I decided to hire a car to explore Madeira. Chris and Fiona decided to join me and the first stop had been the delightful Palheiro Gardens on the edge of Funchal, which quickly produced good views of the three Madeiran endemics Landbirds. After an hour and a half wandering around the Palheiro Gardens, it was time to head back and meet up with Fiona at the car. We still had a couple of other locations to visit.
While I was looking at places to visit and things to do on Madeira, I came across Cabo Girao. This is one of the highest coastal viewpoints in the Western Palearctic and also the Cetacean boat trips often seemed to head in this direction. I was hoping that we might get to see a Whale or a pod of Dolphins from Cabo Girao. We had to return through Funchal and head about twenty minutes West of the city. We arrived at the site, but we found it too touristy and we didn't think it was worth the entrance fee to walk down to the viewing platform.
We could see a lower local road from Cabo Girao which wound below and just to the East of the viewpoint, so quickly diverted to try that road instead. We couldn't see any Cetaceans, but a group of three Canaries appeared and one posed for some photos.
It was time to try our third destination of the day. This was to Curral das Freiras or the Valley of the Nuns. After Madeira was settled by the Portuguese, Funchal and the other neighbouring small coastal towns were under threat from marauding pirates. When pirates were seen, the civilians fled inland over the mountains. One popular hiding spot was the hidden valley of Curral das Freiras, which couldn't be seen from the sea. Eventually, a nunnery was built in this valley and it was named the Valley of the Nuns. It is now one of the most scenic locations on the island. It is easy to see why.
With mountains like these, it is easy to see how it took so long to locate the small breeding colony of Zino's Petrels on Madeira. The population is believed to be stable, but there are only around eighty pairs and maybe two hundred individuals in total. Having seen a couple at sea, I'm glad I don't have to consider returning to Madeira for the night time walk to the colony along the infamous narrow mountain tracks.
We had a quick drive around the Valley of the Nuns, before deciding to head back to Funchal. We had enjoyed our tour of the island and figured we could get back on the ship before the end of the extended lunch at three. In reality, we only had just over another hour left anyway. The ORCA team are members of the entertainment team and we have to be back on board with sufficient time to ensure we are not the reason why there is a late departure. In Madeira, the gangplank removal was scheduled for four-thirty.
In the end, our departure was delayed by nearly thirty minutes as the Costa Fortuna left port just before us. However, we were soon out of the port and able to start surveying for the final ninety minutes of light. We saw a couple of groups of Manx Shearwaters, but no Dolphins that evening.
The Captain said that evening that we had six to seven metre swells to look forward to as we headed towards our final planned destination of Lisbon. The port has a depth of not much over six metres at the shallowest point and the Spirit of Discovery had a similar draught. With the full six metre swell continuing close to the port, there was a risk that the ship could ground as we entered port. Due to the high swells which would continue up to the port, we had to enter the Lisbon port on the highest point of the high tide. While we could have arrived for the high tide, our departure would have been delayed to the following overnight high tide. This would have led to us arriving late into Pompey, with all the logistical challenges of changing the times for the eight hundred passengers getting off, up to one thousand passengers being rescheduled to arrive later to board the ship, as well as, all the other logistical changes to food arrivals etc. The result was the Captain told us, he had replanned for us to visit the Spanish port of Vigo instead and we would have an overnight stay in Vigo. I will cover that in the next Blog Post.
