Madeira

A long day. Sitting now in the Piano Bar of the Dom Pedro hotel in Machino and our friends from Keswick have just arrived from Manchester to join us on 6 days of hiking around Madeira.

An early start, up at 4.50am, through security by 6.15, breakfast and boarded by 7.15 and airborne at about 8.15. Am uneventful flight until the final descent into Funchal where the landing was aborted owing to strong winds so we meandered around the skies for 25 minutes until it was deemed safe to land.

The photo is from our final approach before the pilot applied the power to lift away from the runway. It was an exiting landing as the final approach involves much steep, low level banking in the last few minutes.

Explored the town this afternoon. Rather warm with a bit of a breeze. Enjoyed a coffee and beer poolside and a lovely buffet meal in the hotel.

It’s a fine hotel, quite unsuitable for us walkers. A pool for goodness sake, a pool bar, and piano bar. We’re here for 2 nights.

Our first walk is from the hotel tomorrow.