Southern Coast
We had a leisurely start with breakfast of toast, using local fresh bread, supplied by our hosts.
Today, the intention was to see one side of the island and maybe more, if time allows. We left at 1000, driving towards the west of the southern coast of the island.
We made a wrong turn and found a pretty cemetery at San Martinho which we took a walk through briefly.
We continued to Praia Formosa, a pebbly beach which was quite nice with a little café at one end. With no parking available, we moved on.
Next stop was Baia de Camara de Lobos. This was a nice fishing village on a bay, with cliffs on two sides but had a pebbly beach on the side in between. We were fortunate enough to find pay parking so we could explore and look towards the west where we saw rugged cliffs ahead.
We then cut inland a little and ascended up to Cabo Girao, where we paid to go on a glass viewing platform 578m above the sea level. The view was absolutely worth the drive and the small fee.
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- Baia de Camara de Lobos.
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- Baia de Camara de Lobos.
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- At Baia de Camara de Lobos, looking towards the wests.
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- Cabo Girao, looking down 578m.
When we arrive at Ribeira Brava, we were ready for lunch. We found a very local café where we had some light food and a drink but when we realised how cheap it was, we added a hot hearty soup thickened with barley.
After lunch, we explored a little. The seaside town is built on both sides of a deep and wide river which was quite dry at the moment. One can look up the river alley and see the rugged interior.
We continued west to Cascata dos Anjos, a small waterfall that could have been mistaken for a burst pipe spraying and leaking down on to a cliffside road.
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- At Ribeira Brava, looking up the river valley towards the rugger interior.
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- Church at Ribeira Brava.
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- Church at Ribeira Brava.
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- Beach at Ribeira Brava.
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- Cascata dos Anjos.
Madeira roads & driving
So far, each stop that we’ve made is “on the way” when viewed on a map, on the island’s somewhat circular highway. But it isn’t really, because it takes quite an effort to come off the highway, navigate and sometimes backtrack on to the smaller windy road to get to the actual stop which may be located at quite a different elevation.
While there isn’t an official circular or ring road, there are highways that nearly serve that kind of routing. Chat GPT suggests that it is around 200km in length and of that, 80km are tunnels! The remainder has lots of elevated portions too. It must have been an expensive infrastructure project!
Overtaking is permitted in tunnels! In fact, a fuel tanker over took us!
The rocky nature of the island with many successive waterless “inlets” means that sometimes we exit a tunnel and enter another one only a few metres away.
Northwestern Tip
Next, we drove to Miradouro do Teleferico das Achadas da Cruz, which seemed to be located in the middle of nowhere. This cable car line runs from the cliff where we stood down to the sea level at a steep gradient. With only two gondolas and a queue, it would be quite a wait. With recent travels in China, this would be an unnecessary little thrill as well.
Here in the north west of the island, the vegetation was green and lush. It was misty when we drove through the higher areas.
We stopped at a viewpoint which looked down to Porto Moniz which is known for its natural rock pools. Down in the Porto Moniz later, we realised that one was free and the other had a fee of EUR3 (per Google Maps). The free one was smaller and nearly completely natural while the paid had a bit more artificial work to contain the water in a larger area.
The weather wasn’t warm enough for us to consider swimming, especially having just come from Zakynthos where the temperature and water was much more conducive.
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- Teleferico das Achadas da Cruz
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- Looking down at Porto Moniz.
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- Stack of hairpin turns where we had descended.
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- Free rock pool at Porto MOniz.
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- Paid rock pool at Porto Moniz.
Northern coast
It was around 1545 when we commenced driving from Porto Moniz along the other coast, the northern coast.
We made a stop in the village of Santa which was renowned for their traditional A-frame houses. A few were open as little boutiques.
Traditional Santana A-frame house.
Rest of the day
We returned to our accommodation around 1700.
As Kim had been driving all day, we were reluctant to venture too far for dinner. With limited options available during our search, we went to our local snack bar and got takeaway portions of marinated octopus and marinated gaiada (skipjack tuna) to have with tomato, cheese and bread.
What an awesome dinner. Less is more!