Island Odyssey: Final Day of Madeira

The first stop on our last day was the Funchal Market. All four of our Lindblad group buses stopped here first, and we weren't the only tourists or tour group, so the Market was packed. But it is one of the places one must see, and it exemplifies the three Fs of Maderia -- flowers, fish, and fruit. Lots of fruit.

The fish market was in a separate section, and we barely had time to visit ...

... but we were finally saw the black scabbard fish, a citizen of deep waters (600 to 1600 meters) and considered a Madeiran delicacy. We tried it during this trip and found it a good, slightly sweet white-fleshed fish. However, it looks ferocious, as do so many of the creatures who live in the dark, deeper ocean.

After the market the group had options. Joan and I were among the those that had chosen the walk on the Sao Lourenco Peninsula. This peninsula forms the easternmost trip of the island, and is much drier than the rest, for which we would today be thankful.

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At the parking area Jim Kelly gave us the geological explanation for pillow lava -- mounds that form from underwater extrusion of lava.

The Sao Lourenco walk has a well-marked, there and back again trail, with much winding and going up and down (just look at the map above!). This gives the fast, "how far can I go" walkers plenty of legroom, while avid birdwatchers can find a good place to sit. Joan and I occupy the middle ground, neither too fast to see things, nor too slow to get somewhere. We learned early on from Karen Copeland, a Lindblad naturalist, to always take your binoculars whenever you go on such trips. In fact, the first corollary of her rule is to take binos everywhere, even including the dining room on board ship, for you never know when a whale or other creature might be spotted.

The rocks and the sea make a strong contrast. These two rock formations, one in front of the other, also make a strong contrast!

From this point, as far as Joan and I hiked, you can just see at left the final islet.

There was some occasional light drizzle. We were much better off than the other buses, towards the middle of the island, where we later learned the rain had been torrential.

After the hike we lunched in the nearby town of Caniçal, and returned to Reid's Palace to finish packing our luggage and clean up before dinner. Joan and I also took a turn through the gardens at Reid's. One of the first things I noticed was the replica of the Santa Maria, Columbus' largest ship, sailing in front of a stiff breeze; they took her out, I imagine, as part of the Flower Festival. It pitched and bobbed; I would have needed a double dose of seasickness medication. (This is not our ship, the National Geographic Explorer.)

This is a good example of the floral exuberance at Reid's. It's also the only photo I took.

We finished our packing. During this time, a Very Large Ship  (not ours!) left the harbor.

Dinnertime arrived, and our group was seated again in the formal dining room. Both Reid's and Lindblad had been nimble, given that our group had needed a 12 hour extension of our stay at the hotel. Then we left Reid's for the last time, and boarded our buses for the harbor. There she was!

It took some time to get all the passengers aboard, and to conduct the champagne reception. We departed Madeira in complete darkness. The lights of Funchal were a tempting scene, even if I had only a point-and-shoot camera. If I took enough pictures, my hand might be steady enough for one good one.

This interesting shot looks back along the Explorer.

Having undergone a complete rebuild a handful of years ago from her previous incarnation as a Norwegian coastal ferry, the Explorer has a wonderful library and observation lounge on the top deck. You can see the windows at left, and you'll see the interior in a later post. The fully enclosed lifeboats are impressive. The Explorer's wake has a ghostly appearance because of the long exposure time.

I held up well during the reception and taking pictures, but by the time we went to bed, now exposed to long swells in the Atlantic, I decided to observe the maxim of safety first, and took one seasickness tablet after lying in my bed for a few minutes. I find tablets much preferable to patches because I can vary or even skip the dose with a tablet, depending on the weather and my sea-legs.

After a full day on the broad ocean, the morning after next would find us approaching the Azores.

Island Odyssey: Madeira Day 2

The second day on Madeira dawned clear, in great contrast to the previous day.

There were again two choices for the day's activities. Joan and I passed on the boat ride to the nearby (uninhabited) Desertas Islands, and picked the bus tour, which would take us up to the second highest peak, Pico do Arieiro. Perhaps it was the good weather, or another unpredictable factor, but our bus made an unexpected stop at an agricultural research station. Although tourism is now Madeira's single largest source of income, agriculture is still important, and the island has a different climate zone every few hundred meters of altitude. Here seedlings are being started in a greenhouse.

