Blog 34: Exploring Madeira - Part 1

Madeira is a beautiful and fascinating island, with modern and vibrant towns despite being in the middle of nowhere!  Surrounded by the Atlantic and hundreds of miles from the nearest bit of mainland, Madeirans are proud of their traditions, but have embraced the modern world too. 

Madeira was formed by volcanic eruptions between 3 and 5 million years ago and its terrain is very rugged and mountainous with steep, dramatic cliffs. The main island of Madeira is green and lush with a sub-tropical climate, where sugar cane and vines grow well, and abundant alliums and hydrangeas grow wild along the roadsides. Madeirans seem to manage to build their homes on incredibly steep hillsides - some of the houses look like they're just clinging on!

'Our' end of the island - the eastern end where the Quinta do Lorde Marina is situated - is more barren and not so steep and high, but still beautiful and there's a very popular trek to Sao Lourenco.

View over Canical towards Ponta da Sao Lourenco

Almost as soon as we docked, the girls were off on a hike in the wonderful, dramatic volcanic landscape of Madeira.  Caroline only had a couple of days holiday left after doing the sea crossing with us from the mainland, so she and Rebecca made the most of her available time. Early on the first morning they set off to hike up two of the highest peaks, Arieiro and Ruivo.

Trekking from Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo

Meanwhile, I hired a car so I could meet them at the end of their trek and do a short hike myself.

A cool walk along a tree-shaded levada to meet the girls

The levadas are narrow stone or concrete irrigation channels particular to Madeira which bring water from the wetter western region of the island to the drier east, which is more suitable for habitation and agriculture. The footpaths running alongside them provide many excellent walks which are not too steep!

Di, Rebecca, Caroline on a levada walk

In the evening we drove into Funchal so Caroline could get a feel for the capital city on her final evening in Madeira. 

We enjoyed wandering through some of the old streets...

... and we especially liked the colourfully decorated front doors, like this one painted with a street scene.

This is one of our favourites as we used to have a border collie dog and ginger cat just like these two!

This is the old city fortress ...

... which now houses the Restaurant Do Forte within the fortress walls where we enjoyed a delicious dinner

The next day we had quite an exciting drive up into the mountains, full of hairpin bends, steep inclines and sometimes cobbled road surfaces - and in a small hire car with not much more than a lawnmower engine!!

There is often a small shrine at the top of a hill or the beginning of a walk

We set off on a levada walk through the wonderful yellow broom which grows abundantly in this area

Or is it gorse or forsythia? I'm sure someone will tell me! 

The landscape is yellow as far as the eye can see!

A brief rest on a levada wall

On the small mountain roads, most people and all animals assume they have right of way!

We drove to the far end of the island to check out the other marina, the Porto Recreio do Calheta, to see if it looked calmer and more sheltered.  It was perhaps less windy, but we could see boats rolling about in the Atlantic swell coming round the breakwater. 

The resort around the Calheta marina was livelier and more 'open for business' than our marina, with two fake beaches with imported sand and plenty of bars and restaurants, but in some ways we prefer the peace and quiet of our deserted resort which is currently closed, so we decided to stay where we were at Quinta do Lorde. 

Machico is the nearest sizeable town to our marina...

... and has a 15th century church...

... with an unusual double-arched 'broken' doorway with three white marble columns in front of the wooden doors

The cobbled square around the church is decorated with floral displays in wooden wheelbarrows contributed by various clubs and organisations in the town.

This is Machico beach - also with sand imported from Morocco!

Funchal is the capital city of Madeira and Rebecca and I took a trip up the Teleferico do Funchal for an impressive view over the city and surrounding area.

We enjoyed visiting the Monte Palace Tropical Gardens:

Luscious tropical trees and shrubs

... interspersed with displays of artefacts from around the world - these are Zimbabwean stone heads!

Beautiful canopy of feathery leaves looking up at a perfect blue sky

Displays of local tiles throughout the gardens...

... some depicting Portuguese and Madeira historical events

Hydrangeas and Agapanthus

Small lizards like this scuttle about everywhere

Becca and Di in the tropical gardens

A view of the lake and house

Beautiful brightly-coloured flowers everywhere

This is a huge begonia - nothing like the little pot-plants we see in supermarkets!

