Hike Terceira Porto Judeu to P Martins 4 September 2011

Caught the 1000 hrs bus from Praia towards Angra. At 1035hr we were at the Espirito Santo Imperio of Porto Judeu, close to the south east tip of Terceira,  ready to start the hike to Porto Martins. We wanted to find a route which kept as close as possible to the coast.

The hike took us along the small harbour of Porto Judeu - there is normally too much swell here for boats to remain in the water so the few boats that operate from here are all lifted onto the hard when not in use.

Further along the seafront we passed a rockpool swimming area - very common along this rocky coast.

Time for lunch on Ponta das Contendas, the south eastern tip of the island, with the Lighthouse in the background
and read a book

In the island's tourist information booklets, descriptions for  the official hiking routes 1 to 4 and 8 are available. Hikes 5,6 and 7 are missing - probably as they are no longer maintained. However, we came across some old faded marks and decided to see where the trail would lead us.
and had a good view of this eroding peninsular

Soon lost the trail but found a steepish track to the top of a bush covered crumbling cliff.

leading to even better views

and a well defined route through a small forest

Someone had cut slivers of bark off the trees to mark the path - maybe not too good for the trees.Views of the crumbling cliff

Out of the woods into fields

Finally re-found the trail - faded yellow and red painted stripes.

Views back to Ponta Contendas

and views towards Porto Martins , our destination

After this, we lost the trail once more but managed to find a route through the fields to the road which we followed to Porto Martins where we caught the 1540hrs bus back to Praia.