Madeira Revisited 7

Tags

Cabo Girao, Echium candicans, Fnchal, levada, Madeira, Madeiran chaffinch, Pride of Madeira, Rabacal, Residencial Pina, Risco

Madeira Revisited 7. Last full day. By the way, my memory was playing me up.  It wasn’t on Day 5 but today that we went to Cabo Girâo, at 580metres/1900 feet the highest cliff in ‘Europe’. Here’s the view eastwards, towards Funchal, from the glass platform.  From there, we continued along the coast to the west, and then turned inland to another upland, very different from what we had seen, a plateau heathland, once more above the clouds.  They were building a huge reservoir where we made a brief stop (in the middle of the left-hand brown area on the map), but we were there to see more of this magnificent native plant, called Pride of Madeira, echium candicans.  I’d liked it so much the first time I saw it, on the first day, that I’d bought a t-shirt.  The flowerheads really are this big. The label says it was made in Madeira.

Next we descended in our minibuses to a place called Rabaçal, (on the left-hand edge of the brown bit on the map), within the clouds. Indeed it was difficult to tell whether we were in mist or whether it was actually raining.  Fortunately, the longest part of our subsequent walk was downwards on a long, quite narrow, very quiet, wind-y road, and out of the clouds.

Good to see this natural stream, after all those levadas

We were all spread out, and, uncertain as to whether we should continue on the road or take this steep path, Christine, Richard, David and I stood here for a long while nattering. It turned out we could have taken either.

When the tarmac came to an end, we continued on a further steep path downwards, but this fortunately became a flat levada walk shortly afterwards.

Madeiran chaffinches were everywhere, and very friendly. I have resisted posting photos of them every day.  This one, like many, had a deformity on its feet.

At the end – a place called Risco – there was a long, but narrow, waterfall, to which I found it difficult to do justice in photos. 

 

 

 

The walk was a there and back one again.

There was no doubt a fantastic view behind the cloud…

It was with great pleasure that most of us, when we got back to the tarmac road, took a little bus provided by the local authority (at 3 euros each) to get back to our own minibuses.  All this took much longer than anticipated, and it was rather late when we had our lunch in what was no doubt a beautiful spot on the heath, picnic tables and all, but sadly we were once more in the chill and damp of cloudland.

 

Our final stop of the day was in what was formally designated ‘cloud forest’ (warmer here because more sheltered), where we were able to see how plants just absorbed water from the atmosphere, and indeed were growing on each other.  Back at the hotel, it was time to pack, then go down one last time to a restaurant near the seafront, and climb back again.

The following morning, it was time to say good bye to the hotel (the Residencial Pina) and its friendly staff.

My room right in the middle, over the breakfast room. That’s a dragon tree.

That had come into harbour overnight

We gather at the main building/bar awaiting our lifts to the airport

When I visited Madeira in November 2016 on a regular tourist holiday, which I did much enjoy, I had sensed that there must be wilder areas, where it was possible to look around without the view being interrupted by rooves and cables.  This holiday proved to me that this was true, and showed me just how beautiful deeper Madeira is.  There are still some things I would like to explore there…

 

Madeira Revisited 6

Tags

Atlantic spotted dolphin, cable car, Cabo Girao, Cory's shearwater, Funchal, last Hapsburg, Monte, Monte Palace Tropical Gardens, Naturetrek, pastel de nata, Reid's hotel, VMT Madeira catamaran

Madeira Revisited 6.  Free day. I definitely wanted to go up to Monte on the cable car, and I definitely wanted to go out on a cetacean watching boat trip, as I had enjoyed both so much in November 2016.  Naturetrek, the wildlife travel company I was with, had reserved a place for me on a boat trip they recommended, in a fast RIB (rigid inflatable boat), and that sounded fun.  (I had been on a catamaran on my previous visit.)

When I got down to a later breakfast than usual, everyone had been and gone, bar our leader and his assistant. Most were planning to visit the Monte Palace tropical gardens which I had so enjoyed before, and then go on to the Botanical Gardens afterwards, and one had even a further garden in mind for after that. I was planning to take things more leisurely.

In due course I walked down to the seafront,

Just a little reminder of how steep it was.

The Bonita da Madeira again

and made my way gently to the cable car base.  At the bottom was a small exhibition showing how the local embroidery was made.  I was pleased because I knew that one of my companions, who had been disappointed that the embroidery factory was to be shut on this (Sun)day, would have seen it on her own way up to Monte.