Grafting citrus onto hardy rootstock is one of the activities of this center. Here is one top-onto-bottom technique.

This sequence shows a different side-splicing technique.

The workers who do the grafting are paid per successful graft, so they are both skilled and fast. Next, a greenhouse for tropical trees:

This view from the research station shows how intensely terraced the lower elevations of Madeira are, for agricultural purposes.

The guide/researcher at this station had an interesting story for us. We had observed, while walking in, banana trees with blue plastic around the young fruit. It turns out that EU regulations require export-quality bananas to be at least 15 cm (6 inches) long, and the exquisitely sweet and densely flavored Madeiran bananas are short. The heat of the blue plastic encourages them to grow long enough for export, but weakens their flavor. Another example of well-intentioned regulations going awry!

From the research station the bus went up and around, up and around, and up until we reached the top of Pico do Arieiro.

A new radar dome and gift shop/visitors center were not yet complete.

Looking back at the unfinished gift shop from the viewpoint at the top. This mountain does as all mountains do, and creates clouds as the warm sea air is lifted up more than a mile high.

Looking out at a further viewpoint, with which we would become acquainted in the dark of the night. Down and to the left you can barely see the Nuns' Valley, where the nuns (and presumably church valuables) of the island would flee during pirate attacks in the 16th Century.

You can see large stretches of bare or reseeded ground in the above photos. This is due to a large fire in August of 2010, as shown in this NASA photo.

Sadly, this fire was arson, not accidental or natural, and aimed at the Funchal Ecologial Park, a preserve of about 1000 hectares, or 2500 acres. The guides that we had during our visit would speak about it with varying degrees of openness. What we gathered is that the creation of the Park, with the aim of restoring native vegetation to a small portion of the island, angered the ranchers who could no longer graze their livestock within the Park. Fires started at several locations simultaneously, implying that several individuals were involved. Only one was brought to trial, and his only punishment was to wear a tracking bracelet and check in with the police a few times a year. The guides often used the word "politics" to describe the situation. The fire was also made worse by the Madeiran authorities, who at first were confident that they could handle the blaze themselves, and declined help that had been offered by mainland Portugal.

We wound down, down, and down for lunch at the Quinta do Furao. Madeira has excellent modern roads and a plethora of tunnels, supporting both tourism and the local population, who in the not so distant past would travel from town to town by boat rather than overland. The island has benefited greatly from the EU policies of subsidizing infrastructure in less developed areas. The sign for our lunch stop:

The Quinta do Furao has a small wine shop and bar, and extensive meeting and dining facilities. Here is a glimpse of the grounds from our parking area.

After a taste of Madeiran wine, we check out an antique wine press. (Wine was also included in the meal, of course.)

Following lunch we stopped at Santana, a reconstructed village of traditional thatched houses. The buildings now contain a post office, gift shop, artisan demonstrations, and so forth.

On the way back to Reid's Palace we saw the other side of Eagle Rock.

Dinner that evening was a poolside (but indoors) buffet at Reid's.

Joan and I had signed up for the optional evening excursion, departing at 9PM for Pico do Arieiro to listen to the calls of the Zino's Petrel, a pelagic seabird (it returns to land only to breed), the most endangered bird in Europe, which nests only in mountaintop cliffs on Madeira. Originally the excursion was limited to 20 persons, but there was such demand that it was expanded to 32 or so. The young ecologists leading us were obviously eager to spread the word about the petrel.

Zino's Petrels were hit hard by the fire of August 2010; according to our guides, the entire chick population was killed and several adults perished. Conservationists over the world are praying for good luck in the 2011 breeding season, especially because the burrow sites are now burned over.

Being driven to the top of the mountain in the dark was an adventure in itself. We were enveloped in fog for the last several miles, and our van began to fog up as we continued to exhale and the outside air grew colder and colder. The guide either said that the condensation was not frost, or that the van did not have a defroster: I was two rows back and he was difficult to hear. He wiped the inside of the windshield with a cloth instead. We made it to the parking area without incident, along with the other three vans. The radar dome and other structures were invisible in the dark and the fog.

