While the original plan after the S1 Trail Corsa della Bora was to sign up for the 2019 Transvulcania, I had always wanted to visit an even more remote place than La Palma and convinced my brother to head to Faial in the Azores archipelago for the Ultra Blue Island instead. Getting to the Azores and from island to island is fairly easy as there are daily flights from Lisbon to various islands, and connecting flights between each. I had never been to the Azores before and was pleasantly surprised by the mostly dry and warm weather in May. We arrived a few days before the race and thus had time to explore Faial by bike and visit nearby Pico island featuring Portugal's highest peak (the Pico). My brother had managed to injure his ankle some weeks earlier and was sporting an aircast, but, despite missing the race, still managed to do an impressive amount of hiking and biking.
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| Pico as seen from the Faial-Pico ferry |