I was not disappointed in the cable car ride. 

 

It was pleasing to see the regrowth after the disastrous arson that had taken place two years previously.  Four people had died, and last time I was there a young man was awaiting trial.  I learnt this time that he is now serving ten years’ imprisonment.

Once up at Monte, I wandered around and had a look at the church, and examined this statue in its forecourt of Charles/Karl/Carlo Hapsburg, the last reigning (until 1918) Austro-Hungarian Emperor, nephew of the assassinated Franz Ferdinand of Austria. He died in Madeira in 1922. And I noticed that the toboggans weren’t running.  (One ride on them in a lifetime is enough.)I then went to the café hoping to have a pastel de nata (custard tart), but had to settle for a large portion of just the custard itself.  It was good!  At the same time I watched the cable cars, and tried to see the mechanism by which the pods switched to another speed.  Even once back in the cable car I failed miserably to do so, though I could feel the change of gear.  The ride down was just as enjoyable, and there were no blue shirt reflections to mess up my pictures this time.  The ride is so quiet you can hear birds!

 

I walked along the sea front towards the boat companies’ outlets.

Sea defences…

…hopefully more effective than this, facing out to sea.

I had 90 minutes to spare before my boat was due to leave, but something told me to go to check in and pay well in advance.  I’m glad I did. They had been wanting to reach me to tell me that they had had to cancel, because they had had a big party cancellation themselves.  They suggested an RIB with another company, but said that even that was not certain to happen, so when they than suggested the catamaran trip I had done 18 months previously, I seized upon it.  More hanging around, but I spun my lunch out, saw and greeted four of my companions returning from a different boat trip, and in due course it was my turn. 

Yet again the Bonita da Madeira

After a while we headed for where a pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins was said to be hanging out, and for 15 minutes we were entertained by at least 20 of these small cetaceans, surrounding the boat near and far, some of them bow-riding.

My favourite photo of course

Showing why these are called Atlantic Spotted Dolphin

Later on, we made for where a (Bryde’s) whale was thought to be (there is communication between the boats throughout these trips) but despite our hanging around beyond the time needed to return to the harbour on time, it did not surface.  But I much enjoyed watching the sea birds, and I was told  that these were mainly Cory’s shearwater.

 

 

As we made out way past Cabo Girâo, where we had been the previous day, we saw  another kind of bird up in the sky, taking advantage of the thermals. Some of them accompanied us, or we them, back along the coast, and two landed on a beach.  This final picture is of the celebrated Reid’s Hotel in Funchal. Four of our number had splashed 155 euros a head on dinner there one night!As I would have been late meeting up with people I had arranged to eat with, I spent 7 euros on a taxi back up to the hotel, feeling guilty as I did so, but made up for a it later after a delicious meal, when once more, I trekked back up on foot with my friends.

Madeira Revisited 5

Tags

Cabo Girao, Châo da Ribeira, Encumeada, Fireworks, Funchal, Indian red admiral, laurel forest, laurisilva, levada, Madeira, Madeiran saxifrage, roseate tern, Sao Vicente, speckled wood

Madeira Revisited 5. I don’t know what the weather was like on the southern coast of the island on the Saturday, but for some of our varied experiences elsewhere on the Saturday it was cold and/or damp, though things did get better from time to time. There were several elements to this long day.  We were first taken to Cabo Girâo, the highest sea cliff in ‘Europe’. (Being Portuguese, Madeira counts as Europe, though geologically it is part of the African plate.) I had been here before, and ‘thrilled’ once more to standing on a glass platform with nothing below that.

Photo taken on previous visit

Then we moved on to Encumeada in the middle of the island (1007 metres/3303 feet), where the chill was really felt, especially as some of us had decided that we did not need to carry or wear as much weather protection as previously.  We had been warned, so had only ourselves to blame!  Anyway, we had a mile-long walk along a levada, the borders of which were not entirely by natural vegetation but included some attractive planting.  At the end of our walk was a tunnel, through which the levada continued, and along which we had been intended to walk, but I was glad that that thought had been abandoned – it would have meant uncomfortable bending over for 800 metres.  I did venture a very little way into it, and if this photo is viewed on a big enough screen, the light at the end of the tunnel can just be seen.

(Photo artificially over-exposed. It was really much darker than this.)

