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The last time you heard from us we were in Porto Santo and would soon be in Madeira. We are currently in La Palma, Islas Canaries, but in this blog I will be telling you about all the exciting stuff we did in the largest volcanic island in Madeira.

During the sail to Madeira we caught our first fish! Being not very accustomed to angling, I was rather surprised when our little tuna (that was its real name, honestly) started hopping across the deck even after we’d poured gin down its gills! Luckily, I am more used to it now.

 

Calheta, the port we stayed in for our visit to Madeira, has no sand beaches, just like everywhere else in Madeira. Or does it? This town has its very own artificial beach with sand imported from Morocco! Despite not having any real beaches, Calheta does have a very good Italian ice cream parlour. So good, in fact, that we have had pudding there almost every day!

 

We’ve also met some nice people on the south side of Madeira. The sailing yacht Margaux is home to Flor, and her mum Lydia and Lydia’s boyfriend Joost. Robyn and I have made friends with Flor who comes from Holland. Our parents are also good friends with Lydia and Joost and Dad is still speechless from the fact Joost built the boat entirely from scratch.

 

On the 14th October we went up to the mountains of Madeira. It’s really amazing up there and we would have had incredible views had it not been for the fact the mountains were in the clouds! Up there we took a walk by the levadas. A levada is water duct used in Madeira to transfer water from the wet north to the dry south. Most of the walks in Madiera are based next to the levadas. Despite the waterfalls and beautiful forests, I didn’t really enjoy our walk. Partly because 6 kilometres of it was a very steep up hill. Maybe we’ll get lucky next time we have a walk.

 

Because the Madeira Group is an archipelago of volcanic islands, the island is filled with craters. One such crater had in fact been turned into a tidal pool which we all swam in! Robyn and I did some snorkelling. We spotted lots of fish living in the holes of the black volcanic rock that formed the pool.

 

Another example of Madeira’s volcanic features include lava tubes. For those of you who aren’t geologists a lava tube is a tunnel through the earth that lava would run through when a volcanoe was active. Luckily, none of Madeira’s volcanoes are spewing lava so we took a tour through these amazing tunnels. I loved the tubes because it felt like we were walking through dwarf mines in Middle Earth. With water dripping from the ceilings, mazes of unexplored tunnels branching off at every turn and waterfalls flowing from cracks in the rocks, it really was worth it. Even worth the 3D movie at the start of the tour that made your eyes hurt because of the poor quality!

 

On our penultimate day in Madeira, Alan and Jan arrived. One of our first visitors of the trip, Alan and Jan were on Mum and Dad’s first trip across the seas. Not only were they guests but also postmen! We had ordered numerous DVDs and equipment through the internet which the they had to stuff into their suitcases! But I think there’s still a movie I would like to buy. Who shall I pick on next?

 

In no time we were preparing for the one night trip to Ilhas Selvagens (Portuguese for ‘Savage Islands’), a trio of islands that complete the Madeira Group archipelago along with Porto Santo, Ilhas Desertas and Madeira. Unfortunateatly after a pleasant sail (with some fish caught along the way) we discovered that the savage islands were in fact very savage with a very big swell. For all you landlubbers that basically means ‘way too many waves to get a wink of sleep at night’.

 

So we continued for another night’s sail to the Canary Islands, which is where we are now! Enjoy the half-term back in the UK, we’ll keep you updated on our stay in the Canaries!

Kerry