The ones who travel and reach their destination by plane, know this situation: What to do on the last day? I've had quite a few interesting experiences, although today I will focus on a recent one. I traveled with a good friend to Madeira, she was not My-Dear(a). The views on the island can be so spectacular, that you can get a bit too distracted. My Dutch friend tripped over an ugly concrete bench on the second to last day, and had a serious wound on the knee. But that didn't stop us for being active on the last day. No guts, no glory.
Take me to the...hospital
This song from the Prodigy popped up, when my friend dropped down. This was not the first clumsy move during the roadtrip. It was one full of unexpected events, 3 rental cars in 10 days, accident, cancelled bookings, sleeping outside, etc. At one of the last days we stayed in a hotel with one of the most beautiful spots to enjoy a jacuzzi. Maybe the alcoholic bubbles kept my friend with a sparkle in her head, when she decided to kiss the concrete. The closest pharmacy was very helpful. When I saw the name of the pharmacy, I had to laugh..."Boaventura", which means good luck, good life, good fortune. Ok, we are fine then. Our last B&B at the island was one on the East, we parked our rental car and enjoyed this amazing house full of Portuguese antiques. When we walked outside, I had to laugh again. The house was next to the hospital. I looked at the thick and bleeding knee of my friend...and the song in my head repeated itself. Perfect planning to pick a B&B next to a hospital today. You should walk inside.
"No, we are going for a hike and some booze!"
And so we did. Ending up climbing over a fence to visit an abandoned building, where a shy young couple had an intimate encounter. So cute. It reminded me of the good old days when I was young and also looked for quiet places to... But, this post is not about making out in public or ending up at the hospital while falling a cliff after some romance. Because, this wasn't a lovers trip.
Off the beaten track
Back to the last day. We packed our bags and checked the weather forecast. You can not always trust this on an island like Madeira. We've been hiking a lot during our stay on the island and we had 2 options for today. Hike the eastern tip of the island or hike to the highest mountain: Pico Ruivo. Weather forecast wasn't too good, cloudy and rain. So, we decided to pick the Eastern tip hike: PR8 Ponta de São Lourenço. Driving our rental car to the starting point and what the fuck happened here?! Soo many cars and people, we were not used to that during our quiet hikes on the other corners of the island. We parked in the sun and started to walk. This weather forecast didn't mention this heat, and certainly not this early. We were prepared with cold water and 1 liter of ice-cold 'Poncha'. What is Poncha? It's not the feminine version of a poncho, although we were expecting rain. No, it is a local traditional cocktail from Madeira. We bought it in a little town called São Vicente (that names sounds familiar). Poncha is made fresh with citrus juice, honey and rum. The rum is actually produced on the island, there is a shitload of sugar cane growing all over the place. We didn't want to get lost that early, so we kept that special yellow fellow in our bag. And we bought some lime Calippo's to cool down. I needed to have a wee, but what is that?! Next to the ice cream stall there was a Dixi (plastic mobile toilet) on a trailer, in the full burning sun. These type of toilets you normally find on festivals. The entrance fee of this blue tiny sauna? 1 euro. I decided to give the dry bushes some water.
Ok, let's start. This trail is a 7 km long hike, with some hills. Height difference around 500 meters. Normally it should take 2 - 3 hours. Well, it took us a lot longer. Many photo stops, a few more km's and a little lunch break. Madeira is green, and it's also called the island of flowers. But this Eastern peninsula what as dry as the Sahara. No green plants, just rocks and some dried out flowers. I liked the contrast with the rest of the week. I was making jokes and warned my wounded friend not to trip again. And you know, when you make fun of something...it happens to you right? Yes. A ranger warns you not to camp here and he asks a 1 euro entrance fee to maintain the track. Hardly anyone was paying and we figured out what goes wrong here. The hike is a moderate one, not that difficult. Although not everyone should do this hike. The further you get, the more challenging the trail becomes. At least, when you follow the official path. The path was in such a bad condition, it was safer to go off the beaten track. The last part of the trail you have to go more uphill, for the highest viewpoint. The beaten track is made with wooden beams and some kind of a fence. The fence has worn parts where you can easily cut yourself. And the beams? Some are loose or have huge sharp nails sticking out. The same as with women with huge sharp nails...I'll try to stay away from it.
We made it! What a view. We received some jealous looks from people, when we were enjoying our cold poncha's. Accidentally we spilled a little on a rock and the tiny salamanders got wasted, when they discovered the sweat sour yellow lake of pleasure. On the way back, we were full of energy. It was a good pick to do this trail today. Not far from where we parked, there was a little stop for refreshments. More Calippo Lime please. The icecream was not the only dessert we received, the scenery behind the food stalls...WOW. The name of this spot: Ponta do Bode
Getting high
It was around 4pm by now. What an incredible walk. Should we go somewhere for dinner, or...? The Poncha's probably kicked in and I said, should we try to climb the Pico Ruivo? We constantly talked about hiking the highest mountain of the island and did not do it. I looked up and tried to get an impression of the amount of rain up in the mountains. I had a good feeling, and I am normally lucky with climbing mountains and volcano's. Let's do it. We tried to get up to a parking lot with the last bit of petrol, another risk. We arrived at the freezing parking area and there were only 3 cars. Covered in clouds, rain. We grabbed our jackets and started the hike. The only way is up. No muscle pain yet, keep smiling. And guess what? The Pico smiled back. While we went up, the sun started to shoot its flares at the deck of clouds one more time today. It worked, the clouds became thinner and thinner. We managed to arrive at the top and enjoyed our last cookies and Ponchas with jaw-dropping views. We felt happy and very lucky. After half an hour we walked back and the views disappeared. Clouds all over the place, serious rain and freezing wind. We made an illegal stop and sneaked into the jacuzzi from the hotel where we stayed before. What a day! And about 23km of hiking today.
The walk on the wild side
Despite all the challenges we had on this trip, we were incredibly lucky. No matter how unlucky we seemed to be sometimes, we stayed positive. Creative thinking, keep smiling and taking risks. Being creative and think out-of-the-box. The hikes on the last day, we took the maximum out of it. Each time I taste lemon juice, I have to think back to those funny adVINtures at MAD-eira. Once again, another trip without a dull moment. Leaving with lots of memories.
