Last day today. We packed up and left the apartment, and drove down and parked near the seafront. After a stroll we went for a coffee in a café.
We took the car back to the hire place at the airport, then went in to the terminal. We had some lunch before the plane took off on time at about 2pm.
We arrive back in Edinburgh about 6, picked up our car and went to pick up Oscar in Edinburgh.
We went on a hill walk today, rather than a levada one. We first drove to the village of Fontes and parked next to a bar.
It was quite hazy, so the views weren't brilliant. It was a good track all the way though.
After a couple of hours we got to the top of Chão dos Terreiros where we had our lunch.
We crossed a rustic style.
On the way down we passed a small forest of chestnut trees.
As we got lower down it turned into a eucalyptus forest. It looked like some had been blown down recently.
We walked into a gorge for a bit, where there were a load of bee hives. The noise from the bees was surprisingly loud.
We carried on down to arrive back into Fontes. There was more evidence of recent forest fires even near the village.
We drove to Câmara de Lobos again and had a stroll round and a drink by the beach. There was a statue of Winston Churchill who'd stayed at one of the hotels there.
Later in the evening we walked across the city to Rua da Carreira, an old town street some way from the centre. We had a drink at Trigal first, then went to look for a restaurant. The first one we came to looked a bit overpriced for standard Madeiran dishes, so instead we went to Jardim Da Carreira. This had a nice garden in the middle, but was completely empty other than us.
The food was good though, Shirley had steak with green beans and Scott had mixed grilled meats.
Today we wanted to get to Pico Ruivo, the highest peak on Madeira at 1861 m. The plan was to drive to Pico do Arieiro, a lesser peak, to catch the sunrise, then walk to Pico Ruivo.
So we left the apartment at about 7.15am and headed up. About 5 km from the end of the road we were flagged down by a car going in the opposite direction, who told us to look out for 3 dead sheep on the road ahead. A bit further on sure enough there were 3 dead black sheep on the road - we never found out what killed them.
As we got nearer the top, there was snow on the road and some cars were giving up and parking. We got to about 2 km from the top and couldn't make it up a steep bit, so we turned the car round to point downhill and parked.
We walked up the road to Pico do Arieiro, and the sun rose as we walked. It wasn't a great one though.
At the summit we walked around for a bit. The path to Pico Ruivo was obviously out of the question due to the snow and ice. There's a military communications installation at the top.
We thought the the "easy" path to the peak from the other side at Achada do Teixeira might be feasible, so we walked back to the car and started to drive round. As we got a bit further down we found that the police had now closed the road, and loads of cars hadn't even made it as far as we did.
We got round to the other side of the island and headed up towards Teixeira, only to get flagged down and told we couldn't get up there because of the ice and snow. Fortunately we had a conversation with a German couple who told use there was a very good levada walk further down the hill at Queimadas.
As it turned out this was a walk we'd done back in 2010, to the Caldeirão Verde (Green Cauldron).
We parked down the hill and set off. After about 2 km we got to Queimadas where there are some traditional thatched houses, and some duck houses.
We then had quite a long walk along the levada. At many points there are waterfalls falling onto the path, and four tunnels to go through, some of which had low roofs.
The Green Cauldron is a pool at the bottom of a waterfall.
We walked back to the car. When we got there the police were trying to close the snow gate just above the car park. However they seemed to have lost the key for it as they were hitting it with a hammer.
We drove home via the supermarket. Later for dinner we made raclette (cheese, potatoes, onions and pancetta) with fresh tomatoes.
We drove to the Rabacal area and parked on the main road. We started to walk along the Levada do Paul, which is on the coast side of the ridge. We went along it for a couple of miles, but decided we'd had enough as the terrain was a bit samey, thick gorse on either side all the way.
Instead we caught one of the minibuses down to Rabacal itself, where some of the most popular walks on the island converge. First we went along the Levada do Risco to the Risco waterfall.
At the picnic area we had some lunch, there were loads of hungry chaffinches demanding crumbs.
From there we joined the Levada das 25 Fontes, and followed it to the end where there are supposed to be 25 waterfalls. Some bigger than others.
We walked a slightly different way back, going to the entrance of a tunnel that goes right to the coast side of the ridge. We'd come through it last time we came to Madeira in 2010.
We caught the minibus back up to where we'd parked the car. We drove down to the coast, to the village of Ponta do Sol, supposedly the sunniest place on the island. We had a stroll about there.
We drove a bit further down the coast to the bigger resort of Ribiera Brava, where we went to a café for a drink and a snack. We got bolo de caco (bread) with garlic butter, and some cheese sticks. These were more than we could manage, so we took some away with us to have the next day.
We went to the supermarket on the way home, and later had fish fingers, chips and peas for dinner.