We suited up. Some brought flashlights, and some, including Joan and me, brought headlights. Hats, gloves, jackets -- yes. I had long underwear beneath my hiking pants, and was glad of it. It was only April, after all, and we were 6,000 feet up! After setting out our party became a long string of illuminated circles bobbing across the ground. We came to the observation area, sat down, and tried to stay quiet.

Our guides helped us ignore the first calls we heard, of the more common manx shearwater. Then we could focus on the cries of the Zino's Petrels, which make a haunting, warbling wail. The local shepherds have a legend that these are the sounds of the souls of lost shepherds, and it's plausible.

Lights appeared in the distance ahead, where we had been staring without seeing. They grew closer, and we wondered (silently) who this might be. It turned out to be a pair of park rangers conducting a burrow survey of the petrels. After our guides verified their credentials, making sure that they were not egg snatchers, the rangers passed through our group and were gone.

The fog, or clouds, really, began to thin as the time passed. Occasionally a star could be seen, and then some lights of a village far below to the right. I did not keep track of the time; I just tried to sit quietly and experience the sounds of the petrels. I was glad I dressed warmly. Some of my comrades were wishing for another layer.

The guides decided it was time to go back to the unfinished gift shop, where we found a spot mostly out of the wind, and huddled on some steps for hot tea, cookies, and a presentation on the petrels and other conservation work in Madeira. It was a very modern presentation. Two of the guides stood in front of us, each with an iPad held out for us to see. As one guide narrated the tablets were used to flick from image to image (a gentleman of a certain age, such as myself, would say from slide to slide).

After the refreshments and presentation, we hurtled down the mountain in the vans. Our driver took a couple of small detours so that he could slow the van without damaging the very hot brakes. We arrived back at Reid's just before 1 AM, and very happy that the schedule had changed again.

Yes, the schedule had changed again. Originally the plan for tomorrow was that our luggage must be outside the door of the room by 6:30 AM, and, for the option Joan and I had chosen, the departure was 8:00 AM. However, during dinner before the petrel excursion, we were informed that the Explorer was running late.

As usual, the Lindblad staff handled one more surprise adroitly. If we could not board the Explorer at 3PM, we would have another dinner at Reid's palace! Luggage would not have to be outside the room until late afternoon, except for a few unlucky individuals whose room was already promised to an arriving guest; these persons would be given a different room. And our morning excursion would not start until 9:00 AM, a very welcome turn of events for us petrel watchers, who now got an extra hour of sleep.

Tomorrow would be another busy day.

Island Odyssey: Two Years to Madeira

This May we took a two-week trip with Lindblad Expeditions, their Island Odyssey journey. This year it started in Madeira and went on to the Azores, the Isles of Scilly, Fowey (on the English mainland), and the Channel Islands of Sark and Guernsey.

It took us two years to get onto this trip. If you would prefer to jump right to the trip itself, scroll down to "Madeira, Day 1."

It Takes Two Years to Get There, and Many Changes

We first signed up for the 2010 version of this trip, which was to begin with Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and then Madeira, the Azores, and flying back from Lisbon. We put down our deposit early, in April 2009; in June the trip was canceled, probably due insufficient response. Lindblad returned our deposit, but we lost $850 of travel insurance premiums. (If you want travel insurance that covers financial default of the operator, or coverage for pre-existing conditions, the insurance companies want the policy to be purchased within 14 days of signing up for the trip.) If we were to take a different trip before the departure time for the original trip, we could have transferred the insurance, but that didn't work in our case.

In the spring 2010 we saw that Lindblad now had a version of this trip for 2011, somewhat altered, dropping Cape Verde but including the Canaries, Madeira, the Azores, and the new "English stuff." Still good, so we signed up quickly. Airfare was not part of the package.

In October 2010 we saw that Lindblad was now offering $1,000 off and free international airfare (Lindblad chooses the airline and schedule) for the trip. It was in their brochures and in promotional emails that they sent us. Lindblad's policy in earlier years had been to reimburse already-booked guests, if asked, with vouchers for future travel of value equal to the special offer. This time, they said they could not do anything for us.

Here is where having an experienced travel agent to fight for you is invaluable. We were working through Susan Schneider at Twin Horizons Travel, a division of Travel Solutions. Eventually we received the incentives, applied to this trip, even though we had booked months before.

