We drove towards the north west of the island today. Going uphill we were stuck behind two army lorries driving very slowly, it was foggy so visibility wasn't good enough to pass them Eventually we got to the car park at Fanal forest.
The plan was to do a circular walk there, but it was foggy, windy and freezing cold so we decided not to go ahead with it. It was quite atmospheric seeing the trees and cows in the mist though.
We decided to drive to Porto Moniz on the north coast. We parked the car and had a wander round the natural swimming pools there.
From there we drove to the cable car station at Achadas Da Cruz. We walked down the path to sea level, then into the settlement there. It's semi-abandoned, with a few smallholdings still occupied.
As we walked to the end of the path, we found it had been damaged by huge fallen rocks. We backtracked!
We took a different path through the settlement, and discovered there was a tiny little bar/café. It seemed they specialised in Poncha, which is a local drink made from aguardente de cana (distilled sugar cane juice) with honey and orange juice. We had some, with some home made cake. They only asked for donations for the drinks, it was a very nice way to spend a little time.
We then walked back to the cable car and took it back to the top of the cliff. Apparently it's the steepest in Europe.
We stopped at the supermarket on the way back, and later for dinner had a local sausage a bit like Cumberland sausage, with chips, peas and sweetcorn.
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