Madeira is a place I never heard of a year ago, and this past month we spent a magical week there! I had heard of Madeira wine, but since I'm not really a wine drinker, I never really thought about where Madeira was. I would have guessed Spain or Italy.
Anyhow, what a place! Before our trip, I scoured the internet reading and watching videos about incredible hikes on this island. I made a list of the ones I most wanted to try but also knew that weather could be a big factor. A hike on a blue sky day is such a different experience than a hike on a dreary, rainy day. I also made a list of things to do on rainy days.
I'm glad to report that we didn't really need our rainy day plans! We did have a few rainy, cloudy and cold moments, but we were blessed to get to take our top hikes in very good conditions! Thank you, Lord!
When we landed, we went straight to our AirBnB in Machico only to find out that we had been upgraded to the nice hotel (Dom Pedro) across the street! We also found a great place to eat right away with pizza and GF pasta.
We looked at the forecast and noted that it was supposed to rain all day the next day. Woke up to no rain at all. This happened almost every day! So that first morning we had an incredible breakfast buffet and then got right down to the business of hiking.
Our Hikes
These are the hikes we took in the order that we took them over the next few days:
PR8
This hike was very close to Machico and was the reason we stayed in Machico the first night. It goes out on the peninsula on the eastern most point of Madeira. It got exciting when a rain and wind storm blew up, making it particularly hard for Ann with her balance issues. Spectacular hike, though! When we got to the end, we decided to take the boat back.
PR9
This was our first levada hike, and we thought it would be a good one for a more dreary day. Had a bit of a hard time finding the trailhead, which was right in Santana where we were staying. Ann and David turned around about half way as the path was getting tricky for Ann. Terry and I continued all the way to the waterfall at the end - going through 4 tunnels. Terry cut his head open on the roof of the third tunnel. Ouch!
PR1.2
This trail is also known as Pico Ruivo. The first time we drove up to the trailhead, the mountain was socked in with clouds and it was cold and drizzling. The next day, we had blue skies and barely needed our jackets.
PR11
The most challenging part of this hike was finding a place to park and getting the Simplifica website to work to buy our trail tickets (most trails were 4 euros each, though nobody was ever checking tickets when we were hiking).
Wow! Took this hike on our last full day in Madeira. We had though we would have to skip because of bad weather, but the clouds rolled out and it was beautiful! Very cold and slippery right at the beginning. I was very glad I had put on a 2nd pair of pants. But it warmed up nicely. I loved the sheer dropoffs and views on this hike.
Levado Moinho/Nova
This was the second hike of our last day on Madeira, and we almost gave up finding the trailhead. So glad that Terry was determined, as this hike was so cool!
Other Stuff we Saw/Did
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