Madeira

Just some quick notes for now because we are paying for internet access. You'll have to forgive my poor grammar and spelling, the spell checker is checking my Portuguese and the keyboard has a couple of extra keys (like this: ç!).

After 40 hours of travel (I'm not sure why I didn't think of that when I booked everything!), we arrived Funchal, Madeira, Portugal yesterday evening (where is Madeira?). Part of the the runway is built on stilts out into the ocean, where as the other half is cut into the mountain side. The pilot got a round of applause on landing (well deserved I might add!). Despite some problems finding a bus to Funchal (we ended up paying for a cab), we finally got to the hotel, found some Euros and checked in.

This morning after a much needed nights sleep we took a walk around Funchal, after practicing our Portuguese on the lady on who works at the hotel. My poor Spanish is of more help than I thought, the pronunciation is quite different but many of the words similar. Almost all the street in the main part are cobbled, some of them in mosaic The cars fly around the narrow streets at a worrying speed, and we are still practicing looking left first.

Once we wandered round for a bit we found a bus timetable, a bus stop and finally a bus, purchased tickets and headed for Monte, a suburb on the hillside above Funchal. Our negotiation in Portuguese (and some English from the kind people who indulged us) renew some of my confidence that I had lost in the inability to get a bus yesterday. The bus to Monte travels through narrow streets up absurdly steep hills and around tight bends, tooting constantly as it goes, it was even more nerve racking than the plane landing! 20 minutes later shaken and stirred we arrived in Babosas, and took a short walk along cobbled laneway, past the top of the cable car from Funchal (the expensive way) in to Monte. Monte, surrounded by gardens and a palace (!?) clings to the steep hillside. A large church (small cathedral) overlooks Funchal and men in white suits offer (expensive) toboggan rides back into Funchal.

From Monte we walked back to Babosas and onto Levada dos Tornos, the levadas are narrow irrigation channels that transport water around the island. They are often accompanied by narrow walking tracks, one of which we followed across some quite sheer mountainsides and though small villages until is started raining and we bailed.

Now we are back in Funchal, we will try and find something for dinner. This evening there is a festival by the waterfront, San Pedro's Saint Day. There will be fire works and a parade supposedly, so it may be late night (it doesn't get dark until about 10PM). Anyhow, adeus!

Three planes, two trains, one monorail, a couple of buses and a few taxis later and we’ve made it to Funchal, Madeira. For those of you that have no idea where that is it’s a Portuguese colony about 500km off the coast of Morocco. Look it up - it exists! The landing was awesome- who needs theme parks? Funchal airport is an extremely short runway situated right along a bit of coastline that juts out from the rest of the island. Mountains one side and water the other. It's kinda hard to describe but the landing involves almost touching water to get low enough to land, followed by putting your hands up on the seat in front of you top stop face planting when it pulls up so fast!

The rest of the plane trip over was Ok- not nearly as exciting. On the way to Singapore we thought we had the best seats in the house as were sitting in the first row (leg room and cooler TVs!) however from Singapore to Heathrow we discovered the pull down platforms opposite our seats were in fact change tables... and most of you will know that Matt and small children don’t mix! So that was fun. I managed to get quite a few hours of sleep in - despite non-stop screaming children x3. Matt on the other hand, took two sleeping tablets and still didn’t sleep that much.

Matt taking a break before heading off with Erin to practise their Portuguese and find a supermarket to get a bit more variety in food- at this stage they'd had bread and jam for dinner, bread and jam for breakfa

st, and you guessed it! - b

read and jam for lunch.. It’s only coz they hadn't found fuel for Matt’s stove yet!

Erin thought they might have to bite the bullet and dine out! (Gasp!)

We've been doing it tough the last few days. Staying in nothing less than 3 star accommodation.! Due to problems with buses we couldn't camp. No-one told us it was a public holiday and if we got off the bus we'd be stranded for days. It's not as bad as it sounds though!

Matt shouted us five star accommodation at the Madeira Regency Palace Hotel! for our anniversary :) - 3 years!!!!

