Madeira - An Island of Mystique

Madeira is a region of Por­tu­gal and an island 520 kilo­me­tres west of Moroc­co and is often referred to as the Hawaii of Europe. It is an island of giant sea cliffs that rise from the crash­ing waves of the Atlantic Ocean in which it is sit­u­at­ed. The high­est sea cliff in Europe can be found here which tow­ers 570 metres above the sea and the view over Fun­chal, Madeira’s cap­i­tal is quite stag­ger­ing. Madeira was once a vol­canic island, the evi­dence of which is lit­tered through­out its land­scape with lava flows lead­ing out to the coast and the Ribeira da Janela sea stacks sim­i­lar to those found in Vik on the coast of Ice­land. Also, like Ice­land, black sand beach­es can be found in small bays at the base of the cliffs like the beau­ti­ful beach at Seix­al in the north.

The aqua­ma­rine seas of Madeira are pris­tine and mas­sive swells from the Atlantic cre­ate huge waves that crash at the base of the cliffs and onto its beach­es. You are nev­er far from the ocean in Madeira and the ancient vil­lages can be seen perched atop the cliffs and the hous­es are often paint­ed pure white with orange tiled roofs. Inland, this island boasts some of the most eco­log­i­cal­ly diverse wood­lands and forests in Europe. As you dri­ve through the many moun­tain pass­es that wend their way into the moun­tains through forests of Euca­lyp­tus trees, the aro­ma is incred­i­ble. We will take the path through the lush green forests fol­low­ing the Lav­er­a­do do Caldeirao Verde which resem­bles a trop­i­cal land­scape and leads to a beau­ti­ful water­fall that gen­tly cas­cades over the fern cov­ered rock face into a gin clear pool.

In the north west of the island is Fanal For­est. This is an ancient lau­rel for­est with gnarled and twist­ed trees that date back 500 years and is now recog­nised as a UNESCO World her­itage Site. What makes these trees even more mys­ti­cal is dur­ing this time of year mists rise from the sea below, gra­cious­ly trav­el up the val­leys and enter the wood­land which is a sight to behold. It real­ly does become a fairy tale land­scape. This is cer­tain­ly a loca­tion where we will be spend­ing some time.

The moun­tains of Madeira serve as a com­plete con­trast to pho­tograph­ing at the coast. The high­est moun­tain, Pico Rui­vo stands at just under 1900 metres above sea lev­el. Luck­i­ly, there are many roads that lead to the moun­tain tops, but we will be walk­ing along some of the paths to expe­ri­ence the stun­ning views over the crag­gy ridges of and deep into the val­leys below. We will be vis­it­ing many view­points dur­ing our time in Madeira such as Pico do Areeiro, Bal­coes and the most east­er­ly point on the island, Pon­ta de Sao Lau­ren­co. Once again, clouds and mists often roll in from the sea mak­ing this a mag­i­cal place and trans­form­ing the views.

This is a tour that will allow you to expe­ri­ence the true Por­tuguese cul­ture from small moun­tain vil­lages with their tiny cafes where the friend­ly locals drink cof­fee and play cards, along with the many thou­sands of ter­races that have been carved out of the steep hill­sides har­ness­ing every avail­able pock­et of land that can be cul­ti­vat­ed, each with their own stone hut. 

In Novem­ber the aver­age tem­per­a­ture hov­ers around 20 degrees so if you want to escape the onset of win­ter in the UK, then this is cer­tain­ly the place to be. The rich vari­ety of land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy is sec­ond to none and we will be based in the vil­lage of Sao Vicente on the north coast which serves as a cen­tral loca­tion to all the places we intend to visit.