Land ahoy! We arrive slowly into port - on time but docked at the very last mooring on the long, long dock leading into town. Sigh. Oh well, we didn’t go to the gym this morning because we knew we’d have a walk, now we just have even more of one. Once the ship is finally cleared by immigration, Bowen (our concierge) takes us down and cuts us in line to get us off quickly (ok, its sort of embarrassing, but it is one of the biggest benefits of being in a suite on these ships). So, off we hike – all the way down the pier, around the corner and up the hill from hell to get to the Avis storefront. That’s a workout!
We’re on the road pretty quickly after that, heading out to the eastern most point of the island – the last unexplored area of Madeira for us. We have a couple of stops laid out on the way, one of which is in Machico where the chapel of Miracles is located. The GPS app is giving us (or I should say me) a little bit of a problem not finding exact destinations, but we piece it together and end up following the highway under the amazing airport runway structure (it’s built on stilts that just fascinate me) and finally ending up in Machico, passing the chapel with what was described as a little shaded square were we can park. Yeah, right! Parking down here is at a premium and we end up at least a mile away before we find anywhere to park. Pulling into the only available space, we quickly re-organize our plans. We’ll go straight to the Ponta de Sao Lourenco to hike instead of stopping in a couple of little towns on the way. Then we’ll continue on with our lunch and afternoon driving itinerary.
While we are stationary though, we take the time to try to figure out why the SIM card we bought for Europe isn’t working. Ed gets on the phone – it’s bizarre – the SIM card recognizes the account, but won’t allow data – but it will allow a phone call to the telephone company in the UK. Pretty strange. While he’s on hold, we decide that I’ll get a travel pass for today so that we’ll have back up. With these tiny hamlets and patchwork of roads, we definitely need a GPS system that isn’t giving us issues. As it turns out, the data SIM card never works (the guy at the phone company said to give it a few minutes and he’d call back to check on us – which he did, but ended up putting us through to the technical department and we were in a queue forever until we finally hung up), but we have our own data now, so all is well.
Programming the hiking trail into Google points us in the right direction and we’re off. The drive out to the east end of the island is uneventful, first on the highway, then on the smaller more rural
Back to the parking area, we find one of the last spots and make our way to the trail. Een the views from the parking lot are amazing – looking out over the azure water into the distance (to the airport and Funchal and then out into the open ocean).
The landscape is just incredible – huge rolling hills made of tufa in all shades of colors from grey to red to brown to purple. It is windswept and perfectly beautiful, and the path is easy to manage, even with a ton of people here, because everyone can be so spread out. The entire trail is almost 4 Km long and takes almost 3 hours out and back. We won’t be going anywhere near that far, but its nice for the separation of the hikers, because as the pictures below show – there is hardly anyone near us now and we know there are hundreds of people out here somewhere.
The first section of the hike takes us down slate stairs and across a boardwalk bridge, then climbs up a ridge to get to a scenic point looking northward. We take our time, snapping shots of the beautiful water looking south, and the odd wild flowers that grow sparsely here.
Once around the sides of the ridges, we come upon the first scenic point – a majestic view of volcanic karst looking rocks out in the water. The colors are so dramatic, deep reds, cobalt blues, each changing every time the clouds come over or the mist rolls in. Serenely beautiful and well worth the effort.
And an effort it was too. Even though there is a chilly breeze, when the sun is out, it is a little toasty for us in our long sleeve shirts and pants. We’re sweating up a storm by the time we get here, and the way back is nearly all up hill. Even though we want to go further, time is against us, so we decide to save the rest of the hike for another day (we will be back in November so we can forge on then if we want), and head back to the car snapping shots along the way.
Another cool (well sort of) thing out here is that the trail is right under the airport flight path. You can hear the planes as they begin to vector into the airport, but because of the low cloud deck, you can’t see them but briefly through the rushing clouds. It is a little frightening, especially because we were just reading about the Canary Islands disaster in the 70’s, and made even more so when one of the jets suddenly aborts and does a go around. That one we saw just as it was starting its final descent, and then heard the huge revving of the engines, watching as the nose came up and gear retracted. Sent shivers up my spine. So, all through our hike, we would stop when we heard an approaching plane and stare up into the clouds silently hoping we would see the plane overhead and not landing right on top of us. Creepy.
The hikers continue to pour in as we leave trail and make our way back to the car. There isn’t a parking space to be had in the entire lot (or on the grass alongside the road either) when we leave. Who knew this would be such a popular destination? Our next stop is a view point looking out to the North. Just as dramatic as the hiking view point, but far easier to access with a 1 minute walk from the parking area, we finish our morning exercise looking out over the powerful Atlantic ocean punishing the rocky shores of this archipelago island.
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