The Japanese Garden with koi carp

A fabulous Bird of Paradise flower which is the national flower of Madeira

We then took another cable car ride down into a valley and up again to the Botanical Gardens.

The scenery from the cable car was quite different, over wooded valleys

It also provided a good view of the Madeiran road system involving lots of viaducts and tunnels!

The Botanical Gardens has some attractive formal planting...

... a cactus garden...

... the old house overlooking the rose garden

... bright floral displays and views over the city.

A week or so later, Charles and I went up the cable car again and this time came down in one of the traditional basket sledges - a mildly terrifying ride, guided by two 'runners' in traditional white costumes with straw boaters.

The practice dates back to the 19th century when these wicker basket toboggans were used as a means of transport by local residents to travel quickly from the village of Monte to the city of Funchal.

The descent is about 2km and takes 10 minutes at speeds of up to 30km per hour!  They grease the bottom of the basket sledges with pork fat so the road looks rather like an icy ski piste, and quite often you think you're heading straight for a wall until the 'runners' steer the sledge away at the last minute!!

These days the empty wicker toboggans are taken back up the hill by lorry ready for the next group of unsuspecting tourists, but in the 19th century they were hauled up by bullocks, taking rather longer than the descent!!

Becca and I went for a tour and tasting at Blandy's famous Madeira Winery:

The Blandy family is the only one of the founders of the Madeira wine trade to still own and manage their original company with a history dating back over 2 centuries.

These are the tools of the coopers who made all the wooden barrels.

.

Madeira is a fortified wine made using a specific grape variety grown on the island and aged by a unique heating system. The method of producing Madeira wine was developed when neutral grape spirit was added to wine to prevent it spoiling during long sea voyages in the 15th and 16th centuries. The heat and movement the wine was exposed to during the trip transformed the flavour of the wine and made it keep very well.

Unusually the barrels are stored in the attics of the wine lodge, rather than the cellars, because warmth is needed to age traditional Madeira wine.  Apparently, Madeira doesn't go off - you can drink it decades after it has been bottled, even if it's been opened!

After the tour, we enjoyed sampling the wines in the tasting room which has a huge mural along one wall depicting the wine-making process.

Cheers!

Madeira wine is traditionally drunk with Bolo de Mel (Madeira honey cake), a sweet, rich, spiced, nutty cake which is nothing like the bland sponge we used to call madeira cake when I was young!

The following day we set off to explore the north of the island and find the black sand beach, one of only two natural sand beaches on Madeira.  Most of the natural beaches are rocky, and there are several 'fake' sandy beaches made with imported sand mentioned previously!

This is some of the dramatic scenery in northern Madeira

The power of the ocean swirling round the rocks is awesome and makes the sea look a beautiful turquoise colour

This is the black sand beach at Seixal - it only really looks black in the photo where it's wet, but it is black volcanic sand and is incredibly hot underfoot - like walking on hot coals!

The dramatic view from my towel on the beach!

It looks like an exotic cocktail - but actually it's just fresh lemon juice and totally delicious!

Not far from Seixal we found the wonderful Barbusano winery, one of the vineyards now producing table wine, rather than Madeira, a relatively new venture on the island. To reach it we turned off the main road and drove for about 20 minutes up a steep, winding, dirt track - quite a challenge for our little hire car! I daren't take my foot off the accelerator because I didn't fancy attempting a hill start!!

It's amazing they grow vines here with the rigours of the Atlantic climate and the challenges of the steep, rocky, volcanic landscape.  

Each vine has its own rubber tubing to deliver water and nutrients

The view from the vineyard is spectacular - somewhere over there is a wine cellar built into the hillside to keep the maturing wines cool

The selection of table wines at Barbusano - they choose the grape varieties carefully and mix a sweeter grape in to soften the natural mineral flavours.

They tasted particularly good with chorizo and local cheese!

Cheers - again!

I've realised there's just too much to say about Madeira in one blog, so Part 2 will follow soon ...