We had great weather on the day of our arrival to Sao Jorge Island in the Azores Portugal. We flew in nice and early from Sao Miguel and hit the ground running with our daily activities.
We made our way over to small town of Norte Grande to do a small hike along the coast and see a natural ocean swimming pool with only a minor human touch to make it more accessible and safe swim in.
The hike we sort of stumbled upon while exploring the area after we parked our car. It started at a staircase leading down to the water, which lead into a trail a little farther up the way.
We kind of just kept on following the trail looking for the swimming hole and it just kept going. The hiking portion ended up being an unplanned and unexpected highlight of our stay on the island.
The landscape in the area was made up of a unique jet black lava rock that followed the coastline.
I mentioned in my last post (an overview of the Sao Jorge island) that the rock was a defining characteristic of it, a theme I called it.
It had a burnt charred appearance like coal that made any other bright color seem to pop when standing next to it.
The green algae on the rocks, the surrounding vegetation or the orange tile roofs of the houses all appeared brighter against the deep black color.
When we found the path for the hike I just assumed that it would lead to the swimming pool that we were there to see but it actually headed away from it, in the opposite direction.
Shortly into our walk we came upon a small cove that was down a fairly steep cliff that wasn't very accessible by foot. The water was entirely open to the ocean and waves were crashing against the jagged rocks along the cliffs and boulders of the coastline.
I was going by memory of what I saw online about Piscina Natural Simão Dias and started to think that this was it and that it wasn't as calm and peaceful as I invisioned it to be. I attempted to go down to the water while my wife waited above but I abandoned that idea about halfway when it turned into me straight up clinging to the rocks.
I wasn't going to attempt any untethered bouldering above the ocean in a remote island of a foreign country that is home to only 8 thousand residents and no hospital.
It eventually dawned on me that this probably wasn't the pool that we were looking for as well, so I made my way back to my wife and we continued on with our hike.
We hit the end of the pathway pretty quick, maybe after 15 minutes or so not including stops to try and reach the water.
It wasn't an overly long trail but the landscape was pretty incredible so I would rank this as a hidden gem activity on the island for sure.
After reaching the end we just turned around and headed back the same way that we came.
We reached the stone staircase and walked in the other direction and immediately came to what I thought was the Piscina Natural Simão Dias.
As it turns out it was actually Piscina Natural do Porto da Fajã do Ouvidor, a different semi natural ocean swimming hole. The real Piscina Natural Simão Dias was further down the path, I just didn't realize it at the time and assumed that this was it.
Nonetheless, what we found was still a great little swimming spot for the day.
The water was a little chilly but the weather was hot and humid which made it very refreshing feeling.
I surprised myself and actually got in that day. There was no one around which helped I think. I had a bathing suit on under my shorts just in case and it turned out to be the right decision.
The pool was fairly small overall but large enough to swim around freely.
The bottom was cement lined and deep enough to be over my head at the deepest point.
Online the Piscina Natural Simão Dias appears to be much larger than this swimming hole, much more natural and much more open to the ocean. I'm a bit disappointed that we failed to find it that day but I'm glad that we stumbled upon the Piscina Natural do Porto da Fajã do Ouvidor. It still ended up being an lot of fun and a with the hike that we did a definite highlight of our stay on the Sao Jorge island.
