Walking Forum
Regions - Trip reports, destination advice, recommended routes, etc. => International => Topic started by: gunwharfman on 18:35:23, 15/01/20
-
I hiked across Gran Canaria last year, hiked someway across La Palma recently and am now thinking of hiking and camping (in my Hunka bivi) on Madeira for three or four days. Any hiking knowledge from Forum members would be greatly appreciated. Is it worth the cost and effort for example? If I can get a 'cheap' fare I'd like to go there and be back before Jan 31st.
-
Walking in Madeira can be interesting. There are some sightseeing walks up into the hills but many truly interesting hikes along the lavedas which are irrigation canals. These walks are truly enjoyable. Tiny bit of googling will give you loads of options. Climate great.
The bit I hated about that Island was the road traffic, the drivers are wild, I would avoid any road walking outside the main tourist areas unless there us a proper footpath. Food is fantastic by the way, best fruit and veg around.
-
The bit I hated about that Island was the road traffic, the drivers are wild, I would avoid any road walking outside the main tourist areas unless there us a proper footpath. Food is fantastic by the way, best fruit and veg around.
Sounds like every Mediterranean island! ;D
-
Spent a week there some years ago, walking the levadas and mountain trails travelling about by bus. We used the Sunflower book to get around which includes walks and bus timetables.
Enjoyable but it is a busy island
-
I'm not going before Jan 31st, I'm not prepared to pay the flights money asked for. I'll now wait until after that date and look properly again. Thanks for all of the information, very helpful.
-
I also used the sunflower book. walked for 2 weeks using local transport. If you organise according to bus time, you can fill 2 weeks walking every day. Buses are very reliable. I could flag down the bus between the bus stops when I went (some years ago). I only took one organised tour where I couldn't go with public transport. Levada walks are mostly flat as they follow the water. The most difficult bit was to go down sometimes steep hill to catch a bus at the end of the walk. Also, as I stayed on the hill in Funchal, it was hard work to get down to bus station in the morning. Why do I not remember going up hill to reach the leavada being hard work??? ??? Generally speaking, I like going up hills, hate going down. Maybe that's why.
Don't forget to take your touch. Some levadas go through tunnels, which are not lit and the ground is uneven, mostly no rail between the water and the path.
I really loved the green and pleasant land with full of wild flowers. Man made gardens were beautiful too. It was a tropic paradise :-*
-
After the last few days of wind and rain, plus today, I was really in the mood this morning to book a flight for a few days of winter sun. I looked up Madeira on Easyjet from Gatwick in the forlorn hope I might get a reasonable cost fare and lo and behold there it was directly on the screen in front of me! To and from Madeira for 4 nights of camping, £86.20, March 7th to the 11th, so I snapped it up! I'm going and crossing my fingers that the weather will be great.
I'm going to bivi and wild camp it and I'm going to try to get all of the stuff that I need into the plane cabin luggage to avoid paying extra money to be carried in the hold. If I can't manage it I will have to pay an extra £25.
Anyone else stomping around Madeira on these dates?
-
How very ODD!
I have a clour blindness problem and I have been looking online to find a PDF download or an onscreen map of Maderia which I can actually see! No luck so far, each one that is offered is a blaze of colours and to my eyes are just a blur!
I'm going to look at Google maps and Openstreetmap today and hope that these will be better for me.
-
Pop into the Tourist info centre at the Airport, you will most probably be able to get a freebie that suits you, or you could dip into your wallet and buy an IGN map of the island. (Take care, importation of living moths may be an offence😁)
If you really want to be tight though pop into your local library and see if they have a suitable map you could borrow or photocopy.
-
Hope you have a great time GWM. We had a holiday in Madeira probably 6 or 7 years ago in June. I can’t offer you any specific walking routes but we also took the sunflower book of walks, although ended up using more a book of levada walks that we found in our apartment. We stayed above Arco di Calheta along the south coast and remember that we walked to the next little village, Loreto, which had a festival on what seemed to be displays of hanging vegetables. We hired a car and drove around finding different places to walk. Our least favourite day was Funchal, far too touristy! We did several levada walks but couldn’t now tell you where. Interestingly all the people we passed walking seemed to be French or German, no English. It was ok travelling along the south coast but took along time to get anywhere in the middle or north because of the terrain. We went to the highest point Pico Ruivo though we drove some of the way and our only view was a cloud inversion but still worth it! Madeira is often covered in mist but I believe the weather can differ greatly between the north and south.
