Madeira is a truly beautiful place, geologically part of Africa but culturally part of Europe, a volcanic island around 200 miles off the coast of Morocco it's a little green haven in a vast sea of azure blue. There are many microclimates here, the North side gets the rain and the South side plenty of sunshine, in the West there are big Atlantic rollers beloved by surfers and in the East the only piece of land flat enough to host an airport. It's only 286 square miles, which is about the size of Anglesey in Wales but it seems like every square inch of the place is producing some kind of crop or other, from bananas to grapes or sugar cane and as can be seen in the picture above the mountainous terrain is extensively terraced and subdivided into smallholdings.
One of the days we were there we took a boat trip along the South West coast of the island and luckily spotted a whole pod of Bottlenose Dolphins and a rather huge Bryde's Whale ambling along, amazing views. On the way back to Funchal port we passed the little fishing village that Winston Churchill spent a lot of time painting in the 50s, called Câmara de Lobos it's a quaint place where last year we had a splendid lunch, fish as fresh as it could be and a delicious local white wine. The picture below shows Winston's go at painting the place, it's totally recognisable although there are obviously a few more buildings these days.
We were all sad to leave the island and head back to a drizzly and grey Gatwick, although from chatter on the plane on the way home I suspect it will be more an "au revoir" rather than a goodbye, until next time!
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