The Cascata das Porqueiras is a waterfall about 15 meters high, framed in the embedded valley of the Agualva river, a tributary of the Teixeira river, one of the most remote and beautiful places of the Freita mountain. The cascade gained its name from the homonymous village, which until recently was inhabited. The streams of Agualva and Macieiras mark this abrupt landscape, with gaps of more than 600 meters between the top of Freita mountain and the location of the Berlengas, somehow located at the confluence of these watercourses. The soft shale allowed pronounced fitting of these streams, which took advantage of the flaws as lines of weakness where erosion has carved valleys of abrupt and vertiginous slopes.
These deep valleys and cliffs are the perfect habitat for the largest european bird of prey, the majestic eurasian eagle-owl. The oaks are home of the iberian wolf and the white-throated dipper takes advantage of the numerous waterfalls to nest around here. In the southern slopes it’s a surprise to see well-constituted cork-tree forests, but is at the bottom of valleys that the greatest treasures hide, precious relics of the laurissilva forest, such as european chain fern and the common holly, protected species that can be contemplated.
The village of Lomba is one of the most beautiful villages of Portugal, being perched on a promontory, and ending on a small peninsula where a church, a cemetery, several houses and more than 15 canastros are jostling together. This particular configuration, which resulted from three major flaws, framed the village on three sides of the peninsula. The leaving paths from here go to the abandoned villages of Porqueiras, 1 km, and Berlengas, at 2 km.