-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2267827 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2267827)
I don't think you will need the stockings GWM!
-
Is Madeira being affected by the sand storm.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-51607312/canary-island-sandstorm-flights-cancelled-due-to-saharan-sand (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-51607312/canary-island-sandstorm-flights-cancelled-due-to-saharan-sand)
-
Is Madeira being affected by the sand storm.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-51607312/canary-island-sandstorm-flights-cancelled-due-to-saharan-sand (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-51607312/canary-island-sandstorm-flights-cancelled-due-to-saharan-sand)
Cloud base 7000' Visibility 10km, Wind 040/18kts, 18C at 0830 GMT. All flights operating. Vide: Flightradar24
-
I've looked at the internet to try to plan my hiking route across Madeira but there doesn't seem to be one long hike that is 'oven ready' ( >:( now used a lot down the pub) for me to walk across the island. Loads of individual walks are shown but it looks like I have to try to find a way of linking them together myself. I haven't decided yet how to do this but 'Kamoot' might possibly provide me with the answer?
For those who fancy a long hike on a Canary Island this job is made easier because all you have to do is Google in 'GR131' and then choose the island you want to walk on. A bit different on Gran Canaria, they have there own system of footpaths signings but its just as easy to work out.
-
There’s a Cicerone book that would probably provide what you want. It does look like you’ll have to link up day walks yourself though.
-
You say you don’t take food. But are you sure there will be places for you to buy / eat out each day in Madeira? If you’re planning on hiking across the centre some routes may be a little remote.
Update - Sorry meant to post this in your Gear thread on list of items, but was thinking of your trip to Madeira
-
I can't remember for sure as it's 16 years since my trip to Madeira, but I'm sure he'll be able to buy baguette-type sandwiches etc. from shops before his walks.
EDIT: Oh, he's given the same answer already, in Reply #11 on the List of items I take when hiking thread.
-
I'm just back fro,m Maderia and had a good time, the weather was sunny and hot and the wine and food were worth it as well.
I stayed the first night in a dormitory hostel, 9 euros. Glads to leave though, the English 'manager' was 'outrageous and strange,' he kept holding court with everyone, smoked weed way into the early hours and drank a whole bottle of wine in about two hours. He also kept emphasizing his 'Remainer credentials' with that cheesy grin Paul Whitehouse face pulling. By day he was a guitar/singer busker and told me he had lived in Portugal and Madeira for 21 years.
I left at dawn the following morning and had a look around Funchal. Very nice, old parts, interesting architecture, other areas were wide boulevards, lots of eating and drinking places and easily recognisable tourists, people just mooching around, going nowhere with purpose. By midday, I wanted to hike so because I couldn't understand the bus system I caught the cable car from the seafront to Monte, a village halfway up the mountain that Funchal is built on.
From here I started to hike a footpath which just went UPHILL!!
-
I didn't record the number of the walk but I think it was the PR3.1? I eventually came out on a road and the walk continued uphill, the road to the left was closed due to an earthquake rumble (6.2 out to sea, rocks had fallen onto the tarmac) the previous evening. I was strolling TO a bar at the time, but I still found it to be a very weird sensation.
The walk now was even better, a torrent of water was gushing from the mountains in a gully on the footpath right, I quickly took off my shoes and socks and dangled my feet in the cold water. Great pleasure!
I soon had to road walk for some distance and eventually arrived late in the day at Paseo, a crossroads, and a very nice restaurant. I could walk no further so I looked around for a place to Bivi. Decided two places, one near the restaurant, the other just inside a small wood and then went for a beer, had a meal and wine and finished off with a coffee and brandy!
After my meal, it was now late and dark I just headed to the area nearest the restaurant, just a patch of grass on a ledge down a slope from the road. I slept well.
-
The next morning, got up and packed everything into my rucksack and stood at the crossroad to thumb a lift. I was heading for Pico Areeiro a visitor centre a few miles up the road and not served by buses. I waited for 10 minutes and no cars! Then a small VW UP appeared, my thumb went up and the car stopped. So lucky! It was a Mum and a daughter from Prague, within 20 minutes I was at the visitor centre. Had breakfast in the cafe there and then started to hike the PR1 to the Pico Ruivo. I soon found that this route was not only classed as HARD but for me, it became SUPER HARD! So steep both up and down and there was a lot of them, it was also in places very windy but I had a cloudless sky all day.
