Whalers’ Great Route Ultra-Trail®

The Azores islands were marked for over a century by whaling. Whaling left indelible signs within the Azorean cultural identity, being now a part of the collective Azorean imaginarium. With the end of sperm whale hunting, in last century's 80's decade, a vast patrimony related to this activity remained throughout the archipelago. In all islands, multiple testimonies that attest the technological, social, economic and historical aspects of the Azorean whaling are still visible. Whalers Great Route – Whalers Great Route (WGR 125 km), begins at Salão whaling post (Faial), which was used from the 19th century until the end of the whaling activity. It integrates two seasonal houses and Salão’s slipway. The trail following towards Cedros parish passing through Cedros’s Whale watch post and Cascalhos’s Holy Ghost Empire. It continues towards Praia do Norte’s Fajã. This small settlement is located at an Island’s topographical lowering, next to Ribeira das Cabra’s bay, overlooking an imposi

1. €90.00

   Oct 24 – Jan 30
2. €100.00

   Jan 31 – Feb 27
3. €110.00

   Feb 28 – Apr 15

The Blue Island Trail (BIT 65 km) starts at Forte de São Sebastião, ancient maritime defence fortification of Faial, whose construction dates back to the early seventeenth century. Along the 70 km of this trail, the athletes will find emblematic places of rare beauty, like Porto Pim Beach, Monte da Guia, Monte Queimado, Monte das Moças (Observatory Prince Albert of Monaco), Horta marina and the avenue by the sea. They will run on ancient access paths and trails to the primitive village of Horta. The route goes through the fractured terrain of Faial’s Eastern Coast, a region deeply worked by tectonics, starting in Espalamaca and characterized by a complex tectonic structure, dominated by roughly parallel faults, direction WNW-ESSE, which is a local manifestation of Faial-Pico Fracture. Some of these fractures have large high areas, locally called “Lombas” and deep areas called “Afundamentos”, flanked by large cliffs of exposed boulders, such as the graben of Praia do Almoxarife

1. €65.00

   Oct 24 – Jan 30
2. €75.00

   Jan 31 – Feb 27
3. €85.00

   Feb 28 – Apr 15

This trail starts in the centre of Ribeirinha parish, near the old port – Boca da Ribeira Port. Along its 42 km, we are transported to other times when the inhabitants used these “roads” to carry goods between the villages, by their own means or aided by animals. Passing by a lighthouse, destroyed in the big seismic crisis of 1998 that keeps reminding us of the volcanic nature of these islands and their people, a big part of the trail is made in the biggest and most spectacular “graben” of the archipelago, a big piece of land that collapsed between two tectonic faults. Passing by Lomba Grande, the slope of one of these faults, the trail ends at the central caldera, the biggest and most important volcano of the island, where the Ten Volcanoes Trail starts. The trail passes by areas of the Nature Park of Faial, considered a European Destiny of Excellence (EDEN) by the European Commission and it is the only area in Portugal with this classification. It transports us to a journey i

1. €55.00

   Oct 24 – Jan 30
2. €65.00

   Jan 31 – Feb 27
3. €75.00

   Feb 28 – Apr 15

The Trail of the Ten Volcanoes, as the name indicates, starts at one and most spectacular volcanic calderas of the planet and passes, along its 22 km, by the 10 most important volcanoes of Capelo Peninsula’s fissural alignment. Biodiversity and geodiversity are a constant on this course, standing out the astonishing landscapes of this peninsula, where a great part of the Azores endemic plants can be found in its natural state. This trail crosses the most recent volcanic cones of Faial Island and ends at Portugal’s youngest territory, Capelinhos Volcano, an authentic moonscape, where it is possible to step on only 57 years old terrain formed mainly by ashes, tuff and volcanic bombs. It ends at Porto do Comprido, at the sea level, on the main and largest whaling station of the Azores between 1940 and 1957.

1. €45.00

   Oct 24 – Jan 30
2. €55.00

   Jan 31 – Feb 27
3. €65.00

   Feb 28 – Apr 15