Lindblad's free, economy-class group flights were with TAP Portugal, departing from Newark and returning into JFK. The New York airports are not our favorites; Joan found a US Airways alternative that would depart from Charlotte and return into Philadelphia. And we could get business class seats for half of what Lindblad would charge on TAP! Susan convinced Lindblad to credit us the value of their free economy airfare, which we applied to these seats.

Lindblad charges an extra fee to process airline reservations that aren't part of a group flight, but we had them do so. If your return flight goes poof (think Icelandic volcano, or fog in the Orkney Islands), if you made your own reservations, you are on your own to cope with the emergency. Lindblad will assist only if you made the air reservations through them.

There were side effects of not being on the group flight. Lindblad made it clear that if we were not on the group flight, we would be responsible to transfer from the airport to the hotel on Madeira. Further, if the group transfer from the dock at Portsmouth, England to Heathrow for the return flight did not fit our schedule, we would be on our own for getting to Heathrow -- about a $150 taxi ride. And by the way, the ship should not be expected to have that many British pounds for us to purchase, so we should get them elsewhere. We grumbled, but getting business class at ½ the price was still worth these annoyances, especially for the 8-hour overnight flight out. (We later learned from other guests that the free TAP seats were in the back of the plane, some were not reclinable, and all had a knee-busting lack of air space between seats.)

In December we were notified that the ship, the Explorer, would be in drydock in the Canaries longer than expected, and that therefore the trip would no longer include the Canaries, but instead there would be an extended 3-day visit to Madeira before the ship would catch up to us. To their credit, Lindblad said they would pick up any change fees incurred on air travel (we wouldn't book our flights for another month) and would house the group at the historic Reid's Palace luxury hotel in Funchal, Madeira.

About a month before departure Lindblad informed us that they would take care of transferring us from the airport to Reid's. Susan further got them to be responsible for getting a refund from Reid's for our transfer, which they did. Then when we received our final travel documents from Lindblad, two weeks before departure, we discovered that there would also be an early transfer from Portsmouth. Those guests whose flights were up to an hour sooner than the group flight would not need to hire a taxi!

Joan and I did have a six-hour layover in Gatwick, which was unremarkable except for the system of gate information we saw both in Gatwick and Heathrow. In the U.S., the airport will typically display the expected gate for a flight well in advance -- many hours, in fact. Your boarding pass for a connecting flight that you won't be boarding for, say, six or seven hours likely as not will have a gate number printed on it. In the London airports, until about 45 minutes before the boarding starts the airport displays show only "Gate will open at XX:YY." Thus, passengers spend much more time at shops, bars, and food courts and don't clog the gate areas until closer to boarding time, when the display will change to "Proceed to Gate ABC." 

After a four-hour flight from Gatwick we landed in Funchal, Madeira. In the photo below, the causeway to the right is not an automotive bridge, but an extension of the airport runway! Not wasting space, the land underneath the runway is a park with tennis courts and more.

Disembarking, we were met by not only a Lindblad representative (there were five of us on that flight), but by a limo driver sent by the hotel. Even though our cancellation had been confirmed, our limo reservation had not been purged from the hotel's list! The driver was upset, not knowing how he would be paid, but we stuck with the Lindblad group and arrived at the hotel 20 minutes before the welcome-to-the-trip cocktails and dinner. Fortunately Reid's did not require our group to don formal wear, although we were asked to dress nicely. I had time to change my shirt. The formal dining room is a stunning sight with high vaulted ceilings. The hotel is full of memorabilia from famous personages, such as Bertrand Russel and Winston Churchill.

And then we collapsed into bed, looking forward to our first day in Madeira. The hassles of booking, scheduling, and arriving were over, and we knew that Lindblad always does an excellent job of running a trip.

Madeira, Day 1

We awoke and looked out from our balcony.

Technically we were on the eighth floor, but for Reid's this is only a general indication. The lobby, for example, is on the sixth floor, because the building is, by necessity, built on the side of a steep hill -- Madeira is an old volcanic island. The hotel consists of two buildings which connect only at the fifth floor. It did take us a while to learn our way around!

Gasoline costs about $8/gallon on Madeira, so the taxis do not run their engines while waiting for a fare. When the time comes to advance in the queue, the taxi drivers rely on gravity and guide their vehicles forward.