The Pico Ruivo became one of the hardest hikes I have ever done, 10.5kms of relentless steepness, many on steps carved out from the rock, many were man-made steps with a few steep metal ladders to worry about as well. It was exhausting, so much so that my heart was pounding and fluttering with the physical effort of it all. There were two occasions when due to the effort my body shook from head to toe, its the nearest experience I've had I think to know what dying would be like.
I eventually made it back to the start and then hitchhiked back to the restaurant area. A very demanding day!
-
PR1, just after the start.
https://i.postimg.cc/xT0Q0LB9/IMG-20200309-115033.jpg
I'm just testing to see if the photo displays
-
(https://i.postimg.cc/rdC7NhmG/IMG-20200309-125115.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/rdC7NhmG)
-
(https://i.postimg.cc/ydcKNjV8/IMG-20200309-141715.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Still trying, hope this is it?
-
(https://i.postimg.cc/VkZmZ5Gm/IMG-20200309-213313-606.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
The best I can do, the photo does not seem to be the same quality as my phone download though?
-
(https://i.postimg.cc/6qhNrQ4s/IMG-20200309-154456.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
just before the end of the walk, by now late afternoon. When I arrived back at the visitor centre waitress gave me a free sample od local drink, loads of seeds in it, orange and highly alcoholic! Wow!
-
Fantastic report so far, GWM, I've enjoyed reading it and seeing your pics.
-
I hitchhiked my way back to Funchal (with an off duty Uber driver, he didn't charge me) and found another hostel, this time a really good one, in the centre of town, 14 euros a night, stayed 2 nights in a dormitory but I was the only person in the room.
I then did a couple of more walks, easy ones this time and enjoyed the nightlife. I walked to the bus stop at 7 am, 5 euris to the airport and within a few seconds a small car pulled up and a man shouted: "Are you English?" I said yes so he said, "I can take you to the airport for 5 euros." I handed him the money and he took me to the airport departure entrance. Easy.
He worked at the airport and he told me he gets quite a bit of business if he keeps his eyes open for people like me, just standing around and looking like a tourist.
-
Looks lovely country for walking - and I bet it was nice to get some sun.
-
It really was sunny, it was the same every day but the day I walked to Pieso was the hottest. Sleeping out was great as well, so clear and the moon was so big.
I forgot to mention that on the Pico Ruivo route, there are miners tunnels to walk through, five if I remember correctly, best to have a torch, otherwise pitch black!
I personally believe that Funchal suffers from vehicle pollution, at rush hour the smell of fumes was very strong. Quite a few beggers about as well, mostly seemed to be old people? There were also three stationary cruise ships in the harbour, one was called Mein Schiff 3. I don't think I could ever contemplate a cruise, watching people piling out from the ship, jumping on coaches to whizz here and there is just not me. There was also a few Tuk-Tuk's on the streets, the drivers busy driving tourists around.
For me, the worst bit of rudeness I saw and heard was whilst in a restaurant. 4 Canadian middle-aged women came in and one of them treated the waitress like dirt! She demanded the rarest of steaks and when it came it was not rare enough, she kept saying "I just want it seared, seared I said!" Then she picked on the rest of the food as well. I could see that her friends were embarrassed, one of the ladies looked at me and rolled her eyes up.
The speciality of the village of Monte is sliding down steep streets on a wooden sledge, it looked fun.
-
Sounds as if you had a good time! Lovely photos.
-
I personally believe that Funchal suffers from vehicle pollution
..........................................................................
For me, the worst bit of rudeness I saw and heard was whilst in a restaurant. 4 Canadian middle-aged women came in and one of them treated the waitress like dirt!
Are the vehicles all old. One of the reasons that thee third worse polluted road is in Cornwall is a combination of old vehicles and no mains gas.
Rude Canadians, and 4 of them. I play a game, with my Canadian cousins, called 'Name 4 interesting Canadians'. Rules are tricky, fame does not make for interesting.
We always get stuck after Ben Johnson, Margaret Trudeau, struggling now, does William Shatner count, he is funny, clever, but not sure about interesting.