Singletrack

Island hopping and a change of scene.
After three days there’s a change of scenery – we climb aboard
a small propeller plane and fly over to Santa Maria. It’s the
southernmost island in the Azores and not particularly large.
Sao Miguel is about the size of La Palma in the Canaries and
Santa Maria is not even half the size of the island of Elba off
the coast of Italy. We touch down on an oversized runway
and quickly realise that Santa Maria is much hotter, drier and,
unfortunately, much flatter than Sao Miguel.
We are welcomed by our new guides – Hugo and Miguel.
They can already see the doubt on our faces and try to allay
our worries: “It’s only flat in the west. On the east of the
island there are 600 metre-high mountains with fantastic
trails.”
Pico Alto is, at 587m, the highest peak in Santa Maria. Its
mountain range runs from north to south, from the flat west
to the hilly east. Hugo points to the faint lines that disappear
into the jungle. “There are seven trails for you here at Pico.”
The first is called Aeroplane Trail, which starts at Point Zero.
In 1989 a Boeing 707 crashed into Pico in the fog. All 145
passengers were killed. There’s a memorial plaque marking the
tragic accident. Not the most cheerful start to a great trail…
As we set off, an open roller coaster awaits us, which
leads to a flow trail through the jungle full of small (and big)
surprises in the form of roots, steps, drops and berms. Every
now and then we’re struck on the face by small thorns. The
last section of the trail curves into a narrow bend through a
cactus-filled landscape.
At midday we stop at a small bar in the bay of Praia
122