My dream trip to the Azores ( Sep 2004)

Picture 1: View from Horta Harbour (Faial) across to Pico

(click to enlarge)

Day 3 now, and things are gradually taking shape, at least in my head. But it may be a while before that's apparent to you, dear reader....... Be patient a little while longer.

So why the pictures of the Azores ? Well, they serve two purposes here. It began, you may recall, with me mentioning one of my life's passions, which is aerial photography. I was looking for a suitable reply to Sarah re the interesting and sometimes dramatic conjunction of land and sea, which we certainly have here on the Cote d'Azur. I then went to my photo file, and posted the picture of two misty islands, a long skinny one in the foreground, with awe-inspiring cliffs, and one in the background with an impressive volcanic peak.

As I told Sarah in the comments, the picture was taken two years ago on my "trip of a lifetime" to the Azores. It was to celebrate my 60th birthday. In case you didn't know, there are 9 islands in the Azores, all volcanic origin of course, which predictably gives some truly spectacular scenery ( I'll show more on a later date). My picture was taken on the flight between Faial and Terceira, (see lower of two pix above) skirting Pico island, which has the volcano of the same name, and then crossing the long narrow island of S. Jorge.

Note added 21 Oct. Picture 2 (map of flight path) had been deleted to free up space.

It was taken looking back across Jorge to Pico, so it's the tailplane, not the wing that you see in the previous post.

The upper of the two pictures above is Pico, as seen from Horta Harbour on Faial, the neighbouring island.

A narrow strait separates the two islands. Horta is world-famous among the transatlantic sailing fraternity, being one of the few places one can make landfall between Europe and the Americas. Sailors are allocated a bit of harbour wall on which they add their own colourful mural. You can just about make them out in Picture 1 above.

The two weeks we spent in the Azores were one of the most memorable trips of my life. There's so much to see, especially if, like me, you want to see somewhere that's so pristine and primeval in places. You'd think you were on a different planet when you see those crater lakes, especially on S. Miguel, and the dense lush carpet of green vegetation. More about the Azores on future postings. But say if you'd like to hear more right now ......

To end on a somewhat flippant note: I entered my blog name "Dreams and Daemons" into Google. I wanted to see whether it was original or not, or whether it had visibility yet in the blogosphere community. There was just a single reference, in fact. The phrase "dreams and daemons" appeared in an abstruse paper in the 1935 Journal of Philosophy. I knew I'd seen it before somewhere !