38:39.15N, 027:12.97W

The coast at the north west of Faial. There was a volcanic eruption in 1957, so it’s quite bleak and covered in ash to this day.

There is a walk from the lighthouse on the NW coast to here on the SE coast - the full length of the island, via the caldera in the middle. We couldn’t see the caldera as it was in cloud.

We then sailed 70 miles to Angra do Heroismo on Terceira - where this fellow surveys all comers and, I feel, finds them wanting.

Terceira is one of the more picturesque of the islands, with lots to see, do or buy.

Fish market. James is wondering how to cook some of the monsters, not to say remember their names in Portuguese.

It’s spring here, despite the cloud and rain, and flowers are everywhere. Hedges are made from Hydrangea or Agapanthus.

The town is a UNESCO world heritage site, and very attractive and well preserved.

Nearby there are black rock beaches with excellent snorkelling and diving, albeit very cold compared to the Caribbean!

On a fine morning we drove into the mountains. This part is rather like the Peak District with dry-stone walls around small fields with cattle.

But on the other, north, side there is a valley called Biscoitos where there is a micro-climate and they still grow grapes and make wine. The vines are planted in holes in the pumice, and trail on the ground rather than being trained onto wires. Vestigial walls about 80cm high surround every ten or so plants.

There’s also a museum, and inevitably but welcome nonetheless, an opportunity to buy some of the local wine.

After the cosy atmosphere of the wine museum we went into a cave system deep into the extinct volcano. The camera stopped showing anything useful once inside - only this picture of the sink-hole overhead has come out. But it’s ENORMOUS! A great cavern with crystal growths and patterns where the volcanic rocks solidified. Quite different to the more familiar limestone caves found in mainland Europe and apparently second in grandeur to only to one other in the world (which is in Indonesia). Right at the bottom there’s a lake.

Then, since it was on nearby, we went to the bull running. Bulls are let out one at a time into the street of a small village, and they charge around bashing into people’s front gates while local lads show off their machismo by trying to look nonchalant. One of the bull handler’s behind is in the foreground of the picture as he climbed rather smartly to join us on our perch on the recycling bins. The bull is not attacked or injured, but he gets exhausted and unhappy as people shout and tease him. We think that it's a sort of test of his suitability to be used in the ring, certainly much noting onto pre-printed cards was going on - as well as much consumption of beer and snacks. Despite the party atmosphere we came away fairly early having not entirely enjoyed it.

Hopefully a front with lots of rain and squalls will go through tomorrow morning and we shall then leave as the long-range forecast is looking quite favourable.