A Journey Round Madeira's Eastern Tip and Back over the Mountains
Brief Intro
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| Portugal |
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| Madeira |
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| Madeira |
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| Madeira Municipalities |
A minibus picked us from our hotel and, after a couple more pickups, slid round the back of Funchal, following the dual carriageway through a series of tunnels until we reached the coast road. Madeira (1) and (2) were Funchal based, so this journey really starts in the municipality of Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz
Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport
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| Madeira Aiprort. The runway crosses the coast road and heads out to sea. |
The runway may now be ample, but Ronaldo Cristiano Imternational Airport (as it has been known since 2017) is still regarded as one of Europe’s most difficult airports. Arrivals from the north (the vast majority) cross the Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira’s straggling rocky eastern
tail, 10km from the airport. The prevailing wind usually requires a 180° turn
and the topography demands a swift drop onto the runway. This is a breezy spot and winds swirl and bounce from the hillsides. Occasionally they close the airport and passengers are diverted to the Canaries.
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| Incoming having crossed the Ponta de São Lourenço. Wheels are lowered, so perhaps this plane won't be making the 180 degree turn |
Machico
Machico Town
Reputedly, it was on Machico’s beach of grey-black volcanic sand that João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão
Vaz Teixeira came ashore on the 1st of July 1419 and claimed for Portugal the
hitherto inhabited island they had named Madeira. The photo also shows part of
a small beach of golden sand protected by a breakwater. The sand is imported
from North Africa to encourage tourists.
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| Machico |
Machico grew and prospered, mainly from cultivating sugar cane. In 1440 Prince Henry (the Navigator) created João Gonçalves Zarco
and his descendants hereditary Capitanos of Machico. (He made Tristão Vaz
Teixeira hereditary Capitano of what is now Funchal. Both became rich from
their discovery and lived into their 80s, which was rare at the time).
The parish church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição was built while Zarco was Capitano. His statue outside the church was unveiled
in 1934 and is by Francisco Franco (the Funchal born sculptor, not the Spanish
dictator).
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| Captin Zarco outside the Nossa Senhora da Conceição |
Caniçal and the Ponta de São Lourenço
We drove round Caniçal, the next town along the coast, and continued as far down the Ponta de São Lourenço as the road goes. A 2.5km
hiking trail starts at the car park and finishes where the mainland stops. The
last 2.5k are on two separate islands, the inner and larger Ilhéu da Cevada is 10m away from the mainland at one end and and 100m from the smaller and outer, Ilhéu da Farol (Lighthouse Islet) at the other.
Sadly, we had no time to walk out to the end but there are viewpoints all around. I am unsure if this windswept spot on the north coast is
the Miradouro de Abismo marked on the map, but it fits the name.
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| Miradoura de Abismo (possibly) |
From here you can look east out to sea…
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| Looking east along the north coast of the Ponta de São Lourenço |
…or west where the rest of Madeira lies.
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| Looking west - into the abismo? |
Elsewhere there are views south and west over Caniçal and Machico. Caniçal may be a small town, but is a major port; cruise ships dock at Funchal but most cargo comes through Caniçal.
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| Caniçal and Machico in the distance |
Porto da Cruz: Engenhos da Norte
From the somewhat unworldly surroundings of Madeira’s ‘tail’ we drove west along the north coast to Porto da Cruz. Apparently, the discoverers
of the harbour erected a large cross, so they could find it again. For reasons I
will come to later, this seems an unlikely story.
The Machico municipality grew rich by growing sugar cane. There are many things you can do with sugar like making a cake or sweetening
your coffee, but sugar is bad for your teeth, so it is much better to turn it
into rum. The Engenhos de Norte (Northern Mills)
distillery has been doing this since 1927.
Our driver stopped in the small car park and left us to look round while he organised a tasting. The distillery occupies an
unassuming rectangular building at the sea end of the main street, its chimney,
almost hidden against the higher ground of the headland beyond.
Inside we saw the usual barrels, but did not find the stills.
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| Barrels, Engenhos da Norte |
Engenhos de Norte is a rare distillery still
powered by steam…
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| Working steam engine, Engenhos da Norte |
… generated by burning sugar cane waste.
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| Moving the fuel, Engenhos da Norte |
Having seen what there was to see we rejoined the driver who was carying a tray crammed with tiny plastic glasses of rum.
The distillery produces several different rums, some white for making poncha (see Madeira: Eating and Drinking) and brown rums of
various ages. They also produce rums (picture below) sold under other labels.
The rum we tasted, like the bottle below, was minimally aged brown rum.
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| Madeira rum |
Rum, as I have belatedly come to understand, is as complex and many layered as whisky. I very much like Havana 7-year-old, a
Cuban heavyweight, and the light, fruity Mount Gay Eclipse from Barbados - though
from different ends of the style spectrum they are both quality products. When travelling
in India I often drink Chennai distilled Old Monk, A thin and aggressive spirit
whose main attraction is the lack of an alternative. Engenhos da Norte is full bodied enough to
fit in the middle of the style spectrum, and is well enough made not to be
confused with Old Monk. It proved ideal for our night caps on the balcony.
