Madeia Day 4

A rather unpleasant start to the day; waking up to sharing a shower with an unwanted giant cockroach. We called reception thinking that they would send a muscular 6 ft man down to wrestle with it, a small young lady came instead. She shut the bathroom door and after 5 seconds there was a flush of the toilet and this lady left our room. She had gotten rid of the roach with her bare hands. Very brave if you ask me, needless to say I spent as little time as possible in the hotel room for the remainder couple of days. The roach was no reflection of the hotel as you can obviously get cockroaches in the poshest of hotels in this type of climate. We finally made an escape (still early) towards Serra de Agua and Baca de Encumada. The drive was another spectacular one. We stopped at Bacca de Encumada and could see all the way to Sae Vincente (North coast). This small place (lay by) was crowded with bus loads of tourists. Luckily the levada walk spotting many lizards basking in the sun and flowers in full bloom. We followed the trail for about a mile each way although if you wanted you could follow the path for miles if you have the time, but when you are trying to see as much of this lucious island in the space of 5 days it is near impossible to complete the full length of the walks. There are simply too many walks to do in 5 days. However at least there are always new walks to do every time you go back to this island on holiday.

We followed the coast road to Sae Vincante with breath taking scenery. The North of the island sees a lot of rain and therefore it is cloudy and quite dull but none the less beautiful! We stopped at Seixal beach- one of the first sandy beaches we had come across (apart from Funchal) both with black sand. Drove to Porto Moniz - A little resort full of rock pools which have been made bigger so that public can swim in them. There are a few cafes here and an aquarium.

We then drove inland to Rabacal which was very high up. Parked for free and walked down the never ending windy road to the start of the Risca waterfall walk. There are a few waterfall walks of varied lengths here. Be prepared to walk back up the never ending windy road to the car. Although if you cant face it, there is a mini bus that goes back and fore continually for a small price. Not sure if that service is available all year round. Again the scenery was amazing. I didn't think I would ever recover from the walk back to the top. We drove home, had food and collapsed after another fantastic day on the island to prepare for the finally day of adventures.