2018-03 Madeira for the Second Time

Right on time for the start of our holiday, Germany showed up with snow and freezing temperatures. In that time we could have done equally nice winter tours, but we had tickets for the south. We wanted to return to the island of eternal spring. Our hope was that the weather would play along a bit better than last time. Compared to the foggy trip two years ago, our preparation was a bit more thorough. Unfortunately, our chosen route offered hardly any opportunity to stop for a meal or buy food.

Apparently there were three cafés to be found on this route. But we were only sure about the café in Ribeiro Frio being open. Despite intensive searching, we found no information about the opening hours of the other cafés.

So we took provisions for the entire length of the tour. The individual rations of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for nine days took up a large part of the backpack's volume and weight.

Once we had finished our tour preparations, we packed our stuff and set off. In Mannheim we said goodbye to the snow.

When our train to the airport was cancelled, I sensed that Murphy might be on board for this tour again.

We took a different train connection. When we arrived at Frankfurt Main Airport, we realised that the railway wasn't the only one struggling with the snow chaos. Quite a few flights had also been cancelled or delayed.

Because of this chaos we only took off with more than two hours of delay.

In Lisbon, however, we wouldn't have two hours to change planes. It was unfortunately clear that we wouldn't catch this flight. So we were automatically rebooked onto the last plane of the day.

When boarding for this plane began, it was announced that the aircraft had been replaced by a smaller model and 60 passengers wouldn't make it on. Since our row of seats didn't exist in the smaller plane, we weren't allowed on board at first. We were told that we still had a small chance of flying, but would have to be patient. If it didn't work out, we would have to spend the night in a hotel in Lisbon and would be on the first plane to the island the next morning. Now we finally knew for sure that Murphy would accompany this tour.

After some time of hoping and worrying, the plane took off for Funchal with us on board. We arrived shortly after one o'clock after 17 hours of travel time. Once we reached our destination, we just fell into bed and started our tour the next morning.

We were welcomed by good weather. It was slightly cloudy but dry. The light was sufficient to take in the beautiful landscape in all its glory. In short, perfect hiking weather.

The first day's stage was marked by a lot of elevation gain. After all, we were heading into the mountains, and you first have to get up there from sea level. The path led steadily uphill along a dry levada. The sun kept peeking through the overcast sky, and Madeira's landscape showed its most beautiful side. In the distance you could see a bad weather front approaching, which brought us a shower a moment later.

We used the bad weather to test our new rain gear. A short time later the shower was already over, and we could continue our way to the levadas dry.

The trails along the levadas were partly very narrow and steep. On the valley side there were mostly safety cables, some of which were badly in need of maintenance.

Also very noteworthy was the spot where not only the safety cable but the entire trail had disappeared in a landslide.

In the afternoon we reached Ribiero Frio and enjoyed food and drink in the tourist restaurant while charging our smartphones.

In the evening we set up camp on the spot we had already used two years earlier. As last time, the night was cold and the humidity was high. Unlike last time, however, we had no rain this time.

Our house

The pantry

The bathroom

The next morning we walked to the Balcoes and were lucky enough to see the breathtaking valley and the mountains in the best weather. Madeira's mountains are very impressive. Although they aren't very high at up to 1800 metres, they have steep slopes and the tree line already starts at 1300 metres. Many of the trails are still above the tree line. With such steep slopes, it still fascinates me that comparatively few accidents happen.

We enjoyed the view of the mountains and made friends with the Madeira chaffinches. These little birds were already very used to tourists. After we had got an impression from the Balcoes of what the coming days would hold for us, we continued westwards.

We would spend the next night at Pico das Pedras. The climb was strenuous, and in the evening our muscles and bones ached quite a bit. It was uphill the whole time. I was already looking forward to the last days of the tour, because the provision bag would then be considerably smaller and lighter. According to Openstreetmaps, there was supposed to be a café near our sleeping spot. The prospect of a cold Coke was motivation enough all day to master this path. Unfortunately, when we got there we had to find out that the café no longer exists, so our next Coke was far away.

When we arrived at the camp, we first set up our tent because it looked a lot like a thunderstorm was coming.

Once the tent was up, we had to show our camping permit and were told that we had to set up camp two levels further down. So we had no choice but to take the tent down and put it up again.

Once the tent was up and we were cooking our dinner, the rain started. We were glad to be able to sit in the dry tent, kept cooking in the tent vestibules and enjoyed the evening.

The next day we set off towards the Queimadas. The path was easier and much faster than expected. Since we would arrive at our day's destination far too early, we decided to make a detour to the next town to finally drink the eagerly awaited Coke in a café before continuing our way.


In Santana we also took in a few sights and a good meal, and made a nice acquaintance who offered us a place for the night on his farm for the next hike.

Our way continued to Achada do Teixeira. There was a very interesting rock formation there. We couldn't resist having a photo of us taken in front of it.

From there we continued towards Pico Ruivo. The Ruivo is the highest mountain on the island and has a camp for about two tents right by the trail, roughly 250 metres below the summit. Two years ago we enjoyed a hot chocolate in the hut on the mountain. This time the hut was unfortunately closed. As we had already suspected during the planning phase, most of the stops along the way were closed. So it was the right decision to take provisions for all days.

From our campsite below the summit we could enjoy not only a beautiful sunset in the evening, but also a wonderful sunrise near our tent the next morning.

After we had finished packing our stuff, we climbed the Ruivo with light packs to savour the breathtaking panoramic view over the island. It was wonderful because we had the summit all to ourselves. Only when the first hikers joined us on the summit did we start the descent. Pico Ruivo is 1862 metres; our next camp for the evening was supposed to be at 900 metres. So we had a descent of about 900 metres of elevation ahead of us that day.

The path started as a wide hiking highway and became narrower and more demanding with every switchback towards the valley.

The wide, paved path gave way to a narrow paved trail. A short time later, the trail that had been perfectly built a kilometre earlier had become a path of rubble.

The magnificent view compensated for the increasingly bad path. In between, the path had completely disappeared, carried into the valley by a landslide. We were able to pass this spot via the small strip of greenery.

We already thought the path couldn't get any more strenuous, but we were hugely mistaken. Because it wasn't only downhill. We still had to conquer quite a few climbs.

The path led us, among others, to Pico da Lapa de Canela, Pico Coelho, Pico das Corrinhas, Pico do Jorge, Pico Ferreiro and Pico da Encumeada. It felt like before every mountain we first descended 50 metres of elevation before climbing 100 metres again. The path cost a lot of energy, and we had to take plenty of breaks.

In the late afternoon our destination was finally in sight, but we were still separated from it by one kilometre as the crow flies, three hundred metres of elevation and countless stair steps. The individual steps were 10 to 50 cm deep, some wobbly, some washed away and some cut into the rock. This section of the path was anything but kind to the knees.

The next morning Bimbi could barely walk because of her knee pain, and we decided to take the rest of the holiday more relaxed. So we descended to Sao Vicente and took a well-deserved break. During this break we learned that we had to replan our route anyway, because the further path we had chosen was closed due to landslides. By then, the path from Pico Ruivo was also marked as closed on the official hiking information.

Despite these hardships, Madeira won't have seen us for the last time. We spent the remaining days in various places on the west and south coast of the island. So we explored Porto Moniz, Ribeira Brava and Machico, among others, covering few kilometres, partly by bus or as hitchhikers, but with many more great impressions.

The journey back went smoothly, and we are already looking forward to the next time!

Obrigado Madeira!

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