Tour of Madeira - Day 1
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Fri 8 Oct 2010 14:23
The first place we went was right to the far eastern corner of the Island that we had come past on Tuesday as we arrived. There were fabulous views along the northern coast of the island. The area is volcanic and the coastline is very rugged and dramatic.
After taking in the views, we set off along the Northern coast trying to keep off the main roads. We stopped in Porto da Cruz, a small seaside village which was very quiet due to being out of season. While we were looking round we heard rumbling which sounded like thunder in the distance. The noise was actually caused by a digger at the top of the cliff knocking rocks and soil down the side of the cliff presumably to create a flat area either for building or farming.
Most of the cliff sides are terraced and farmed quite intensively - as Madeira is an island hundreds of miles from anywhere, I suppose they either have to grow or make it, import it or do without. Strangely enough we were told that this area was famous for meat (as opposed to the fish we were expecting) but during our whole day driving around we saw only one cow and no other animals at all. Lunch was in a small thatched restaurant in San Jorge. Thatched cottages were common years ago and there are lots of traditional thatched houses now being used as museums and tourist shops. On the board outside the restaurant a cutting from the Sunday Times Travel supplement recommended the prawn bisque served in a hollowed out loaf, so we shared that and for main course had our first meat based meal in months - both meals were delicious but goodness knows where the meat comes from - perhaps we will see tomorrow when we go to the other side of the island?
After lunch we attempted to come back towards the marina through the middle of the island and over the mountains. The roads were narrow and very steep with hairpin bends every 100 yards or so. I should mention at this stage that the car we had hired was in fact a Nissan Micra - not a brand of car known for it's speed up steep hills, but John has now decided that after today he may even trade in his Range Rover or Aston for a Nissan Micra - he can't wait to go out again tomorrow!!!
The top of the island, Pico Areeiro was shrouded in mist and it was freezing at the top. There was an radar air defence station but it was far too cold to get out of the car and look and even if it wasn't you could hardly see 100 yards anyway.
By this time the weather had started to change and what had started out as a nice day with lots of sunshine rapidly deteriorated into a rain deluge accompanied by a howling gale. This evening we were supposed to go to a local festival in the next town but decided that we would have to give it a miss which was a shame.
The good news when we got back today was that we now have 2 full gas cylinders - hooray!!! All we need to do now is make sure the oven continues to work properly..........