AZORES – It isn’t easy finding caves to explore in the Azores (or even in Portugal), mostly they are show caves, I don’t mind the odd show cave. However, getting to and from the caves can be challenging – I tried to book on a couple of commercial trips (once I knew what time I had free). Unfortunately, that they were mostly booked out. Then I figured a taxi might work, but if it was a 20k trip, how would I get back? I resigned myself to only seeing two and determined to be thankful for that lol.
So, what’s a lava tube or lava cave? Here’s how they are created …
Pretty cool eh? I’ve visited one in New Zealand, and there are some in Australia but they’re either the far north of Queensland or the far south of Victoria, so it was a bonus that they were fairly close to where we were.
The first one was Gruta do Carva in Ponta Delgada, a 10 minute taxi drive from our Hotel Vila Gale. It’s a lava tunnel on the Sao Miguel Island with a total length of 1650m, I only got to see a very short section of it, about 100m of passageway. A bit of history … it’s noted in a book written by Gaspar Frutuoso in the 16th century, and he says it is a short way from the Fort and gives a very good description of it. Over the years though, with the construction of roads and buildings some of the tunnel collapsed and is now no longer accessible (as it was in the 16th century). It’s now classified as a Regional Natural Monument and no construction can be undertaken over it anymore. Visitors can undertake either a 45 minute tour (as I did) or a 2-3 hour tour where you get to do squeezes etc – unfortunately they only run the long tours occasionally and I couldn’t do it :).
The hotel organised a taxi for me, only a 15 minute drive and €9 each way.
So, you arrive at the location and there’s an office, no sight of a cave. You go in the office (a smallish building about 8m x 8m. And there’s a staircase down about 2 levels and then there’s a cement tube – that’s unusual, nicely light, not at all claustrophobic.
And at the end of the tube, there’s the cave, lighting’s a bit harsh, but as a cave goes, it’s cool.
There are two levels of this part of the cave, and you can look up into the higher level (which is also lit), this part of the tube is accessed in the “long” trip. They have to go up there from time to time to clean off the Lampenflora that the lighting generates.
Volcanic stals on the ceiling.
Looking to the end of this part of the cave, approx 5-10m and the long trip goes through the small gap at the end (a squeeze).
Looking back to the tube we just walked out of.
Here’s the second tunnel, note the bridge in the middle of the image, pretty cool.
This image gives you an idea of how big the tunnels are.
This is a shot of the largest stalactites – these are not formed by calcite as we’re used to but formed by the lava when some lava drips down, sets and then more lava drips down on top of it. These were about 20cm and are the biggest in this tube.
This is a large piece of lava that has fallen from the side passage. We were allowed to touch this to get a feel for the lava.
The end of the passage, about 20m.
The tour didn’t take long, about 45 minutes and when I walked out the front door, there’s my taxi waiting for me! As a show cave, it was definitely worthwhile visiting.
The next one was on the Island of Terceira. I had two windows of opportunity to visit Gruta do Natal (make sure to translate) but it involved a 12k drive to the other side of the Island. I reached out to the operator and all their trips were full on the days I had the time. Then I reached out to the caving association but they couldn’t help me either – my concern was that I could drive there at great expense, and then have to have the taxi driver stay there to take me back – just seemed like too much to pay for a cave that I wasn’t even sure whether it was a 10 minute visit or an hour visit. Anyway, I decided to just do the cave that was on the tour on the Friday, the Algar do Carvao. The downside was that it was raining cats and dogs, and we’d probably get very wet on the dash to the entrance LOL.
We entered a tunnel that had been built by the local cavers many years ago and that took us to about half way down the vertical shaft (ah yes forgot to tell you that it’s a vertical cave).
Looking up the vertical shaft (which is about 80m) and getting very wet from the rain.
After the tunnel there were steps down to a platform and right across from us was this massive 5m feature in the wall – not sure how this was created.
Once you moved away from the vertical entrance, there was a chamber, roughly 80m high, and 50m across (this is where the platform was with viewing areas). There were a lot of stals on the walls – I was told they were created by silica not calcite – interesting! They were about 30 – 40cm.
Better image of the stals.
Looking down into the bottom of the tube to the lake (about 30m down from the viewing platform), there used to be steps down to the lake but these are now closed off.
Silica formations on the walls.
The other side of the chamber, and mor silica.
There were a couple of holes in the walls but no evidence of other passage ways.
Another hole up higher (with lighting).
And looking up at the ceiling of the chamber.
Totally different experience to the Gruta do Carva – but both worthwhile visiting. I did have a number of caves that I could have visited on mainland Portugal, but by myself and with limited time, it was just too complicated.
Has definitely made me think more about the lava caves in Australia!