Porto Santo and BuggyPower!?

Walkabout has gone Sailing
Andrew and Traci Roantree
Thu 23 Sep 2021 16:16
Spending 5 nights on the small volcanic island of Porto Santo has been brilliant!

We were able to celebrate Andrew’s 60th in style, visit the spectacular mugearitic rock at Pico Ana Ferreira and check out this small and friendly island on our bikes.


We dropped anchor just out side the harbour the evening of Saturday 18th next to Susie and John on Casamara, who immediately invited us over for arrival drinks.

The following evening the four of us went out for dinner at a lovely restaurant along the beach called Pe na Agua to properly celebrate Andrew turning 60!! 

The beach on the south of Porto Santo is amazing and stretches a mere 5.5 miles or 9 km’s long of beautiful golden sand leading into crystal clear (and warm!) water!



We visited Christopher Columbus’ house located in the alley behind the church in town. He reputedly occupied the house when he was married to Filipa Moniz, daughter of the founder of Porto Santo. 
  
We saw this beautiful Monarch butterfly just outside the house on the bougainvillea!

Andrew does enjoy a beer stop now and again to take it all in! 

 
Typical view when walking round the south side of the island. The north side of the island is sparsely populated. 

We had a fantastic ride around the island - we only rode about 22 miles, but in the process we rode most of the roads that go from AtoB. The scenery is amazing - very hard, rugged volcanic landscape. Not much greenery about - apart from the golf course!

The cycling was pretty challenging - some steep ascents which were worth it for the views and some fantastic descents. 
 
Pico Ana Ferreira - an incredible spine of pentagonal rock columns caused by volcanic activity millions of years ago. The same sort of basalt formation as the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. 

 
My finger points to where Walkabout is in the harbour where we stayed a few nights. 

Now to BuggyPower and microalgae…


Adjacent to the harbour is a strange looking industrial unit. We assumed that it was a desalination plant for water supply. But then realised that many of the columns filled with water were very green. Not the sort of water you want going through a desalination membrane. It turns out that Porto Santo is at the forefront of technology - developing production and use of micro algae. The company BuggyPower  http://www.buggypower.eu/ have some great info on their website - and means we don’t have to try to explain all the tech!!