We found it very hard to be posh in our wrinkled clothes and muddy walking boots. They had to get the beefiest bellhop they could find to carry my pack up to our room, even after I insisted that I could carry it myself. We received many "looks" too. One 'British gentlemen' even said to Matt "You're a little off the backpackers circuit aren't you?" (!!) None the less, we took full advantage of our ocean views, pools, spas, and private beach with a private elevator: door-to-rocks. It was 24 hours of luxury! The next morning we chowed down on a buffet breakfast of bacon and eggs, fruit, all kinds of bread and chokie croissants! We had one of everything, except the croissants I had three! We ate till we were bursting so we didn't need lunch. We still had dinner though, we had to have something to go with the locals wares we had purchased of Madeiran wine and the locally brewed beer, 'Coral.'

We've done three walks so far, well 2 and a half. The first one we bailed on two thirds of the way coz it got too cold and a bit wet. The next one was really cool- literally. Well wet - but fun. It involved balancing along the edge of a 'levada', which is basically an open channel of water running through the mountains taking water from one side of the island to the other. The levadas are made mostly of concrete about a foot thick - which means the path you're walking on is never more than about 40cm wide. They're cut into the side of the mountains, which means water a few feet deep and then cliff face and vegetation one side and sheer 100m drop on the other. I think my spine has a permanent crook in it from leaning to one side the whole time telling myself that if I trip- fall in the water... fall in the water... got used to the balancing, and the sheer drop to one side of me but the scariest bit was the pitch black tunnel (I was generally scared!), whose exit was blocked by a waterfall. After getting fairly soaked (including our lunch) we were faced with a long mossy stair case (still having a waterfall, waterfall on us) with a nice rusted cable to hold on to. Didn't trust it though. It was a good challenge. Ended with a bit of an anticlimax though. The last bit lead us through small village houses and banana plantations, round a bend and spat us out at Madeira's biggest and brand new shopping centre! We were a bit surprised! The last walk, well, it was an epic journey from hell! It took no less than 8 hours to compete after I was assured that it was only 9km and would take about 4 hours! Huh! We were scampering up rocks, battling overgrown tracks (I'm talking needed a machete here), having the s#@t scratched out of my legs by blackberry bushes and contending with bumblebees the size of small birds. Not okay! (and really not joking here).

It's very hot. We've been swimming heaps. It's July and I've got a better tan in two days than a whole summer in oz! Matt on the other hand, burns very easily, and is currently peeling from our first day in the sun! It won't be happening again though. I took a walk to the 'supermacardo' to buy him a present. 60+ sunscreen. Nothin' gets through this baby! He now has the pleasure of me treating him like a little kid and lathering him in it before we go anywhere. I don't hear him complaining though :)

In Madeira they don't actually have sand. They have rocks. Well, big black round pebbles - which makes sunbaking a little painful. These pebble-rocks line the shoreline and 'rubble' as the water washes out. The locals treat it as if it were sand! The water's nice though. Much warmer than oz.

All the streets are really narrow and coz the whole island is basically a mountain, the streets are all cut into the steep hillside, with pockets of housing in all the valleys and bits that weren't cliff face. There are also lots of terraced bits where grape vines , etc are growing. The bus drivers are lunatics!! They just drive. FAST!. And assume everyone will get out of the way by honking as they snake around all the blind hairpin bends like a mad-mouse. Cheapest roller coaster ever. The streets are barely wide enough for a bus- let alone on coming traffic. We saw a motorbike accident while on our way to Riviera de Brava- both riders were OK, but if it had happened a second earlier they would have been under the wheels of the bus.
We caught that bus in the picture on the left from Funchal, it was twice as frightening as it looks. From there we walked through the village and back towards Funchal along the levada that runs down the valley. If you think the road looks impressive the levada was even better. In a couple of places you could see right to the bottom of the gorge hundreds of metres below. After that it went through a tunnel and then through a waterfall. We're leaving now, and I've probably not told you of the Madeiran highlight, the biggest challenge was probably the Portuguese, won't French be fun!

Love Matt.