Day 12: Faial to Flores

The weather did not look very bright when we woke up in Horta this morning, so we made a slow start to the day. Once we'd packed up our things and checked out of the apartment, we strolled down the hill to a nearby cafe where we enjoyed a nice second breakfast  

Our flight to our final island of Flores wasn't until 16.10 so we still had the best part of a day to spend on Faial. We hadn't actually intended to spend another day on Faial, which is ultimately a fairly small island that we've already driven around once  This flight to Flores had originally been an early morning flight when I'd booked it back in December, but at some point between then and now the airline decided to change their schedules and turn it into an afternoon flight. Never mind!

I'd had a read through the Azores guidebook and managed to track down some bits of Faial which we'd missed on our first circuit of the island. Our first stop today was Monte da Guia, a nature reserve just on the outskirts of Horta.

We had to drive up quite a steep and winding road to get to it, but once we did we had some beautiful views.

We could see all the way back down to Horta and even count the number of church spires in the town.

We could see Horta's marina and port in the distance too.

And when we climbed up to the highest viewpoint we found there was a little church on the top of the hill.

We followed a trail for a little way along the top of Monte da Guia.

The path soon came to an end, so after a final look at the view we got back in the car and started driving towards the southern coast of the island.

We'd only been driving for a few miles when we came to a sign for a coastal viewpoint.

This wasn't one we'd known about in advance but there were some fantastic views here, including back towards Monte da Guia where we'd just been.

There were also some amazing arches and caves in the cliffs which were really cool to see.

Our next stop was a viewpoint outside the small village of Castelo Branco. The road to get there was a bit hairy and our small Fiat only just made it! But once we'd got there, the views were great.

This large lump of rock, called Morro de Castelo Branco, is a protected area used by various migrating birds.

We followed a trail alongside it for a while and there were some nice views down the coast in the opposite direction too.

Then it was back to Horta, where we both ate the same chicken curry for lunch as we had yesterday  Once lunch was finished we still had over an hour before we needed to hand the car back at the airport, so we decided to drive a final loop around Faial. As we did so we found a signpost to a viewpoint we hadn't visited before: Miradouro do Monte Carneiro.

It felt quite remote and we were the only people there.

If the weather had been better there would have been great views of Pico from here. As it was we could barely make out another island on the horizon.

There were some good views down to Horta though. The green bump in the distance is the Monte de Guia nature reserve where we'd been in the morning.

We handed back the rental car at the airport without any problems and then joined a long queue to check in our bags for the flight. We noticed that the people in front of us were being asked some unusual questions, like what they had in their suitcases. We thought this was an odd thing to ask and when it was our turn, Tim launched into a long list of everything he had in his bag  But the lady behind the desk explained that she had to check whether we had any prohibited items... and it turned out that we did! Tim had an illicit bottle of red wine in suitcase, which had been left for us as a welcome gift in the first apartment where we stayed in Ponta Delgada. We hadn't yet got around to having a meal which would go with red wine so it had remained undrunk and so far the bottle had been successfully transported in Tim's suitcase on two flights and two ferry crossings! But it wasn't going to be allowed on this plane, so we checked in our suitcases without it and then Tim donated it to a nice lady at the car hire desk who had just released the deposit from his credit card  

Horta airport was very small and a little bit confusing. The info board said that our flight was due to depart from Gate 3, but there were only signs to Gates 1 and 2. Tim went to ask someone and it transpired that Gate 3 was in the same place as the other gates, just not signposted. Security was a little bit slow. I got told I didn't need to take off my walking boots to go through, but then got pulled over for a random drugs test which was annoying. And when we got through to the gates, the room was absolutely tiny! There were three inter-island flights due to depart within half an hour of each other but none of the incoming planes had arrived yet so everything was delayed and there were lots of confused people milling around. We were quite lucky that the plane for Flores was the first one to turn up, so in the end we were only delayed by around half an hour. We were also lucky that we managed to get on it; there didn't seem to be an official announcement that it was ready for boarding, just a woman shouting "Flores!" at one of the gates.

Never mind, eventually we were in the air and flying west towards Flores. The journey took around 40 minutes and was mostly through the clouds, but as we started coming in to land I could see the sea... sea that we seemed to be rather close to without any land in sight! It was only within the last few seconds of the flight that the island itself came into view; the airport is right by the coast.

We didn't have to wait too long for our bags to appear once we'd landed, but we did have to wait an extremely long time before we were able to collect our rental car. There was only one desk for multiple car hire companies and there were five people in front of us in the queue. We've been lucky in that we haven't really had to queue for any of the cars we've picked up so far on this holiday, but this queue was horrendous. There were two people at the front of the queue having some sort of complex problem which seemed to be going on indefinitely. Eventually they stood to one side while the single staff member serving customers dealt with a couple of easier cases. The flight had been due to land at 17.00 and I'd told the owner of the property where we're staying that we'd be there to check in around 18.00, but at 18.00 we were still standing in the queue and I was having to send him a message to say we'd be running late... When there was only one more person in front of us in the queue we started to get excited, but our hopes were soon dashed when he turned out to be representing a group of elderly people who seemed to be trying to rent a car without a credit card with a sufficient credit limit for the hire company to hold the deposit they wanted...

Finally that man walked off and it was our turn! It all went very smoothly for us, given that we'd had the best part of an hour to make sure we had all the required paperwork to hand! Partway through our rental contract being finalised, the man who had been in front of us returned with his group - this time seemingly with an adequate credit card - and wanted to push in in front of Tim to be served. He picked the wrong person to try that with  

Eventually we got the keys to our car and were able to set off on our journey across the island. We'd landed outside the town of Santa Cruz das Flores, which is on the eastern coast of the island. The accommodation which we're staying in is near a place called Fajã Grande, which is on the western side, so we had a cross-island journey ahead of us. Luckily Flores is only a small island and so we got there without any difficulty. And the accommodation is really nice  

It seems more spacious than the place we stayed in Horta...

...and the decor is all a bit more modern too.

We even saw a rabbit in the garden just outside!

It feels like it's been a bit of a long day of travelling! But from the glimpse we've had so far, Flores looks like it's going to be a really interesting island and we're looking forward to seeing it properly tomorrow