We’ve decided to see how easily we can get around the island without using a hired car. Instead we’ll make use of what was reported to be an extensive bus service and the occasional taxi. So, after an excellent, hearty breakfast we made our way out of the hotel and down to one of the stops for the 96 bus run by Roedesta, one of the four bus operators.

The number 96 bus was scheduled to leave at 10:45, but as we followed the initial route, we noticed a departure time of 10:45 at every stop along the km or so that we walked.

The number 96 arrived at our spot pretty much exactly at 10:45 so unless there was something uniquely special about our stop, one can only assume that every passenger along the route got on the bus at their 10:45. Clearly even the relatively simple action of getting on a bus is fraught with complex time and space issues (sigh).

The journey to our starting point was a salutary lesson in advanced dynamics as the length and confusingly width of the bus contracted and lengthened to fit the available space as it swerved and squeezed its way into gaps that were objectively far, far too small.

Madeira is a volcanic island, presumably formed as a mantle plume rose through the spreading Atlantic crust over the millennia and left its track of small islands dotted off the African coast. It’s probably quite young and erosion has had little time to flatten the peaks which means hair raising switchback routes with 400m drops. Thankfully, aided by physics the bus driver kept us on the ever so narrow, supposedly two lane B roads that took us to Corticeiros.

Suitably impressed, we stopped at a small bar in the village for coffee and a sweet croissant before following route 42 of Shirley and Mike Whitehead’s excellent second volume of Madeira walks. I’ve downloaded, with a bit of software jiggery pokery, the GPX waypoints into maps.me so it’s now pretty impossible to get lost. Filled with coffee and croissant we headed off along the road. The actual route didn’t start for 1.5km but there’s a description of how to get there so we followed it carefully and found ourselves walking up a one in three gradient past a stables and on into the forest composed mostly of eucalyptus trees.

It was quite beautiful walking through the trees. Dorothy commented on the smell of the eucalyptus, one of the very rare occasions when perhaps it might be nice to have a sense of smell. There’d clearly been a fire fairly decently and many of the trunks were burned, some quite badly.

New growth had covered most of the damage and there didn’t appear to be any lasting damage.

The first waypoint

overlooked the valley into which we were about to descend.

The guide is quite explicit about problems with vertigo that some walkers experience and rates each of its walks from 0-3. Today’s walk was rated 1 so we sauntered nonchalantly down the path.

… only to encounter our first obstacle

and shortly afterwards our second.

Dorothy burst through with style.

and we continued merrily on our way.

As the forest thinned out we got clearer views into the valley.

All very impressive and all very quiet. Apart from the trees there was very little wildlife up here. We saw the very occasional bird, a couple of butterflies but little else.

The descent into the valley was quite vertiginous and both of us were very thankful for our sticks.

As we got lower flowers started to appear. Some Bermuda buttercups,

and purple woodsorrel

As we re entered the forest, now composed mostly of chestnut trees, the logs laid by some kind foresters were covered with fungi.

The four oak logs in our garden, plugged with shiitake and oyster mushroom spore are yet to yield fruit but I live in hope. Perhaps to spur them on I should show them some of these images 😊.

Just after the following image was taken

Dorothy slid sideways and landed on her bottom.

Nothing broken and we had time to take a look at some very strange seeds.

We’ve absolutely no idea what they are.

After dropping a further few hundred meters we arrived at the outskirts of a small village perched precariously on the steep slope. As with Spain, every possible square metre of ground is pressed into service.

The temperature in Madeira is warm all year round and the soil is rich but relatively thin. The houses perched precariously on the mountainside are clearly not wealthy but they have a fighting chance of producing much of their food from their surroundings.

There are banana trees, squash plants and the ubiquitous Spanish broccoli everywhere with occasional areas devoted to viniculture.

The scene as we walked down to the floor of the valley.

Our destination is at the top left hand corner of the image 😞.

On our descent we picked up a stray miniature old English sheepdog lookalike.

A delightful little chap, unlike most dogs you come across in Spain and Portugal, he bounced along beside us wagging his tail all the while. There are lots of stories of peregrinos picking up stray dogs on Caminos across Spain which then get left behind miles from where they were picked up so we were more than a little concerned when he seemed reluctant to leave. Thankfully he got distracted by the smell of some flowers and watched us quietly as we took the opportunity to leave him behind. I’ve no doubt he made it safely back home.

Shortly afterwards we started to climb, initially along the road, with a steep but perfectly manageable gradient. There was however a quicker route, up a long staircase cut into the rock which naturally we took.

My heart rate shot up as we trudged up and up and up. A 45 degree climb is tough but so long as you can keep going, it’s a very quick way of climbing some 150m. I’m not sure that Dorothy would agree but it did mean that we made it to our destination in plenty of time to get a really decent meal before returning to Funchal.

The return journey was even more exhilarating than the outward. I do use the word exhilarating somewhat tongue in cheek. We bounced around for what seemed like hours as the bus drove first into one then into another dead end trip into the mountains before finally heading into Funchal. We’ve enquired about hiring a car from the hotel but we’ll give it one more go tomorrow before deciding. If tomorrow’s ride is anything like today’s it’s hire car time.

I couldn’t resist taking this final image.

Dinner was in the rooftop bar, lots of sparkling water and a relaxing meal as the sun set over Madeira.

Bon voyage