Baleeiros

Linear trail in Faial that follows, for the most part, old rural paths. It starts near the church in the Cedros parish and ends at the old Varadouro Whaling Station, connecting places where whale hunting and, later, cetacean watching left their mark on the landscape.

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The whaling theme accompanies you from start to finish. At the old port of Cedros there was a whale lookout, which the earthquake of 9 July 1998 destroyed; the lookout at Costado da Nau, in Capelinhos, is now in ruins. The lookouts at Cabeço da Vigia and Alto das Concheiras, however, continue to operate, now serving cetacean watching expeditions.

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Along the way there are plenty of places to stop. It passes by the Ribeira Funda viewpoint, in a picnic area, and the Ribeira das Cabras viewpoint, from where you can see the lava platform of Praia do Norte and part of the Capelo Peninsula. On the beach and in the port of Fajã, notice the olivinic xenoliths: pieces of the mantle that an eruption tore away and lava trapped, whose green colour contrasts with the black basalt. They arrived here with the historical eruption of Cabeço do Fogo in 1672.

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Nearing the end, the trail crosses sections of Laurissilva forest, the original woodland that existed before humans arrived, where you’ll recognise the pau-branco (Picconia azorica), the laurel (Laurus azorica) and the heather (Erica azorica). Next comes the Capelinhos Volcano geosite, an almost lunar landscape born from the 1957/1958 eruption and the most recent volcano in the line of cones that forms the volcanic Capelo peninsula, the youngest in Europe. Here you can visit the Capelinhos Volcano Interpretation Centre, see the whaling exhibition in the Casa dos Botes or swim in the Porto Baleeiro do Comprido, which between 1940 and 1957 was the largest and most productive whaling station in the archipelago, until the eruption shut it down.

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The trail ends at Varadouro, another old Whaling Station, where it’s worth slowing down and diving into the natural pools.