Madiera – where the cake comes from…

Still, it’s very beautiful (and the wine isn’t bad either).

No one view lasts for long. The twisting turning road weaves in and around the mountains, revealing an amazing vista for a few moments, then it’s gone again with a turn in the road.

The landscape is unique and familiar all at once. The steep, imposing volcanic mountains; black rock of the Canaries but much more luscious vegetation. Plantations numerous and cut into the side of the mountains like paddy, but they seem to be cultivating bananas. At least they look like banana trees to me.

Having seen in the new year and traveled straight through, we were both exhausted by the time we landed, but I still enjoyed the drive to our home for the week very much. We’d flown into a bit of a storm – unusual for this time of year apparently – but the rain created magical little waterfalls in the steep mountains, too many to count, adding to the allure of this beautiful place.

I always have a fondness for places I have gone seeking respite. Especially if that place delivers. A place to hide, to step off the world for a few days, is occasionally very much needed in our crazy lives, and I cherish that time.

By the second day I was up to see the sunrise. But only because the sun comes up at the very reasonable time of 8am. A beautiful salmon pink spread across the bay in contrast with the deep sapphire of the Atlantic Ocean, both calm and peaceful.

After a couple of days ‘chillaxing’ (as the kids say) on the mountain, we did a little exploring, and hopped back on the bus to Funchal, the main town.

Being a little out of season, the walk is breezy and calm, with a lovely view around the bay. We walked along to the cable car – every good mountain town has one – and pootled on up to a beautiful vista. The surroundings are exotic but comforting – bold black volcanic rock, cactus plants growing out of it, banana plantations all feeling very exotic, but the masses of lush green also remind of Blighty.

We stopped to take in the view and have a gorgeous coffee. I like coffee a lot but I don’t drink it much as I find it so dehydrating it effects my voice. Given the huge amount of singing I do, I don’t often have the opportunity, so as this is a restful break, I indulged. Definitely worth it. Although I did embarrass myself ordering it in a combination of Spanish, Sinhalese and German, and thanked her in Portuguese – the language they actually speak here. (I think I only have one place in my brain for languages and they all get thrown in together). I’m reading David Jason’s autobiography this holiday, and it reminded me of the time Del orders ‘dos Dubonnet John, por favour, Danke Schön’ whilst on holiday in Spain – it’s as if he was speaking through me. Great read by the by…

We take in the vista of the mountains, the sea, the port and look over Funchal, tried to take some pictures to do it justice and failed, then moseyed on. We weren’t really sure where we were going but we just followed our noses. We were next to the botanical gardens which looked beautiful and hilly, and walked along the cobbles around its perimeter. The weather was perfect, bright and warm but not too hot. A great temperature for aimlessly wandering about. While we were doing that we were beeped to stand to the side of the narrow road, to allow a lorry full of massive wicker baskets past us. We’d heard of this on Richard Ayoade’s ‘Travel Man’ before we came and were interested to try, so we knew we were in the right area. We happened upon a church and some more beautiful views, and found ourselves at the ‘station’ for the ‘toboggan’ ride.

As it happens this tradition is about 100 years old. I guess if you were a young boy living up an extremely steep mountain, and you had a wicker basket, why wouldn’t you? One cabby told us the bananas used to get sent down the mountain like this. Now that sounds like fun to me…

So we had a ride. The tarmac is polished almost completely smooth and the boys pushing are working extremely hard, (but I have to admit I didn’t think it was as dangerous as the tourist board would have you believe; “up to 30kph” well we had to stop twice, and it’s not even that busy at this time of year). If you come in on a cruise you’d probably do a lovely queue down the mountain in a toboggan. I’m sure people have been very hurt doing it, but it was a nice fun ride – not a white knuckle one. We did get a bit close to the wall a couple of times. I did film it tho, and will speed it up and add action music before sharing.

After foolishly attempting to walk the rest of the way back to town, we were rescued pet of the way down by a lovey taxi driver. He recommended a place to eat and drove us to the old town. On the way we talked about the tradition of delivering bananas down the mountain by toboggan began about 100 years ago. I think they might be the same toboggans…

Lovely leisurely meal – Chris has the scabbard fish which is a local cuisine; I had something they made up for me as there was nothing vegetarian on the menu. Delicious though and much appreciated.

The days passed like this; I sat on the balcony and did a bit of writing, we watched walkers attempt the crazy steep pathway up the cliff opposite.

We only scratched the surface of all the things there are to experience in Madeira. It’s a beautifully rich culture, the people were lovely, the landscape is beautiful and unique, and the weather was gorgeous. I’d highly recommend it and would happily go back there and can imagine endless exploring, sitting drinking tea and looking at beautiful views, relaxing or even writing a book….

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