A journey through Madeira’s mountains

Yesterday, our focus was on the sea; today we turn away from the coast to focus on the land. 

Madeira’s landscape is incredibly beautiful, high mountains nourished by rainfall with lush vegetation creating a world of sub-tropical greens. It’s really only the eastern peninsula of San Lorenzo where the greens morph into desert browns and yellows. 

I love the valley that runs across the island from Ribeira Brava in the south to San Vincente in the north, and turning off at Serra de Agua takes us up into the mountains for even more spectacular views. Lucky to reach the viewpoints before the cloud descends, we look over to terraced landscapes showing the ingenuity of a people determined to tame the mountainsides, to make the most of the fertile soils and climate.  But there comes a point where nature wins; the terraces give way to vertiginous slopes of green, and eventually, at the very highest points, bare rock. 

By now the clouds have taken over and we drive through rain. We have one more area to visit before returning to Funchal - Eagle Rock or Penha de Águia. It’s not the rock itself I’m interested in today - just as well as it’s almost completely covered by mist. It’s the landscape around about - ridges of land, remnants of ancient volcanic activity  that make for dramatic landforms. The inland mountains are by now only just visible - dark shadows in a mist of rain cloud.