Lat: 39:27.7. N : Long: 031:15.8 W. at Faja Grande, Flores
Sulana's Voyage
Alan and Sue Brook
Sun 6 Jul 2014 12:01
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Lat: 39:27.7. N : Long: 031:15.8 W. Sunday,
22nd June, 2014 – We motored around the Southern tip of the
island and are now in the beautiful, if a little unsheltered, anchorage on
the West Coast, at Faja Grande, Flores!
The PIlot
Book states it is the "most Westerly anchorage in Europe", so a wonderful place
to anchor when the winds and seas are light and not coming in from the West.
Well we had two days of perfect conditions before that changed, so we had
decided to stop off there just for one day, whilst on our way to Faial
and its world famous harbour of Horta.
The pilot
book was not wrong! The anchorage was just lovely, with three very tall
waterfalls cascading down the ultra steep and high cliffs, forming a superb
backdrop to the red tiled roofs and whitewashed walls of the small town
there.
The
Azorean Portuguese word, 'Faja', apparently means a place where a volcanic lava
flow has run into the sea, creating a flat spot. So there are lots of 'fajas'
around these islands.
Upon
arrival it was nice to spot the dark blue hull of the small twin junk-rigged
ketch (?) of Dan & Charlotte, two Scottish friends of Will's whom he had met
earlier in Antigua and then met up with again in Lajes, as we arrived in Flores.
They had just left Lajes a bit before us. Dan built the yacht,
"Hester", himself, completely, from scratch. They were just on their way
home to the UK, en route to meet up for a big family reunion of some
sort.
We had
decided to do one of the two famous cliff-top walks that centre around
Faja Grande, so took the same taxi ride to Punta Delgada, at the
Northern tip of the island and started up the trail, which was well marked
with little yellow and blue striped flag paintings on rocks and dry stone walls.
Having really enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the walls, which
were topped and covered with continuous rows of Hydrangea
bushes that were a large part of the early section of this hike, we
were thoroughly delighted by the views that were to be had
along the path. This is not forgetting also to mention the
additional pleasure of hearing almost continuous birdsong, from a variety
of birds like Blackcaps, Blackbirds and a variety of finches. Grey Wagtails were
to be seen everywhere.
A great
deal of the trail was actually an ancient cattle path, interspersed
with rustic, home-mnade gates and small grazing fields. Several very healthy and
happy cows looked at us as we strode along it.
7 kms
later we strode down the cliff path way back into Faja Grande, walking
right up to the high falls that ended in the Troco de Cabalhau, where one
can swim if the fancy takes one. We passed several old water mills that were
originally fed off the stream emanating from these falls. This was one of the
very best hikes I had done and certainly on a par with the
fabulous 'Levada' walks of Madeira. The three young crew were very happy
with the chance to enjoy this, but I was just pleased I had been able
to cope with it at all, as my right knee and hip were a bit stiff after so
little walking exercise, but these old problem areas held up
OK.
On
returning to "Sulana" after a brief snack ashore, we turned down the kind
invitation from Charlotte to join them and a few others in a potluck Barbeque
ashore for the evening, as we wanted to do an overnight passage on Sunday night,
and Monday, to Faial, in time to get there for a local festival the following
day that we had heard about. Winds were still light, so it was a
motor the whole way, starting off as we passed the Westernmost point of Europe,
the islet rock of Ilheu de Monchique, surrounded by many
large flocks of swimming Cory's Shearwaters. These are the lovely seabird that
is common all around the Azores and which haunts the cliffs of Lajes every
evening, when they return to their nests at dusk and make the weirdest of cries,
calling to each other. |