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  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    1
    Day 58

    Zurich Flughafen

    April 19, 2023 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Only one activity today, a flight to Singapore.

    The nice thing about an airport hotel, it's just a walk to the terminal.

    We departed a few minutes late at 11.55am, but arrived Singapore on time at 5.50 am... to 30 degrees and humid!

    Changi Airport is as quiet as a mouse, we were off the plane and had our bags in hand by 6.15 am, ready to catch the train to the city...    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
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    112111
    Day 57

    No time to zzz in Zurich

    April 18, 2023 in Switzerland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We only have one day in Zurich, so caught the train to the city this morning. This was our first lesson in what an expensive city this is - return train tickets were $22 each (for a 24 hour pass anywhere around the city).

    We walked across the many bridges in the city, up and down the funicular to the university, and around the old town streets, stopping for lunch and a few caches on the way. (Lunch from a street caravan was a burger, pesto pasta and 2 cappuccinos... $57. Ouch!)

    We noticed plenty of Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Maserati's in the streets, and had a quick look in the Tesla dealership in the heart of the city.

    We caught the train back to our airport hotel late afternoon and went for a walk around the park behind the airport, home to the shortest funicular in Switzerland with a length of 78.5 metres and a rise of just 23 metres!    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    6
    2
    Day 56

    Aeroporto da Madeira

    April 17, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We have an afternoon flight to Zurich, and only 6km to travel to the airport, so we had breakfast on the terrace before making our way to the airport late morning.

    The road from Machico to the airport travels under the runway, between the supporting pylons - the runway extension completed in 2000 was built on a platform, partly over the ocean, supported by 180 columns, each about 70 m tall. The terminal itself is mostly underground.

    We already had plenty of time to kill, but that was made worse by our plane from Zurich being an hour late leaving, so we were then scheduled to depart Funchal at 5.50pm.

    The airport is constantly busy, averaging 84 aircraft movements a day, and handling over 4 million passengers a year. Fortunately the departure lounge is on the top level and has an outdoor viewing area which overlooks the runway!

    By the time our departure time came around the original flight plan had expired, so we had another delay on the tarmac, finally taking off at 6.15pm.

    We arrived Zurich at 10.50pm and were thankful that we booked an airport hotel, so we were in the room by 11.45pm (the bloke in front of us at reception didn't have a booking... and both hotels in this area are fully booked with a conference this week, so he may have been in for a long night!)    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    32
    Day 55

    Meandering in Machico

    April 16, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Free day in Machico today, and the weather is warm and clear, so we thought we do some of the walking tracks around town.

    As we discovered in Porto Moniz, there are walking tracks throughout each town, but they don't appear on any maps, so it's a bit of trial and error to get the right one.

    We began near our apartment on the western side of town, with a track that crosses the main highway and heads toward the airport. It got very steep, very quickly, so we found another path down, back towards to centre of town.

    After some meandering we realised we were only a few hundred metres from one last cache (there's always just one more 🤣), so we trekked up the hill to the east to claim it.

    We found a series of levadas and roads down to the beach to join Bek and Jake for alfresco lunch near the fort, then headed back uphill to our accommodation for a quiet afternoon.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
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    Day 54

    North Coast

    April 15, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    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

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
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    22211
    Day 53

    Caching up and down the mountain

    April 14, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The weather is cool and overcast again today, so our plan to swim in the natural sea baths was put on hold.

    We solved a puzzle cache this morning so we set out on a mission! It was located beyond the end of a walking path, about 700m from our apartment. After some searching we found that one and was walking back to town past the school got chatting to the caretaker (it's currently school holidays), so we had a look around their indoor football stadium and 6 lane swimming pool... and he motioned that there is a walking path up the mountain (his English was as good as our Portuguese 😁).

    We set off up the path (toward a cache that we aborted the search for 2 nights ago when we ran out of footpath), and kept going up until we reached our destination. And, as luck would have it, a local cafe was just up the road. After a steak sandwich, coffee and Portuguese tart, we headed back down the walking path toward the coast.

    Still too cold for a swim, we walked around the town for a while, and had dinner in.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    11
    Day 52

    The teleferico that wasn't

    April 13, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Our plan today was to catch the cablecar from nearby Achadas da Cruz, down the cliff to sea level to a village that has no inhabitants, but the farmers still visit regularly to tend their crops. ,

    The cable car has a length of 600 meters and a slope of 98%, starting at 451 meters and ending by the sea... one of the steepest around and a must see for us.... except that when we arrived it was closed for maintenance 😞

    Our taxi driver claimed he didn't know it was closed, despite it being closed all week and him specialising in tourist transfers in the area (as well us asking at the start of the trip if it was open)... so that was 50 euro not well spent! 

