MADEIRA
Strap on your hiking boots and prepare for a trek that will test your physical limits, challenge your sanity, and make you question why you ever thought it was a good idea to voluntarily walk for days on end. We head to the island of Madeira.
Welcome to this travel blog, where we embark on the Madeira Island Ultra Trail (MIUT) – a long distance hike full of adventures, misadventures, steps, and burning thighs that will leave you wondering if you’ll ever walk the same way again.
MADEIRA – DAY 1
Very early start! 3:30am to be precise, although it didn’t feel too bad – I think that’s often the case when you’re off on an adventure. And it was worth it to arrive at our hotel by eleven thirty with almost the whole day ahead to explore the local area.
We stayed at Hotel Dom Pedro in Machico, a coastal town on the east of Madeira. We went for lunch first and had a ‘Prego‘ – a Portuguese sandwich of fried steak with crushed garlic hammered (literally!) into it to give the most incredible flavours. Needless to say we polished it off before heading off on a walk along the coast.
Dinner was at Talhadas – conveniently right next to our hotel. We kept it fairly relaxed on day zero – after dinner the only thing left to do was the inevitable last minute panic shop at the local supermarket for sustenance.
Accommodation: Hotel Dom Pedro https://madeira.dompedro.com/pt/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=website_dpmadeira
MADEIRA – DAY 2
Definitely not an alpine start 😂
Up at 7am, breakfast shortly after ready for a 9am taxi kindly arranged by the hotel to Porto Moniz – our start point. Upon arrival at Porto Moniz we marvelled at the beautiful rock pools below us, half wishing we could delay our start for a quick swim.
We began our ascent; the only way to describe this would be brutal, relentless, and unforgiving and those would all be massive understatements. We went up, up, and up again only to find…there was more up. It was hard. It was the same for the downs – too steep to achieve a good pace, and our poor knees really took a beating!
The environment is really quite incredible – you can go from being in what feels like the middle of a rainforest to traversing across epic and narrow ridgelines. The misty cloud canopy draped the landscape in an ethereal shroud, obscuring the distant horizons (and our upwards journey) in a veil of mystery.
We had deliberated over whether to camp on the first night or find refuge in a B&B with a hot shower and an actual bed. Probably a bit pathetic that we chose the latter but it had been a hard day and we realised that irrespective of where we slept – we did need some dinner.
We found accommodation at Baia Seixal Ocean Front apartments – phew 😅- and a beach front restaurant which made us two very happy hikers! We ate like kings (a massive plate of meat and chips), bought an ice-cream for the walk home and called it a night.
Accommodation: Baia Seixal Ocean Front apartments https://www.booking.com/Share-ubQ1t2
Dinner: https://instagram.com/barpraiadalaje?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
MADEIRA – DAY 3
We set off at 8am to head to the supermarket to pick up lunch and some caffeine (happy Becky!) – then got picked up at 9am for a lift up to the Vargem area to avoid the horrendous 1600m ascent we’d have first thing and that would just be for getting to the summit of peak 1!
Our driver was the owner of the apartment we stayed at the night before and on the journey up to our new start point we gained insight into life in Madeira. A few things we learnt from this friendly chap:
‘True Madeira’ is on the north side of the island and in the mountain areas.
The political situation is complex – lots of corruption especially around land and business ownership.
The African slaves built all the trails we are hiking*.
The chef at the restaurant we ate at the night before is truly a legend – he saved 2 men from drowning in the ocean just the week before when a huge wave swept them off the path where they were taking photos. Apparently it’s a real issue here – the power of the waves and the danger they pose to tourists.
Madeira is the Hawaii of Europe (we agree!)
*Upon more research into this, it turns out the intricate network of Levadas we often saw on the hike were crafted by the slaves – channelling the island’s water resources from the north side of the island which catches more rain, to the south where the first inhabitants settled. The name ‘Levada’ is derived from the Portuguese verb ‘levar’ which means ‘to bring’. i.e. the Levadas bring water to where it is needed most.
We arrived at the start feeling fresh and ready to go (probably something to do with the 1000m ascent we had just cheated our way out of…) The hike was so much better than Day 1 – far more varied, and the ascent was a lot less intense and so we could appreciate the scenery a lot more.
We noticed that when on the north side of a ridge or peak, the ground was dry and the air was warm; whereas on the south side it was much more tropical and humid with flora that would be at home in the Amazon rainforest. It was generally quite misty for most of the day but when that cleared, the views were spectacular – and looking back over the ridgeline we had traversed we felt quite proud of our day’s effort!
We ticked off quite a few peaks (Pico da Encumeada at 1278, Pico do Jorge at 1691, Encumeada Baixa at 1655) before setting up camp for the evening at Achada Do Teixeira – a mountain lodge where we ate a ginormous bowl of pasta and sampled some Madeira wine.
The plan had been to stop a few kilometres earlier however the hut up at Pico Ruivo didn’t offer hot food and the camp area didn’t look too inviting. The ground was hard mud which isn’t ideal for pitching the tent we have and the available area was fairly small. And so – executive decision made we skipped the peak, headed down to the mountain lodge for the night with the aim of returning to summit Pick Ruivo early that next morning.
Accommodation: wild camped by Achada Do Teixeira
MADEIRA – DAY 4
We woke up feeling very unrefreshed after camping in the rain for the night – kind of to be expected! Soggy sleeping bags were packed up and we headed back to Pico Ruivo to hike up the highest mountain in Madeira. In an attempt to reignite the spark of determination to get to the summit, we left our bags at the mountain hut to make ourselves a little lighter and after a short but steep climb we reached the peak and were rewarded with the most glorious panoramic view…that we didn’t see because of the clouds! Nooooo! However, we did agree that the first peak ticked off before 10am isn’t too bad an effort.
We headed off on the hike towards Pico Do Arieiro – and to our delight the mist began to clear to reveal the most exquisite mountain ridge line in front of us, with deep valleys to our left and right. Behind us, we could finally see the mountains we had traversed the days before which felt somewhat rewarding.
This trail was far busier and touristy than the previous days, and it was easy to understand why. The narrow paths were carved into the mountain side – connected by tunnels, ladders, and the steepest of steps (can’t escape the steps!) which made for a varied and truly epic route across the famous peaks of the island.
After a final dramatic ascent up to Pico do Arieiro, we collapsed into the mountain top cafe, demolished a cheese burger each and then set off on the 6km mundane road walk to our accommodation. We did halfheartedly try to flag down a lift but ended up plodding down all the way to our accommodation for the night.
Or so we thought.
It turns out the accommodation we booked had the same name as the destination we walked to – and where we were very much looking forward to a celebratory evening meal. As luck would have it, the accommodation and restaurant weren’t anywhere near each other and we had another hour’s walk to tackle if we wanted to meet our bed for the night. We agreed that another hour on foot was just a bit too much to cope with and taxied our way down and out the mountains to a seaside town ten degrees warmer with a pool and abundance of restaurants to choose from.
Although we realised that meant the end of our mountain adventure, we generally felt broken and our bodies were saying a big NO to more walking. Reflecting on our adventure over a delicious dinner at Frango da Guiia we agreed that the MIUT needs to be something tackled with the lightest bags, no camping gear, and admittedly a slightly better plan than we had prepared.
Bellies full and hearts warm, we went to bed after making a friend in our lovely little waiter, Marco.
Accommodation: Dom Pedro Canico https://garajau.dompedro.com/en/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=website_dpgarajau