Loneliness at the cliffs of Rocha da Relva – Azores tour #2

Finally, the weather cleared and the second tour took me to the south-west end of the island, a handfull of kilometers away from the capital Ponta Delgada. This hike follows an ancient path along the cliff line where a few hardened (and most likely stubborn) locals live. The only way to reach the small settlements of Rocha do Cascalho (literally translated as debris) and Buraco (which means whole in the ground) is per pedes or on donkey-back. So, pedes it is. Checkliste time:

• Roundway: nope; you have to turn back
• Accessibility: Parking at the main road from Ponta Delgada to Relva; at the end of Relva on the left hand side, there is a parking spot. It might be tricky to get here by public transport.
• Length: 7.4 km and approx. 400 hm
• Strenuousness: Easy. You can even skip some height meters if you chosse not to go down to Rocha do Cascalho
• View: Nice view of Atlantic ocean and cliffs
• Loneliness: There are some tourists and locals on the way; in general though, it is rather quiet
• More information: Andreas Stieglitz’s DuMont aktiv Wandern auf den Azoren Tour 3

Here you see a very rough sketch on the trekking route (click for large image). We start at the Miradouro do Caminho Novo, where a gravel road passes between few farm houses and pastures with the obligatory cows. The sun is shining brightly and a refreshing sea breeze blows. Several view points with benches are set along the way. At a large parking spot, a junction with a shrine leads the way to the ancient path along the coast. Some locals linger with their mules at the parking spot. It seems that they park their vehicles here and then change to transport by mule or walk to their houses.

At the cliffs, a narrow path goes down to Rocha do Cascalho through bambus forests and across wooden bridges. Most of the stone houses lie in ruins and an old man shuffles on his doorstep and watches the tourists suspiciously. I wondered what he might think, living in such a poor environment, without running water or electricity and each day reach Western tourists trample down to his lodgings, take a picture, and never come back again. The dog certainly didn’t like the company. On the oher hand, this man had a beautiful terrasse with a few well-used plastic chairs in front. I wondered if ofering beverages and ice cream could help improve his situation. Or just a donation box for fotos would do the trick. But maxbe this is just an outsider’s way of thinking…

After Debris we scramble back up to the ‘main road’ and along the cliff towards Buraco. Prickly pear grows at the side of the road in abundance and I cannot resist and pick one with my walking stick. After rolling it on the ground to remove the spikes, I taste the juicy meat of the fruit. Unfortunately, the taste is rather boring and certainly not worth the effort of picking spikes from your fingers for the rest of the day. Buraco is in better shape than Debris and consists of several inhabited houses. From there, we turn back the way we came from back to the parking space.