    He gave us the option of walking down and up instead, a path about five kilometers long, which was once used by local farmers to transport their crops. We declined.

    The afternoon was raining off and on, so in between showers we grabbed a few caches and made another visit to the supermarket, before cooking dinner in.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
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    6111312
    Day 51

    Cliffs and Clouds

    April 12, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We're leaving Funchal today and heading to the north west corner of the island to Porto Moniz.

    We contacted a taxi driver a few days ago who specialises in transfers for tourists and agreed a price for the journey, including stops on the way. To drive direct takes one hour, so we hired him for 4 hours with 3 stops.

    First stop was the Cabo Girão Viewpoint, famous for its suspended glass platform. At 589m it's claimed as the highest sea cliff in Europe and the 2nd highest in the world (but both claims are in dispute!)

    We then ascended the central mountain range close to the highest point of the island, where we were above the clouds for much of the journey.

    On the northern side of the island we stopped at the Fanal Forest, an old growth laurel forest - it's at 1500m altitude and often shrouded in cloud, giving it a mystical appearance... but the cloud blows in quickly and disappears just as fast. Laurel forests were once spread throughout Europe, but today are practically extinct, so the Madeira Islands laurel forest was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, covering an area of 150 square kilometres.

    We arrived at Porto Moniz at 2pm, had some lunch on the foreshore and a trip to the supermarket. Oliver and I then went for a caching walk, and had an impromptu Levada walk.

    A levada is an irrigation channel or aqueduct specific to Madeira. They were originally constructed of stone and later concrete to irrigate the sugarcane fields, and usually have a walking path next to it. There are more than 2,170 kilometres of levadas - not bad for an island 57km long and 22km wide.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
    1
    21
    Day 50

    Teleferico up, Carreiros down

    April 11, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We made an early start today to ride the cable car (Teleferico) up the mountain behind Funchal. The cruise ship passengers usually do it in the morning, so we avoided the last 2 days when there were 2 ships in, with a total of 7,500 passengers. Today there is only 1 ship of less than 200.

    The journey up the mountain is 3km, and there there are a number of gardens, churches and a palace that can be viewed at the top.

    The fun way to come down is by wicker basket sled (Carreiros do Monte). The small village of Monte, perched in the hills overlooking Funchal, was formerly a health resort for Europe's high society, so what began as a method of transport in the late 1800's for the elite, is now purely for tourism.
    Standing on the back of the sled, 2 white-uniformed drivers (Carreiros), wearing straw boaters and rubber soled shoes, steer the baskets along the narrow winding streets 2km downhill, at up to 40kmh.

    After our slide down the hill we caught the local bus back to the city centre, walked along the promenade, and visited the supermarket to buy supplies for dinner.    Read more

  • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
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    Day 49

    Nuns, Winston, Poncha and Nikita

    April 10, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We joined a half day tour to the Valley of the Nuns today, only 8km as the crow flies, but 17km by road from Funchal, and at an altitude of 1,095m. The road out of Funchal is very steep and windy and the views spectacular. The south coast is thick with eucalyptus trees... but some history fun-facts first...

    Madeira Island was discovered in 1419 by the Portuguese navigators João Gonçalves Zarco, Tristão Vaz Teixeira, and Bartolomeu Perestrelo. It was uninhabited at the time. Due to the number of trees, they named the island "Isla de Madeira" (Island of Wood).

    Most of the islands' trees were cut for timber by early settlers. In the 16th and 17th centuries the southern side of Madeira was converted to sugarcane plantations, and Eucalyptus was also planted extensively, displacing native species.

    We began our day with a visit to a viewpoint over the Valley of the Nuns, which was the best way to see the village (named when Nuns fled there for just 3 days in the 1500's fleeing a pirate attack in Funchal... so there is no convent and no Nuns!

    On the way back to Funchal (the name Funchal derives from the plant Foeniculum Vulgare, the fennel plant, prominent in the early regional cuisine and confectionery), we stopped in at Câmara de Lobos, a fishing village famous for black scabbardfish and Winston Churchill's visit in 1950 where he painted landscapes in his leisure time.

    In the afternoon we partook in some traditional Madeiran drinks - Poncha, made with sugarcane rum, honey, sugar, and fruit juice, and
    Nikita, originally from Câmara de Lobos, consisting of pineapple ice cream, pineapple juice, and either white beer or white wine. It was created in 1985 by a man called Marcelino, who named it after his favourite Elton John song.    Read more

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