Hours at sea to come! Hours and hours. With an ‘interesting” rolling swell from the starboard side. Ten metre swell from somewhere out over the Eastern horizon. All the way from the Gulf of Mexico, possibly. And possibly only 10 feet, not 10 metres. However, the stabilisers on this vessel (if indeed it has any) are old technology and don’t seem to work properly! Or at all! Not good. Everyone was staggering about. I don’t know how the waiters managed to carry heavy trays of food around with no accidents! But, manage they did! I think a fair few tablets were swallowed today by a significant proportion of the customer base!
It was clear that the harmonics of the rolling motion had set up a Seiche wave in a fore and aft direction in the swimming pool.
The pool was half empty before things settled down!
When we woke the next morning, the dawn was just dawning over Madeira. The street lights of Funchal showed the routes up the hillside. And “up” is the right word. Everything here is sloping upwards (or downwards, depending on your perspective).
We were moored immediately in front of a massive German boat – AIDAsol. Last time we saw an Aida ship (AIDAperla) was in the Norwegian fjords, where it disgorged it’s 3,300 German tourists and swamped Eidfjord just as we arrived on the scene. (See earlier post for full details!)
We can expect to tangle with German tourists today! Let’s hope they aren’t all headed our way.
Our day’s excursion took us first to the tiny, but colourful, fishing village of Câmara de Lobos.
We were told about a locally caught, deep water fish, the Black Scabbard Fish. Apparently delicious, but you have to eat this fish BEFORE you see one!
Nasty teeth! So, now you can’t eat scabbard fish – because you have seen one!
We found the Winston Churchill Hotel near the harbour.
Apparently, he used to come here to paint. We also stumbled on the tiny Capella de Nossa Senhora de Conceição. Tiny, but beautiful!
Walking a little way out of the village, away from all the German tourists, we got our first clear view of the cliffs of Cabo Girão.
At 580 metres, it is the second highest sea cliff in the Canaries. Los Gigantes, on Tenerife, are allegedly higher, but it kind of depends on how you measure things. I think the only higher cliffs we have seen have been those at Preikestolen on Lysefjord in Norway.
Anyway, these cliffs are plenty high. With a skywalk. With a glass floor. Looking straight down!
Next stop, Porto Moniz at the North West tip of the island. With the calm seawater swimming pools contained amongst the larval intrusions with massive waves outside!
The last stop of the day was at Arco da Calheta for a walk on the promenade with a beach made of Saharan sand! And protected by massive man-made barriers.
Our trip covered 86 miles. A longish day, but with some great views.
Madeira is an amazing island. But the only walking we could do would be on the few short beach-side promenades or on the paths adjacent to the levadas. There are more than 1,350 miles (1,170km) (possibly many more) of these water distribution channels. The water level falls by just 10 m in every kilometre. As I say, ideal for walking. You just have to get up to them! And down after, of course!
Off to Tenerife tomorrow…
Those teeth are very nasty looking, but the name would put me off!
Absolutely beautiful skies and scenery.
More to do on Madeira than I imagined.