Madeira Day 10: Cliffs and mountains

Tuesday 16 April
Another day of stunning scenery - I love this place! We started with the admittedly rather touristy, but nonetheless spectacular, glass-floored viewing platform at Cabo Girão, Madeira’s highest sea Cliff, at 580 meters, 1,903 feet above the ocean. In the top right image you look down more clearly on to a fajã, a rock platform created when the cliff face fell into the sea millennia ago. A precious piece of flatter land for farmers to cultivate crops. In the top left image, you can see farmers fields on the mountain top, going right to the very edge! You need a head for heights being a farmer in Madeira! From there, we continued to Riveiro Brava, with its beautiful church, see extra. Ribeira Brava (meaning “Wild stream”) is one of Madeira's oldest towns, established as a centre of sugar production by the mid 1400s. Then we took the valley road to São Vicente via the Encumeada Pass. I’m so thankful Roger still feels confident taking on these winding mountain roads, though I must admit it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be! São Vicente was a beautiful little town, and having enjoyed a good walk around at different levels, we had a drink at a bar across from the church - I had a Poncha, the most emblematic alcoholic drink on the island, made with sugar cane brandy, sugar and lemon juice as the basic ingredients, though often other juices are added, such as orange, tangerine or passion fruit, the latter being the one I enjoyed today. Since Roger was driving he didn’t partake! I’ve added two collages, one of the road to SãoVicente, and one of the village itself.
Step count: 11,434