North Coast

Time to leave Porto Moniz and travel across the north coast from west to east.

We engaged the same taxi driver to pick us up and give us a tour of the north coast, narrowly avoiding a road block as the São Vicente Car Rally was starting on the public roads this morning.

We stopped at the black sand beach of Sexial, voted in the top 3 beaches in Europe in 2022 - not for the quality the beach (because the blank sand turns to black mud after going in the water), but because of the setting.

We stopped briefly to see some traditional Madeiran triangle houses in Santana. They are made of straw and wood because they were both abundant materials in the early days, and the high pitched roof assisted to keep the rainwater running off.

Another glass viewpoint visited at Guindaste, this one vying for the world's shortest? 😂

Porto Da Cruz is home to a rum distillery, so while Bek and Jake sampled their wares, Oliver and I climbed the nearby viewpoint for a cache and watched the many surfers in the bay.

Two more viewing areas were visited before arriving in Machico, both with views of the airport. We stayed a while and watched a number of planes take off and land - the airport is certainly busier that we thought it would be!

After settling into our accommodation, we headed to the city centre for a late lunch and a walk around the beach front, which is split into two by a breakwater. One end is a pebble covered surf beach, the other a sandy swimming beach in a protected end of the bay. It is one of the few sandy beaches of Madeira, with sand imported from North Africa. The sand imports were quite controversial, as the sand was taken from Western Sahara, a Non-Self Governing Territory which has been largely occupied by Morocco since 1975.Read more