Madeira

For our Christmas holidays, Tanya and I went to Madeira, the tiny Portugese island in the Atlantic Ocean. We left Switzerland on Christmas Eve and arrived in Madeira just after midnight on Christmas morning. Our plane's landing was "exciting". After sudden turbulence strong enough to stop the the cabin crew mid-announcement, we got through the clouds and could see the lights of the island off to our right. The plane flew lower and lower until, at what seemed like an unbelievably low altitude, it hooked right into a full 180-degree turn — in front of the island's steep sides — immediately before touching down. I was impressed, so I did some research when I got home, and learnt two things. First, landing at Funchal airport is notoriously tricky and only specially-certified pilots are allowed to fly there. Second, a flight track shows that the final turn of that approach is made while descending from about 250 to 100 m of altitude, and finishes alarmingly close to the runway. The runway, incidentally, is raised above sea level and has been extended over the ocean on columns. Oh, and the area is subject to strong winds and turbulence (check out this landing!). Our landing was very smooth, though, and we got a cab straight to the main town of Funchal.

Our cab driver wanted to know whether we were interested in football. Funchal is the hometown of Christiano Rinaldo and he, our taxi driver informed us, was in town for Christmas. We didn't see him, but we did stay two nights at a hotel that he partly owns, in which the hallway carpet was shaggy and green to look like turf.

Funchal is a gorgeous town snuggled in between the hills and the sea. The weather on Christmas day was warm but overcast, and there were flowers blooming everywhere and the smell of cooking garlic in the air. We found a restaurant for Christmas lunch. I had black scabbard with banana - a Madeiran speciality, which was so sweet it was like eating a fishy banana-split. I called it my dessert fish, and we spent the rest of Christmas day wandering the town.

On Boxing Day we collected our hire car and drove immediately to the eastern tip of the island, where we could walk out along the narrow peninsular called the Ponta de São Lourenço. Here steep and colourful cliffs drop into the sea, birds swoop and dive (we saw a whimbrel!), and the ocean crashes below. We walked as far along as we could, until a steep hill brought us to a lookout over the water.

The view back from the furthest point we could walk to.

Dog and fishing boats in Canical, Madeira.

Madeira packs a lot of topography into one small island, and correspondingly the roads — except for the main highway on the coast — are small and windy and often accompanied by an abyss to the side. Our little hire car was of the gutless variety, but it nonetheless took us, with great effort, all over the island. We drove to the central point of Encumeada and then across the barren high plains where there is a huge wind farm, and down to Porto Moniz on the north-west point of the island. At Porto Moniz are deep rockpools that are naturally formed out of basalt. They have since been given a slight helping hand in the form of a few discreet concrete walls to make them deeper. They made a great place to go for a dip out of the crashing surf.

Rock pools! There were fish in there too.

Tanya called this one "nature's infinity pool".

The north coast of Madeira is a special place. It is less populated than the south, and the terrain is steeper. Often there are cliffs that fall almost uninterrupted into the sea, and as we drove past we would catch glimpses of waterfalls appearing out of the sheer rock. It's incredible.

We decided to check out the laurisilva forest by going for a walk along a levada, which is a small agricultural channel just like the Swiss bisses, but specific to Madeira. After some searching, we found the levada running quietly through dense forest. Little birds hopped about where there were insects gathered in shafts of sunlight. One type was particularly small and I think it may have been the Madeira Firecrest.

A few nights into our trip we changed hotel to stay at an organic farm which was at the bottom of a huge cliff, and only accessible by cable car. There the only noises were the wind and sea.

On our other days in Madeira we went on short walks. We climbed a hill near Encumeada to look at the mountains at sunset, and found another levada walk. On our last day on the island we walked to the highest point, Pico Ruivo (1861 m), where we had incredible views over the island and got to watch the swirling cloud around the tops.

Looking across to the highest peaks on Madeira from near Encumeada.

Tanya was a bit excited about the levada.

Looking across to the third highest peak (Pico do Arieiro, with radar).

Madeiran landscape (looking east from the path to Pico Ruivo).

Somewhat luckily for us, we only discovered the local "strong drink" on our last night in Madeira. It's called poncha and consists of a type of locally-made rum, fresh lemon juice and sugar. It is strong, sour, and delicious. It was served with an unusual kind of white, flat bean, covered in garlic and herbs. Mysteriously, both times we ordered poncha we were delivered a spare plate that was placed carefully next to the beans. We figured it was for bean husks, but the second time the beans were skin free. So the plate remained empty, a symbol of our foreignness.

Delicious poncha with beans and mystery plate.

We left Madeira early in the morning; we had great views of the airport and island as we left, and then pushed up through the clouds into the blue sky above. Landing in Switzerland again we descended again into winter, happy after our few lucky days in Madeira in the sun.

The airport - note the runway extended on columns (there is a fairground under it!).

Aerial view of the spit we walked along.

Avalanche course and ski tour

Tiles in Porto