AZORES  - DAY THIRTEEN - São Miguel North East

Blogs: Day 1 - Getting There | Day 2 - Central | Day 3 East | Day 4 West | Day 5 Last Day | Day 6 To Pico | Day 7 Madalena | Day 8 Pico Mountain | Day 9 Pico to Faial | Day 10 Pico East | Day 11 Pico North | Day 12 To São Miguel | Day 13 São Miguel North East | Day 14 São Miguel North West | Day 15 São Miguel Furnas | Day 16 São Miguel Pineapples | Day 17 São Miguel Baths | Day 18 São Miguel Filling the Gaps | Day 19 São Miguel ABF

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São Miguel is the largest island in the Azores, housing half of the population of the island chain. The island is 40 miles long and 10 miles wide with 140,000 residents most of which are in Ponta Delgada the largest city in the Azores.

The North East is regarded as the "tranquil" part of the island so we decided to do it first.  It's also the furthest away from where we are staying.

The coastline is pretty spectacular!

There are no roads that run along the coastline, but you can take a side road to lookout points. Having a much larger infrastructure, they actually have a full fledged freeway with off ramps running from east to west which makes traversing the island pretty quick.

There are very few places on the island that run down to sea level, because of the endless cliffs. A few small fishing ports with incredibly steep roads.

We stopped at a park that had a couple waterfalls and some ancient buildings demonstrating how the folk lived back in the day. Above is a water mill (as opposed to a wind mill) but served the same purpose grinding grain and corn into flour to make bread.

And finally...

Wendy REALLY wanted to see this light house.

However, we did not realize that the road to get there was terrifying at best! The above aerial picture I snagged online only shows about 1/3 of the road!!!

Going down is the easy part! Relatively easy until you get to the point of no return and realize - OH CRAP - I have to come back UP!!! Going back up in a manual transmission was definitely a challenge! Only once we got home did we read reviews on Trip Advisor of people begging others not to attempt driving this road.  

"...driving up and down is treacherous in the best conditions. Seriously, don't do it."

"...DO NOT DRIVE down the road. Very steep and also difficult to get traction for the ride back up. We heard stories about people needing a local farmer with a tractor to pull them back up!"

"...If you have small children or problems with knees, legs, hips or whatever under your belly, don't hike there, its not worth it. Especially don't try to drive there!"

As if we've ever listened to other's advice! LOL

The problem is, if you take that first turn down and realize you made a mistake, it's too F%&#ing late! You are committed!!!!

Wendy was an absolute CHAMP!!  She was petrified (yup - ME TOO!) of a 35% grade going back up the mountain.  A quick picnic lunch at the lighthouse to protein and carb up; then stop to the WC (YAY!  This one was open!) so we didn't SH!T ourselves at this one and only attempt to get ourselves out of this mess.

There really are no words to describe how scary this road truly is.  At one point, the tires lost all traction and we probably took six months off them grinding rubber as we edged up the mountain little by little.   Wendy did say an expletive or two but she wasn't gonna quit or give up! Otherwise we were ending up in the ocean!  A really, REALLY cold North Atlantic Ocean. 

I did not shoot a video of the drive back up because I did not want my son and daughter to see me die on video!