2026- July- Island of Madeira- Portugal- “Man’s Ingenuity”!

This is our third visit to the Island of Madeira on this occasion for ten days. Madeira is about the same size in area as Singapore or Bahrain and the comparison ends there as it’s a mountainous, volcanic plug in the Atlantic Ocean. A 3.5 hour flight south-west from London, 520 kms west of Morocco on the North African coast and the island is a region of Portugal, thus a part of the EU .

It’s a stunning place, sheer coastal cliffs, rich volcanic soils allowing beautiful gardens, vegetation and good crop growing conditions. It’s a favourite holiday destination, not so much for families wanting a big sandy beach experience, but with all round mild weather it’s a tourist destination for the whole year.

In the Blog about this trip I want to share a bit of what I observe as “ man’s ingenuity on the Islamd of Madeira”, and then a bit on tourist highlights for us as it’s a destination for the active explorer as well as the relaxing holidaymaker.

The airport at Funchal- Cristiano Ronaldo Airport- after the favourite footballer son – hangs on the south -east cliff of Madeira Island, runways etc supported on 180 concrete columns.Its location , exposure to the Atlantic Ocean’s elements and the prevailing winds & cross winds make it into the top 10 most challenging airports to land or take off from. On our previous visits we have landed from the west, coming in over the ocean in a wide sweep- the odd lurch and down onto a good length runway. This time we landed from the east, gracefully flying past the coastline at a respectable distance and then suddenly we appear to be almost scraping the sheer cliff face as we hold our breath and land perfectly. There is also relief in the pilots voice when he announces our arrival, thank you Ryanair!

In the taxi van heading to our Pestana Grand hotel that lies on the west side of Funchal at Ponta da Cruz, I lose count of the number of tunnels, viaducts, over passes and under passes in the 30 minute journey. The driver also loses count of the speed limit of 80kph by keeping up with all the other F1 aspirational local motorists at a steady 105kph.

The scale and substance of the civil engineeering is impressive. The land that Madeirans live on is hard volcanic rock, not smoothed by an Ice Age, but hardened by the elements and reasonable access around the island today means tunnels, viaducts and roads up the sides of the terrain which local buses frequent with amazing skill. Q. How many bus trips have you ever been on where the bus driver initiates the avoidance of a traffic impasses by reversing his bus back up the hill he has descended, then instructing a car to move into a driveway,so that we can the proceed downwards. All in a days work for Madeiran bus drivers it seems.

The next element of “mans ingenuity” on Madeira Island that I want to share is the “Levada Network’ that winds its way around the landscape of the Island. “The levada network in Madeira is incredibly extensive, spanning approximately 3,100 kilometres (1,920 miles) across an island only 742 square kilometres in size. This colossal irrigation system features around 200 individual channels and includes about 80 kilometres of tunnels carved directly through the volcanic mountains.These man-made channels were originally built by early Portuguese settlers in the 15th century to transport rainwater from the lush, rugged north coast to the drier, sunnier agricultural south. THANKS WIKI! “ But the levadas, originally hewn from the volcanic rock by slaves, woodplanking and stones used to aid water retention, are today made of concrete as they criss cross the landscape many hundreds of metres above sea level

We are high above Funchal and the levadas have fed water into irrigation channels and also via a weir system into town water storage. The construction of the levadas in the 17th century was an unbelievable feat of back breaking ingenuity. But equally so the transformation of concrete to make the channels long lasting, that must have been amazing.

We were about 3/4 of our estimated 2 hour walk along the Levada dos Tornos, when we came to a small settlement , at a cross roads and a local pointed us in the direction we should take. Up to then we had been followed for a while by three Portuguese walkers who continued to follow us, so we felt confident we were on the correct route. We were not.

The Levada dos Tournos walkway, up until this cross roads settlement and our local advice on the direction to take, had seen us on quite a pleasant wide footpath usually with a steep slope upwards across the levada to our right, and to the left was much bush, plenty of trees, largely obscuring the precipitous drop to the valley floor below.

As we continue the walkway now becomes more open, after we pass a small waterfall and little tunnel we turn a corner to the right and our destination at Monte is there before us across the yawning chasm of a steep sided valley. Walking along the levadas now becomes time for intense concentration, one foot in front of the other as the walkway has narrowed significantly and the view below is “ open to view” – I pass on that opportunity, relying on my “ hypno therapists fear of heights techniques”, to see me through, counting aloud each careful step and focussing solely on that action. After about 45 minutes of this , we find the Levada dos Tournos just dissapears into a tunnel. We stop and chat to the 3 Portuguese walkers about our options which are to turn back along the “fear inducing narrow walkway”, or to take a track to the left of the tunnel that cuts down the hillside that one of our group recalls from an earlier trip, 20 years back!!

We push on down the track of a 20 years memory, under and over fallen trees, eventually meet a couple of walkers heading up the track we are descending – most comforting – and emerge below the gondola towers of Monte and a steep climb to the waiting Bus.

Oh and the Portuguese trio who had been following us, and then overtook us near the tunnel, well they turned back along the narrow Levada, better them than us!

Holiday Activities

Tennis, walking, swimming in the Atlantic, Padel, Aquarobics Class, Supermarket shopping, Good Restaurants a plenty, Tribute Nights – ABBA, Simon & Garfunkel- just a quiet relaxing ten days!! And really you can do as much or as little as suits, there is heaps to do. No tours of the Island for us this time, as we have done those before, but they are excellent.

Funchal

Funchal is the capital of Madeira and the centre of everything. A wander around the capital is a pleasure, lovely stonework patterns on the streets, beautiful tiled artworks that the Portuguese are well known for and an intriguing Cathedral in the centre, quite plain exterior but a stunning interior. And gardens, trees, everywhere – beautiful Jacaranda, frangipani and palm trees – reminders of travels to other places.

We have had a wonderful trip back to Madeira, lots to do, super relaxing, excellent food and lovely welcoming Madeirans.