Seen on Sao Miguel – a naturalised immigrant from the Madeiran Islands.
—Stephen—
Madeiran Wall Lizard
3
AZAB Yacht Race
On the journey back from our whale watching trip we passed a large number of yachts – I found out later they were part of the ‘AZAB’ which is a race between the UK and the Azores and back again. It happens every four years – some totally unexpected entertainment.
—Stephen–
Sperm Whale (Just)
The primary reason for our visit to the Azores was for the opportunity to see a whale – not dolphins, porpoises or the like, but a genuine whale. The first few days we were there the sea was too rough for the sightseeing boats to go out. A calmer day was forecast so we booked to go – with the chance to see a Sperm whale. Off we set in a double-decker boat. On the journey out they gave us a talk on what we might see – setting our expectations. A whale was spotted so we headed for it.
A Sperm whale has its blow hole on the front of its head which made the sight of it a little unexpected. We watched the whale for about 15 minutes as it hyperventilated before its next dive. The whale took a last breath and then upended, tail in the air, and disappeared below the surface.
Footnote: I little confession here – I was lucky to get any pictures at all, indeed it took a great deal of mental fortitude on my part. Just prior to us spotting the whale I had an attack of the landlubbers nightmare – fortunately the boat was equipped with an ample supply of ‘just the right size’ plastic bags. From what I saw, several others had similar problems. I was fine until the boat stopped and again when the boat resumed it’s forward motion back to port. I wasn’t swell in the swell!
—Stephen—
Azorean Waterfall
—Stephen—
Lava Tube
One of the tourist attractions on the outskirts of Ponta Delgada is the Gruta do Carvao, which is an old lava tube. I found it quite interesting and a complete contrast to the many water made cave systems I’ve visited. This photo has been ‘recovered’ using some extensive photoshop manipulation – at the very moment I wanted to use the pop-up flash on my Canon 80D it decided it didn’t want to work. I tried in vain to find some obscure control in the menu system but with no luck. When we returned home I had to send my camera off to Canon for repair…. and of course it was out of warranty!
—Stephen—
Roots II
Further to my previous, I thought it might be worth demonstrating how big the roots of this tree were. One without and another with a seeming mote of a human for scale.
—Stephen—
Roots
—Stephen—