 

For some reason this cockerel was hanging around.

Back the mile to our minibuses, and we moved on to Sâo Vicente on the north coast.  My memory of this place in November 2016 was of a meal taken in a revolving restaurant.  This time our stop was for coffee, and then for a very short exploration of the local geology.  I nipped off at one point to buy some cherries from a stall, and when I rejoined the group they were all staring at the beach.  I could see a tern or to. And I liked these contrasting grey textures.  Only on looking more closely did I see that some of the stones were in fact terns, roseate terns I was informed. From here we were taken just a very short distance westwards, and deposited to walk along the old coastal road (closed to traffic) for about a mile.

I really would not have cared to have driven along that old road!

I really enjoyed this walk.  It was easy walking (as had the levada been), the sun was now out, and the plants growing on the vertical cliff wall were spectacular.  Two of us were ahead of the others, so we were the first to venture in to this tunnel, which we could see was dripping wet for the first and last several metres.  It was fun, once emerged from it, to see the others noticing the ‘hazard’ and then venturing in. 

Indian/Macaronesian Red Admiral

Speckled wood

From here we were taken via Seixal to Châo da Ribeira, where there were picnic benches. The sun had gone in again, and it was again a little chilly.  We were joined by 5 feral cats and a kitten, all very wary, but won over by gifts of ham and cheese.   From here we went for a short walk in the laurisilva, laurel forest, of which Madeira has the one of the few surviving remnants in ‘Europe’.  It once flourished around the Mediterranean, but the Ice Ages did for it nearly everywhere there. Our botanist leader was very excited at being in this rich and rare spot.  Lunch had been late, and we were running later.  We made just one more stop on the way back to the hotel, to see the rare Madeiran saxifrage.  Here it is: and here are some of us looking at it.  Another lovely dinner in a Funchal restaurant, another fitness session back up to the hotel. Then watching a fireworks display taking place back down in the harbour, an event which the town of Funchal lays on every Saturday evening in June.

 

Madeira 3

Tags

Cabo Girao, Camara de Lobos, Columbus, Encumeada Pass, Funchal, Madeira, Porto Moniz, Ribeira Brava, Santa, Santa Maria, Sao Vicente, Seixal

Madeira 3. Wednesday 16th November. Today we had a great tour of the west of the island, starting at what we were promised would be the beautiful fishing village of Câmara de Lobos, a few kilometres to the west of Funchal.

I have to say, I was a little disappointed.  For me, pretty fishing villages nestle, huddled at the bottom of their cliff, estuary, or whatever. This didn’t.  It spread way up the mountain, most of it with modern houses, with their obligatory red roofs.  (An obligation placed, all over the island,  by the government.  But, as I learned later, planning restrictions on where to build were only brought in in 2000.)  Where there weren’t houses, there were banana plantations.

I wandered around a little,

and then moved away from the harbour, to find I was being spied upon.

Further along the coast to the west was Ribeira Brava.

Madeira has little wildlife, so I was pleased to see this, and several other ducks

Then there was a long drive to the northernmost tip of the island, via Santa, to Porto Moniz,

known for its natural lava rock pools.

though it appears that Elfin Safety have had a go at them.

Lumps of lava were everywhere

On via Seixal to Sâo Vicente for lunch – in a circular restaurant which we discovered was rotating very slowly. I learnt this through my bag twice disappearing from the low window ledge by my side where I had put it, to be found beside another customer. No-one had noticed that the view outside had changed!

A little wander around the village afterwards.

The bird of paradise is everywhere

Pavements were mostly of the volcanic material around, older ones like this one being of basalt pebbles long ago taken from the beach. Very attractive they were too.

There followed  a drive right over the top of the island, via the Encumeada Pass.

From here we were driven nearly back to Câmara de Lobos, to the highest cliff in Europe*, the second highest in the world, Cabo Girâo.  Where a surprise awaited some.  You could look down the 580 metres through your feet!

Or, over the balcony, standing on the glass.

Eastwards to Funchal

 

I was interested to see this (using my zoom!), a replica of  Columbus’s Santa Maria, especially as I was thinking of going on it on the final day.

Back to the capital, which contains more than a third of the island’s population. I had to call in on the pharmacy near my hotel at the end of the day, and was delighted to see this:

*Though Madeira is on a latitude with and rather nearer to Africa than to mainland Europe.