São Tomé - "Our Son", Pico Cão Grande - (2 of 4)

(2 videos)
Our distance goal was to get to Pico Cão Grande ("Great Dog Peak" because it looks like a dogs tooth) which is a landmark needle-shaped “volcanic plug” created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. A plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure and an explosive eruption. Do they ever “blow”? Of course, we all remember 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, where a plug blocked the vent, forcing a devastating lateral explosion rather than a standard vertical flow. Pico Cão Grande is in Pico Cão Grande Obô Natural Park Its summit 2,175 ft above sea level, and it rises about 1,210 ft) over the surrounding area. It stands the same height as the Empire State Building and seeing a structure that big isolated is very strange and with its own micro-climate it is often covered in heavy fog or ringed by low-hanging clouds. We were told the best time is early morning but “circumstances” (our new son) delayed us. We were very lucky, we got there, fog passed on the way but we had perfect timing and got to see this phenomena and get some great photos. Over 3 million years ago weather stripped away the softer outer cone and left the hard central plug standing on its own. . Warm, humid air rising from the south coast condenses against the tower and creates a shifting cloud cap that opens and closes throughout the day, which is why clear views of the peak often appear in short weather windows. While scaling the vertical wall sounds like fun begin by navigating an incredibly dense rainforest the ground is slick, muddy, and humid and then scaling walls covered in snakes, we ran out of time and didn’t climb. Because the spire regularly sticks out through dark storm clouds it is often approached as “potentially” a "superhero villain lair. We will not find out.Read more