrigation purposes.
Therefore, the Pego do Inferno could very well be one of the few natural waterfalls in the typically hot-and-dry Algarve Region.
However, that also means that it’s subject to the whims of the Mediterranean climate (including periods of prolonged drought).
Like with other waterfalls in the Algarve, you get pretty polarized reviews of these swimming holes with more people complaining about the lack of water than those who rave about a good experience.
I guess that’s the social media effect for you, but the key thing to remember about this waterfall is that it’s typically best visited in the late Spring or early Summer.
And that only works if the region has seen a healthy amount of precipitation in the Winter and Spring months, which is not a guaranteed thing in a Global Warming world, especially for Mediterranean climates.
Accessing the Pego do Inferno
From the car park near its trailhead (see directions below), we managed to walk to towards a bend in the road where the trail started at its corner.
We actually had a choice of a couple of trails to choose from – an upper trail and a lower trail.
It turned out that both trails ultimately go to the same place, but we started off by taking the upper trail, which followed a defined path for about 200m before the trail started to veer away from the Ribeira da Asseca.
At that point, we followed one of the informal-looking paths down a semi-steep embankment to rejoin the lower trail and then continue the remaining 100m or so to the top of the Pego do Inferno Waterfall.
By the way, had we taken the lower path, we would hike on another path where some maps said it was crossing through private property.
That said, the signage in this area was not very good so I don’t know how one could tell if they were trespassing or not.
Nevertheless, when the trail became overgrown or not discernible (especially on the return hike), that was when we knew it was time to backtrack and look for an easier way.
Once we were at the top of the Pego do Inferno, we couldn’t really see the waterfall from up here, but we could certainly hear it and also see the people swimming in the large plunge pool down below.
While it was tempting to take a real steep and eroded shortcut down to the base of the falls, it was much easier and safer to continue veering along the cliff edge and away from the waterfall into a tree-covered trail.
At the bottom of this trail, we then veered to the right along the base of the cliffs before returning to the low-hanging reeds almost creating a sort of floral tunnel around the fringes of the plunge pool of the Pego do Inferno.
From there, we could choose to swim or take profile pictures of the waterfall, or scramble a bit further downstream away from the falls while crossing the Ribeira da Asseca one more time before getting a more frontal view of the waterfall.
Indeed, due to the poor signage of this excursion, I found that consulting with my GPS app certainly helped to keep me oriented in the right direction.
Overall, we spent a little over an hour away from the car covering roughly about 1km in total distance out-and-back.
On the way out, we definitely saw quite a few more people heading to the waterfall, and they mostly seemed to be an international crowd as I heard other languages besides Portugese (especially Spanish, German, and French) being spoken.
The Legend of the Pego do Inferno
Pego do Inferno translates as “Hell’s Pool” or the “Pit of Hell”.
Legend has it that there was a carriage that fell into the lake or large plunge pool here, but neither the carriage nor its occupants were ever found.
Thus, it was said that anyone who fell into the pool would go straight to Hell, as it was assumed that that was where the carriage and its occupants must have gone.
These days, with Global Warming and Climate Change, a different kind of Hell can be unleashed on this area.
Indeed, the combination of heat and prolonged drought resulted in a fire that closed this area in 2012.
Therefore, technically the Pego do Inferno has been closed since that time, and it has not been formally re-opened.
Nevertheless, as you can see from the presence of this write-up, it didn’t stop people from going here, and we were no different.
Authorities
The Pego do Inferno Waterfall is located near the town of Tavira in the Faro District of the Algarve Region of Portugal. It appears that the waterfall is administered by the authorities and/or local landowners of Tavira. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Tavira Tourism website.
The Pego do Inferno Waterfall resides about 10km north of the town of Tavira.
So I’ll describe the driving directions as if we were coming from Tavira.
From the public parking spaces flanking the Rio Gilão in Tavira, we drove west abour 4km on the N270 towards the roundabout near the exit 16 of the A22 motorway.
Then, we drove east on the Rua de Santa Margarida for about 600m before turning left onto the Estrada do Barranco da Nora.
Next, we drove for about 3km (going past the M514-2 Road at the 2.6km from the Rua de Santa Margarida), then turning right onto a rural access road.
After the final 350m or so, we reached the second of two car parks for the Pego do Inferno.
Overall, this drive should take around 15-20 minutes.
For context, Tavira is about 38km (about 30 minutes drive) east of Faro, 96km (about an hour drive) east of Portimão, about 115km (over an hour drive) east of Lagos, 174km (under 2 hours drive) west of Sevilla, Spain, 251km (over 2.5 hours drive) south of Évora, and 302km (over 2.5 hours drive south of Lisbon.
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Back and forth sweep from a somewhat angled look at the waterfall near the bottom of a steep scramble below the bluff
Brief back and forth sweep of the whole context as seen from across the plunge pool and then a brief zoom in with a greater emphasis on the flowers and falls before zooming back out again
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