The island of Terceira has 5 official trails, all well marked highlighting different parts of the island. You have already seen one in our blog on the volcano. In October we explored 2 more with the missionaries.
Baías da Agualva
The day was windy, cloudy with a chance of rain. Do we really want to go on a hike?? This trail is along the coast and probably below the cloud cover. To hike the higher, vista hikes wouldn't work!!! Elder Hobson and Elder Pickrell were both willing and so we chose this hike.
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| http://trails.visitazores.com/en/trails-azores/terceira/baias-da-agualvan |
Carefully following the directions, we came to a country road, much like any other we had seen along the way. But the defining object was the trail sign, about 30 feet in from the main road, clearly a trail marker. The picture on the left is from the web site and helped us to know we really were at the right place.We parked the car as close to the edge of the dirt road as possible to let any other cars past, though there wasn't much
likelihood of others coming this way! And we began walking. Flat. With cow fields on both sides. Interesting!
But then the road ended in a trail, going down a ravine. It was really steep and the dried cane stocks made handy hiking sticks.
Down,
Down,
Down through the green trees and underbrush.
Yes, this is interesting!!!
It felt like we were suddenly released from the ravine and entered a valley. In front of us was a big field of some very large leafed plants. A farmer was working in the field and we asked what he was growing -- yams!! Every day he would come to the field, dig up a portion and chop off most of the yam roots. He would then replant the leaf part and the top section of the root and they would start to grow again and make more roots for future harvesting. It was a lot of manual labor and he did it alone.
We walked around the field and horse pastures and to the ocean and pebble beach. It was a windy day and the waves were quite impressive!
The trail then took us up and around and from then on followed along the top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean. We were probably 100-150 feet above sea level.
And it was windy -- So if my hair looks wild, you know why!! The elder's missionary hair cuts aren't ruffled at all.
And it was no longer interesting!!
It was amazing and spectacular!!
The high wind drove the high waves against the high cliffs and I have NEVER seen such power! To describe it in words, think of fireworks -- not the small ones but the ones that burst into gigantic circles. That is what was happening with water against a cliff!!
To show it in picture: (and remember these are high cliffs!
Here comes a wave.
And up and over the rocks.
It was hard to leave a spot, as it was so fascinating to watch the water, wondering when the next gigantic burst of water would come. And it always did. It was addictive!!
A third try to share the magnificence of the wave explosions! Here is one video we took showing the waves in action on both sides of this volcanic peninsula:
And then we would continue on the hike and get to another set of cliffs -- and the same thing again. We did need to remember that the missionaries had to be back by 5:00!!
The trail finally turned back inland and we eventually came to the main road.
To finish the circle, we had to walk about a mile on the road to get back to our little country road and the car.
And it was a lovely vista of the green fields and cows.
I was glad to get back to the car! It was a good hike!! It was only rated 3.5 on a scale of 5. I think people didn't come on a windy, almost rainy day. Too bad for them! They missed the show of a lifetime!
This hike actually has a grassy parking lot. But we had to make a good guess on what road to take and then wound around the various stone circled fields.
Elder Broderick has a very good sense of direction. I would have been lost for sure!!
The hike was up the mountain. The trail was very wide and easy to walk. It was just a lot of up.
There was a side trail you could take to a vista and a lake. The sign said it was only 230 meters. Just around the corner, right???
The trail was very steep, most of the dirt was washed out and it was mostly a trail of root steps and very challenging. I managed to make it (and, I will admit, grumbling a bit at times). I took my time and finally got to the top where Dennis and the sisters were already enjoying the cloud!
And it was windy!
The trail down took us along the edge of a huge ribeiro (gully formed by run-off streams). It was very steep and very deep. There are many of these, formed from the volcano that was there looooong time ago. Some cities on Terceira are names for how many ribeiros are in that area -- 12 Ribeiros, 8 Ribeiros, etc.!
Below, you can't see the ribeiro on the right. On the left is a cow field.
To show it in picture: (and remember these are high cliffs!
Here comes a wave.
And up and over the rocks.
A third try to share the magnificence of the wave explosions! Here is one video we took showing the waves in action on both sides of this volcanic peninsula:
And then we would continue on the hike and get to another set of cliffs -- and the same thing again. We did need to remember that the missionaries had to be back by 5:00!!
The trail finally turned back inland and we eventually came to the main road.
To finish the circle, we had to walk about a mile on the road to get back to our little country road and the car.
And it was a lovely vista of the green fields and cows.
I was glad to get back to the car! It was a good hike!! It was only rated 3.5 on a scale of 5. I think people didn't come on a windy, almost rainy day. Too bad for them! They missed the show of a lifetime!
Serreta
Just a couple of weeks later, Sister Harper and Sister Savage wanted one more fun hike before Sister Savage's certain transfer back to the Continent (maximum time for missionaries in the Azores is 4 transfers or 6 months). We decided to try the Serreta hike, even though we may not get the best vistas because of the cloud cover. There isn't much you can do about the clouds!!
Elder Broderick has a very good sense of direction. I would have been lost for sure!!
And through a grove of trees!
The sisters found a dry creek bed and decided to explore a bit.
There was a side trail you could take to a vista and a lake. The sign said it was only 230 meters. Just around the corner, right???
The trail was very steep, most of the dirt was washed out and it was mostly a trail of root steps and very challenging. I managed to make it (and, I will admit, grumbling a bit at times). I took my time and finally got to the top where Dennis and the sisters were already enjoying the cloud!
And it was windy!
The trail down took us along the edge of a huge ribeiro (gully formed by run-off streams). It was very steep and very deep. There are many of these, formed from the volcano that was there looooong time ago. Some cities on Terceira are names for how many ribeiros are in that area -- 12 Ribeiros, 8 Ribeiros, etc.!
Below, you can't see the ribeiro on the right. On the left is a cow field.
And sometimes the trail goes right through the field.
It was a long walk back to the car. And I was very tired. But it was a gook hike and the sisters made it lots of fun.
We may try to go back when there are no clouds. We shall see if that actually happens (both doing it and the no cloud part!)
We live on a beautiful island!
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