Album · 40 photographs
Madeira
Caniçal — Porto Moniz — Fanal — Pico Ruivo — Ponta do Sol — Funchal
Eleven days in January, a rented Opel Corsa and a tarp with no pegs. We slept in a bus stop, a campsite, the car and an old chapel, chased sunrises and spent half the trip trying not to lose the drone.
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Ribeira da Janela
Two euros a night. We kept coming back.
Night one
The bus stop
Wind strong enough to rock the car, and no pegs for the tarp. I ended up on a narrow bench in a bus stop, on a sleeping mat twice its width with a slow leak. By morning it was raining. The mat leaked for the rest of the trip.
03 · Madeira
05 – 06 · Madeira
Madeira
Levadas
Levadas are narrow channels that carry water from the mountains to villages and fields. The paths along them run through tunnels and past waterfalls. Near Ribeira da Janela the birds land on your hand for a single nut. Five each in ten minutes.
08 · Madeira
Fanal
No fog, just a field with trees. Then the clouds rolled in.
In the rain
The wrong turn
We missed a turn, climbed halfway towards Pico Ruivo, then cut straight down through the jungle in pouring rain. Further on, a waterfall had torn the railing off the path. Through the waterfall or through the levada. I took the levada.
22 · Madeira
São Lourenço
Sunrise, after a night without a minute of sleep.
Pico Ruivo, 1,862 m
One of us waited twenty minutes for a bird to land on his hand. None did.
The drone
Three close calls
At Ribeira da Janela an updraft pulled the drone up while I held the stick down. At Cabo Girão a seagull went for it mid-panorama. In Fanal I clipped a branch. It survived all three. A guy we met near Ponta do Pargo wasn’t so lucky. His went into the ocean. “Shit happens,” he said.
39 · Cabo Girão
