Madeira

A little volcanic island off the coast of northern Africa might warrant some explanations to some regarding its viability as a tourist destination. Madeira, however, requires no explanation. Before arriving, you can feel something slightly different regarding this Portuguese island situated just over 400 miles west of Morocco.

The fact that one’s first experience of the island is a hair raising approach into its only airport- which sports over 3000 feet’s worth of runway built on concrete pillars- very much sets the scene for Madeira. There is little doubting that humans have had to adapt to the challenging environment of the island, and there is little doubting that in some places, engineers have had to think slightly outside the metaphorical box.

The island itself feels almost like a model railway set, with everything seemingly exaggerated beyond reasonable proportion. There are endless tunnels cutting through the landscape, to the extent where on certain stretches of road, you come out of one tunnel, go around a roundabout, and within another 50 yards, you’re back in a tunnel. The reason for these tunnels is, however, relatively clear, particularly when confronted with some of the topography. Madeira, is, for example, the home of the tallest sea cliff in Europe (second tallest in the world). This cliff, Cabo Girão, is described as a “lofty” sea cliff on Wikipedia, and at 580m, they’re not joking either!

Being volcanic, there is a large drop off quite close to the island, and so the sea is very deep relatively close to shore. At a distance of only 3 miles out from shore, the sea reaches depths of around 3000m. In turn, this makes the island perfect for whales and dolphins, as we found out to our delight.

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The twisting and turning bends forced by the island’s topography can make for some interesting driving up small roads. It also creates the perfect backdrop for some incredibly picturesque rallying. The island is home to several major rallies, and although these are not in mid July (1-3 August 2019 is next), there are smaller ones held throughout the year. Having received a tipoff on Facebook regarding one of these, we went to a smaller one being held on the island.

The island has a unique set of irrigation streams, known as Levadas. These are also popular walking trails and the easiest and best way to see some stunning scenery. Some are quite certainly not worth taking a camera on as the terrain is not always overly friendly, however, these are made up for by those where not taking a camera is borderline stupid!

I did manage to get to the airport a couple of times to take some photos, and there’s no doubting that when there actually is traffic, it is definitely worth a visit. Traffic is intermittent so I’d suggest checking Flightradar or the airport website before heading off, but this does not make the airport any less spectacular.

I saw the following aircraft whilst on my trip:

9H-LOJ	2011	Bombardier	CRJ-1000
CS-TJF	2000	Airbus	A321-211
CS-TNS	2009	Airbus	A320-214
CS-TTD	1998	Airbus	A319-111
D-AIAD	2014	Airbus	A321-211
D-AICE	1998	Airbus	A320-212
D-ATCD	2015	Airbus	A321-211
EC-INV	1991	ATR	72-202
EC-KGJ	2007	ATR	72-212A(500)
EC-LRY	2002	Airbus	A320-232
EC-MVG	2001	Airbus	A320-212
EI-FHU	2012	Boeing	737-8JP
F-GZHO	2015	Boeing	737-8K2
F-HTVF	2017	Boeing	737-8K2
F-HTVH	2018	Boeing	737-8K2
G-EZWX	2014	Airbus	A320-214
G-GATN	2004	Airbus	A320-232
G-GATP	2003	Airbus	A320-232
G-UZHE	2018	Airbus	A320-251N
OE-LBK	2003	Airbus	A320-214
OE-LQP	2009	Airbus	A319-111
OK-TSI	2011	Boeing	737-9GJER
OK-TSM	2007	Boeing	737-GJER
OK-TVO	2002	Boeing	737-8CX
OO-TUK	2011	Boeing	737-86J

(G-GATN was my aircraft there and G-GATP the way back)

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