Madeira

MADEIRA – 12^th to 16^th October

 

We left Porto Santo after 9 days and made the 32 mile trip to Madeira itself. We stayed in Quinta do Lorde on the north east tip. There was not much there other than a housing development and five star hotel due to open in December. When it does I am sure that it will make anyone's stay more attractive as visitors will be able to use the hotel facilities and have the benefit of a shop on site, rather than having to rely on the marina courtesy bus into Machio to go shopping at Pingo Dolce (Portuguese equivalent to Tesco).  We were able to spend a couple of hours in Machio . On Monday we went to a sandy beach there and did some shopping. The sand I think is imported from Mexico.

The marina itself is quite tight to get into and expensive. Even with our 30 % arc discount it still cost €30 per night. We had expected 50% discount so were glad we only stated for 4 nights rather than our original intention if 7. We also wish we had spent the first couple of days in the nearby anchorage, although people came into the marina saying it was quite rolly. The marina itself suffered from surge so not altogether the best night’s sleep.

We met up with Alex the French boy and were invited to do a treasure hunt using a website and gps co-ordinates. You find a plastic box and have to take treasure out and put something back in. You write your names and date in a note book and put it back for the next person to find. It encouraged the boys to go on a spectacular walk over the cliffs.

The island is volcanic and we hired a car to go and visit the lava caves at Sao Vicente . These were spectacular and well worth the entrance fee of €8 for adults and 6 for children. We paid €49 inc insurance to hire a car. It was a Chevy Matiz and it had done 137,000km. It was gutless and struggled on the steep and winding mountains that we made it go up. It did add to the day as we pretended we were on Top Gear. We were glad it was a Sunday so the roads were quiet as they were not very wide with lots of blind bends. It was scary in many places and I have captured this on a video.

We continued around the whole of the island stopping for tea on the south west tip. It would have been a lovely place to stop and have a leisurely lunch.  We enjoyed some lovely homemade cake. I tried the tea of the house which was a mixture of lemon grass, zest , mint. It smelled a lot like a mojito but tasted of hot water. I am sure it was excellent for detoxifying.

We set off again in search of a petrol station, the car used €30 of fuel as we had to rev the nuts off it often needing 1st gear. Petrol is also expensive at €1.75 do we used about 17 litres . We think the tank only held 20 litres in total.  Helpfully the tank was on a quarter when we got it so nothing as simple as filling it back up at the end of the day.

The south of the islands roads cut through the hill using tunnels rather than clinging to the mountain side which is a lot less heart stopping to drive on. The land is also lower and the hillsides are full of banana plantations. The bananas here are smaller and fatter and ripen very quickly. They are pretty straight and they do not have much of a stalk so are prone to splitting. The fruit and veg generally has a short shelf life, I am not sure if it is the heat or lack of pesticides. You can also only buy things that are in season, or grown locally, no baby corn or sugar snap peas here. They are also sold in kilos so it can be a bit of a lottery as to how much things will cost. We paid €2 for a chilli as it was €11 a kilo. There are very little processed foods and Russell made the mistake if buying pot noodles at €3 each.

We went to Funchal itself which is the capital. We walked around the marina and saw our Swedish friends on Salsa. It is difficult to get into the marina and it had taken them 3 days to get a spot. We didn't want to spend another 3 days trying to get in and also strong winds were being forecast for the end of the week. We had decided to leave on Monday for the 250 mile trip to La Palma the western most Canary Island.

The boys spotted a MacDonald’s so we had dinner there . It seems a waste of a meal out but to have a meal out would cost at least €80 and MacDonald’s is €20.

We had a walk around an open air market and then went back to the car park. Our hearts started jumping when the shutters were down on the entrance and we feared we were locked in or out, whichever way you looked at it, it wasn't good. I thought it had a closing time of 2200 and Oli thought 2100. As it was 2000 we both thought we were ok. Starting to panic a bit, a security guard above said we needed to come up and hope of escape was restored. We managed to pay for parking which for 3 hours seemed to be 45 cents and then set about getting out. We had a debate about which way to go confused by the way out sign being next to one saying private parking. We found a machine to slot the token in and voila a roller shutter lifted and we were free.

The next exciting bit was driving in the dark and trying to find the marina. The map we were given was a tourist map of the island and the road signs often gave place names not on it. But we managed and Ethan had a good idea of heading for the red light on the hill above the marina.

The airport is on the south side of the island and to get a piece of land long and flat enough it is built up on big stone pillars which hold it high above ground below.  Underneath is a boatyard where you can keep your boat out of the water under the runway. Nice and dry but I am guessing a bit noisy. The road goes under the run way too which feels a bit odd. When we left we could also see the runway and some planes coming into land. I am guessing it is a bit scary as it is not very long and has a cliff at one end.