Porto da Cruz: A Stroll Round the Headland
The driver gave a rendezvous time and suggested we might like a walk around the headland. Despite its name there is no port at
Porto da Cruz, though there is a small bay with a black sand beach protected by
a headland on one side and the vast bulk of Penha da Águia (Eagle Rock) on the
other. Why, I wondered, would someone construct a cross to indicate an
insignificant harbour, already marked by a rock half a kilometre high?
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| Penha de Águia, Porto da Cruz |
We strolled in gentle sunshine following a path that crossed the headland before the end and then headed back towards the village with views eastwards along the coast….
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| Lynne, Porto da Cruz |
….the magic of zoom revealing a sea arch standing off the Ponta de São Lourenço.
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| Looking east from Porto da Cruz |
We spent some time admiring the view and had to walk more swiftly to complete the circuit on time. Somehow, we missed the fish shaped
swimming pool clearly shown on aerial photographs. Returning to the village we discovered
it had more streets than we had realised and with the clock ticking on, a
little anxious navigation was required to get us back to the minibus almost on
time. We apologised, but it hardly mattered, another bus had parked in front of
ours and we were going nowhere.
Santana
Faial
Our visit to Faial was brief, and, perversely, I will start at the end – we had the best view of the village as we left it over the
ridge towards the town of Santana. It shows Faial overlooked by Penha da Águia sitting
on two plateaux divided by a small river.
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| Faial and the Penha de Águia |
Most of the village is on the western plateau (closer to the camera). At the tip of the headland
is the Miradouro do Guindaste, where two short walkways stretch out from the cliff,
26m above the sea.
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| The Miradouro do Guindaste |
It was somebody’s great idea, no doubt, but the result was, I thought, disappointing. Looking down through the fibreglass floor was not
particularly dramatic, while the view looking outwards was fine, but by local
standards moderate at best.
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| View from the Miradouro do Guindaste |
Santana Town
Santana is a small town with some 3,500 inhabitants just inland from the coast. It is the principal settlement of its largely
mountainous municipality.
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| Santana |
Lunch here was an optional extra on the tour, but as we prefer to eat later, we had declined the offer. We wondered if we might be
the only ones, but discovered that exactly two people had booked lunch. Santana
offers several alternatives and we enjoyed a beer and a steak sandwich at A Espiga.
With a little time to look around, we strolled down to the 16th century church.
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| Parish Church of Santana |
The rear is surprisingly plain…
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| Church of Santana |
…while the front is determinedly baroque. The screen has representations of Santa Ana and San Joaquin, while behind is a gilded altarpiece.
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| Screen and altarpiece, Church of Santana |
Santana also has a fine collection of traditional Madeira thatched houses. The style dates from the first settlements on the
island when wood was plentiful and straw was available as soon as settlers
started growing cereals.
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| Traditional Madeira thatched cottage |
Houses with the traditional shape and colour schemes are common in Santana, but traditional interiors are rare. Typically, they had
a loft where the family slept, and a simple living room and storage cellar below.
To protect the thatch from fire, there was usually a small outdoor kitchen. Today
they often used as shops for tourist souvenirs.
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| Thatched cottage in the modern tradition: selling stuff to tourists |
A Brief Levada Walk
Driving south from Santana we were impressed by the fruit trees; pomegranate, papaya, custard apple, mango and more. The hilly topography
rarely allows enough space for a commercial orchard, but there was plenty of
fruit for the locals. Most of these would be considered tropical fruit, though Sanatana is almost 10° north of the Tropic of Cancer.
As we rose the temperature dropped and there was a threat of rain. We stopped at Ribeiro Frio for a brief Levada Walk. The rain in Madeira falls on the mountains and levadas (Portuguese levar: to carry) are aqueducts, some many kilometres long, built through and around the mountains to bring water from where it falls to where it is needed.
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| Lynne sets off on a Levada walk |
Those who laboured to build them probably never imagined that walking beside the levadas would one day become a leisure time activity.
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| Levada Walk |
Levada walks vary from the simple to the challenging, but none can be readily adapted to circular walks, so an industry has grown up
transporting walking groups to starting points and picking them up later from somewhere else.
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| View from Levada Walk |
We had time only for a brief, flat, out and back, but even in that there was a surprising amount of variety.
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| Levada Walk |
Pico de Arieiro and Back to Funchal
From Ribeira Frio we took a side road towards the Pico de Ariero, at 1,818m (just shy of 6,00ft) Madeira’s third highest peak, and the
highest that can be reached by road. Unfortunately, as we climbed,
the road disappeared into a mist that became denser and denser with every
metre gained. Apparently, the views from the top are dramatic, and there is a miradouro
a short walk from the car park, but visibility was so poor we could not even
see that we were in a car park. ‘It happens,’ said the driver with a shrug.
We descended back into Funchal, where the sky was clear and we could see two cruise liners in the dock.
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| Descending into Funchal |
Back at sea level it was a little overcast but warm enough, and in the evening we dined outdoors (see Madeira: Eating and Drinking). After dinner we sat on our balcony with a tot of rum and watched yet another cruise ship arrive.
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| Another cruise liner arrives in Funchal |
Introduction
Part 1: A First Look at Central Funchal
Part 2: Mercado and Monte Palace Gardens
Part 3: Funchal to Santana
Part 4: Eira do Serrado and Câmara de Lobos
Part 6:Eating and Drinking
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