22Sep10 - Sao Vicente and Pico do Arieiro
Sulana's Voyage
Alan and Sue Brook
Wed 13 Oct 2010 09:56
32:38.7 N 16:54.4 W
Wednesday, September 22nd.
In Madeira, Machico, Sao Vicente & Pico do Arieiro.
Back in Quinta Do Lorde Marina, after Bruce & Shirley’s departure, we had to spend a couple more days awaiting a gas bottle refill, before setting off for the remoter islands of the Madeiran Archipelago.
Alan persuaded Sue to accompany him on a short “Levada” walk.
This took us from Camacha, the wickerwork basket weaving centre, downhill
through eucalyptus forests,
and a tunnel,
past several sites where the February flooding had devastated large tracts of the hillsides,
back to where we had left our hire car, in the little village of Assommada.
It was all downhill, but that was still definitely enough for that day!
Next day, however, gluttons for punishment, we all visited the Pico do Arieiro mountain peak, where recent fires had upsettingly decimated the upper, forested slopes.
Standing high up, above the clouds, millipedes surrounded your feet everywhere you stood at the Pico. Apparently they are fireproof, but sadly they are not tourist foot proof!
After an interesting mountain refuge lunch, consisting of the local soup, which, regrettably for Fiona and Richard,
looked like dishwater with an egg on top, even though it did taste slightly better,
we drove on to Las Grutas (caves) of Sao Vicente.
There the real attraction is the brief exhibition and 3-D film show in the Visitors’ Volcanic Centre, followed by a guided walk through some of the several kilometres of lava tunnels discovered there.
These strange geological features are powerful reminders of the volcanic activity that created this island.
A fascinating hour was spent travelling through the passageways left behind by the flowing lava, with an excellent guide in English.
This natural, but rare phenomenon, creates ‘tubes’ where the once-hot surface material cools and forms a solid crust, through which molten rock continues to flow until the volcano decides to ‘turn its taps’ off.
Then, when the stream of lava runs out, left behind is its empty, tubular passageway.
The lava tubes here in Sao Vicente were easily as impressive as the others Sue and Alan had seen on the Big Island of Hawaii! They are well worth the effort to visit.
We just stood in awe of the forces that must have been involved in raising an island of some 1,800 metres max. altitude out of a sea bed, that is already some 3,000 metres deep, in the surrounding Atlantic Ocean!
Having virtually driven all round the island to get to Sao Vicente, by the time we got back to Sulana that evening we really felt we had given Madeira full value. So, next day it was time to stock up at our local ‘Pingo Doce’ supermarket in Machico, giving us one last photo opportunity at their fish stall, with its exotic selection.
Well stocked up with Scabbard Fish, but NOT octopus, nor Monkfish! we then departed Quinta do Lorde; said our “Adeis” to Joana and Cátia in the Marina office, and our “obrigados” to Carlos, who had been so helpful with the lines, and left to take the less well-travelled route, to the Canaries, via las Ilhas Desertas.
