The bus left early from the sea front at Ponte Delgada so we had to be up and out, lunches packed, and on our way as our guest house was a couple of kilometres out of the centre. The fare was about 3 euros 50 each and we were off to the village of Sete Cidades, about 30km away, to start our walk. The journey took about 45 minutes to an hour but the time passed quickly as we admired the beautiful green scenery all around. The village of Sete Cidades and it’s two large lakes lie in the crater of a now extinct volcano, one of 3 extinct volcanos and areas with hot springs on the island.

The vegetation on this island is incredible. It is so lusciously green. Sometimes it looks a little English, or Welsh, or Irish, but never quite….Because the ferns are just too big or the flowers too tropical, and anyway, it’s February, who sees flowers in February? Orchids and roses and palm trees are everywhere … There are cows too, lots of them, chomping away on the emerald green fields, and strange perfectly dome shaped hills. Everything’s a little familiar and a little sci-fi… It’s a really interesting place. Many of the buildings, or pavements, or steps are made from the black volcanic rock and as you travel across the island the scenery changes as abruptly as the weather, coast to fields to jungle…

We arrive in Sete Cidades, jumping off the bus at the church which is handily pictured on our walking guide as the start of today’s hike. There is a small shop and a bar for any last minute supplies. The markers are not immediately obvious but we know that the walk starts at the lake and so we head past the shop, past the bar and towards the lake, about 5 minutes away, where we head left and quickly find our comforting red and white stripes.

They direct us away from the lake and up a narrow path for a while, probably only five minutes or so and we come to a fork in the path. Straight ahead has a string across it so we assume we are not meant to pass there. We head left down the only other available path. We get to a small clearing and see no more paths ahead, except a teeny one that a giant herd of cows, or are they bulls, are hurtling down, their speed slowed briefly by a bottleneck of squashed bull. Aghhhhh, where to? There is a track to our right, so we take it, but it leads only up on to a mound of land with no way out and steep sides. And the bulls follow us. We are marrooned. We have to get through the bulls to get out…There is someone shouting at a wayward bull somewhere. A farmer emerges from the teeny track, and we call ‘hola!’ This message is sent to communicate many things. Number 1, we are here, we probably shouldn’t be, but we are! Number 2: Are we safe? He ignores the ‘Hola’ so presumably that means we are. Number 3: Please remember we are here and check we are not here still when you leave.

He does not respond.

Suddenly the bulls are on the move and we take our chance!We are out of there, headed back to the path…. This walk is not going well. We return to where the string was across the path and cautiously step under it. And there are our stripes! Yay, we are back on track. What was the string for? We do not know. But we are happy to be away from the bulls and following comforting signs. The path leads up, like, really up!!!! This walk was marked as easy as they intended a walker to walk just one way starting fromtheother end – this track is steep. I recommend a stick! But there are none, every stick we find is too weak,or too short, or too bendy…. About 1 or 2 kilometres on we pop out of the track and on to farmland and eventually a road. This is where you need to go right along the road, and not straight on and down in to the forest as we did…:) We found our way back and took a closer look at the faded sign at the road, yes, the marker does say turn right, it is just very faded.

We head along the road to a viewing point over the ocean, and then a coastal track meanders along for 4 or 5 kilometres until we come to a viewing point over the lake. There are quite a few people here, some of them have driven to take in the view, but the truth is there were equally lovely or maybe even better
views en route.

We eat our lunch in the sun – it is a beautiful day, and start the walk back, which is far easier as we make no mistakes, meet no bulls and head downhill.

Back in the town it is a beer on the terrace and then the 16:30 bus home. The driver tells us he will drop us in the next town where we must take another bus using the same ticket. The timetable didn’t mention this but he directs us well and all is good. The next bus arrives as promised after a fifteen minute wait and we arrive back in Ponte Delgada for a well earned rest!