When operating from the ship Lindblad always offers several excursions to the guests, accommodating different interests and fitness levels. Today there was a choice between a levada walk and tour of the Botanical Gardens and Quinta do Palheiro gardens. We chose the levada (irrigation canal) walk, a 7-mile walk with a generally gentle downhill slope and a lunch stop at the end.

Here we have disembarked from our buses at the start of the trail (the Ribeiro Frio to Portela walk). We were led by a local guide and Lindblad staffers who had been here before.

The levadas start out narrow and shallow, collecting water at the higher altitudes on the island, and then become broader and deeper as they descend, acquiring more and more water, until the water is consumed at the lower, warmer, and more inhabited altitudes.

Madeira goes from sea level to 6000 feet (1820 meters). In the first 300 meters, bananas are grown, and at the top, it can snow in winter. On this walk, in the middle altitudes, it was both warm and moist, supporting a profusion of vegetation even on the rocky slopes.

The levadas are a popular attraction, and the inquisitive chaffinches were accustomed to tourists; they may have been looking for a handout.

At one point the trail looped around and I snapped a picture across the ravine. Portions of the trail had cables, as you see, because it was sometimes narrow and on the edge of a cliff.

Here's my artistic picture in the clouds.

The last mile or so was more on roads and had some muddy steps cut into the hillside to descend. At the end we had a hearty lunch. My apologies to Tom, Penelope, and Skip for including them in this photo, but then we all were damp and tired after seven miles in the mist. The exercise did us all good after the confined flights and time changes (Madeira is 5 hours ahead of Ohio).

On Lindblad trips an alcoholic beverage with your meal is an extra cost, except for the welcome-to-the-trip and farewell dinners. On Madeira wine is just another beverage and was included in the meals without question or comment.

As we gathered outside the restaurant to board our buses, everybody admired the promontory known as Eagle Rock. According to our guide, the feature has never had any connection with eagles, but looks like it should. We would see it from the other side on the third day.

After cleaning up, our next outing was a 7:00PM departure for dinner. The Portugese consider any time before 10:00PM much too early for dinner, and there was a hidden compromise tonight. Yes, we left at 7PM, but the buses took a scenic, roundabout route, each with a local guide, and we stepped off the buses forty-five minutes later rather than ten. Then we admired the preparations, just getting under way, for the Flower Festival that weekend, on the main pedestrian thoroughfare.

Just beyond the flowers, a troupe was performing traditional folk dances, in costume. They were very good. With my usual skill, I managed to stop this video two seconds before the music ended. My apologies!

Across the street was our destination, the Old Blandy Wine Lodge, where dinner was to be served. (Blandy is the name of a long-established English family, the Madeiran Rockefellers as it were. Our buses were also Blandy.)

Inside the Lodge, we were taken on a short tour of their wine museum. I don't remember much except the sweet smell of the larger-than-life, walk-through wooden barrel perfumed by flasks of Madeiran wine. Then we came to the hallway with the serving line, but don't form the idea that we're about to come into the proximity of food. There are three rooms using this buffet line, two occupied by our Lindblad group and a third occupied by another group.

Joan and I end up at one of the tables in one of the rooms. It is not yet time to dine, however; it is time to appreciate fado, traditional Portugese singing of loss and remembrance.

Then and only then are the tables slowly released, one by one so as to not clog the buffet area. We left the hotel at 7PM and it is now sometime after 9PM. Our table is the last to the buffet line, where for many lovely courses servers are at hand to transfer the portions to your plate. When the time comes for dessert, the dispatchers seem to have forgotten our table, and we release ourselves to sample several of the delights.

After dinner two guitarists perform, and they do a great job. They are lively and their music is varied, from traditional tunes to bluesy tunes to Hotel California. We demand an encore, and they are happy to oblige, but then they must move on to the next room.

OK, it is time to go (well after 10PM). But no, the guides appear to be waiting for all the rooms to be finished. One of the couples at our table suggests that we should just get up and go. We realize that everybody at the table is in agreement, and stand up and begin to walk out. This is a signal, and all the other tables in the room also stand up and begin to walk out. The guides dash to catch up to us, we get on the buses waiting for us outside, and get back to the hotel forty minutes ahead of the other diners.

And Joan and I need our rest. It will be a long day tomorrow, during which we will go to the top of the Pico do Arieiro twice and stay up past midnight.