Above the Clouds in Madeira // part 1

Where’s the clouds genius? You may rightfully ask. They are coming, I promise.

This blog post was supposed to pick up right where the last left off (in Corsica), but it appears I have my ordering reversed – after Madeira we went back home to do some laundry, then jumped on the next plain to Corsica! Oops, rest in peace my dear chronological order.

Anyway! Before moving on, I need to start this post with some copy-pastaerino from last time:

It has been an eventful (last) year, most notably, becoming a father! ❤️

Yes. It has happened again! Vilde aka “Bolla” joined the crew late last summer.

Oh, and the current blog-freshness-metric, Δt, have jumped to 7 years, 6 months and 21 days ago… hard to catch up 😓

Although I don’t have a photograph of it, the runway at Funchal Airport is worth checking out. Seems to make top-10-most-dangerous lists every so often.

Madeira_2017_08_14_#003 — Bl bl bllluh bluh blblblblb bluh (tongue be like)

If I recall correctly, the above picture is taken in Porto Moniz – and what can be seen are “natural” ocean pools located along the coast line where the volcanic lava rocks meet the ocean (with some engineering help ofc). The water is continuously replenished here with high tide or simply waves coming in from the Atlantic Ocean.

Madeira_2017_08_14_#007 — Diving – or chilling on the lava-made bed of nails?

The volcanic rocks come in all shapes, sizes, and colors – this (I believe) is primarily basaltic lava, shaped by wave erosion over time.

Finally, the promised clouds – seen from above. I wouldn’t dream of writing a clickbait title 😗

Madeira has 4 peaks above 1800 meters and is very mountainous. The one peak I’d heard about before going was Pico do Areeiro, the third highest at 1818 meters above sea level. There are numerous great hikes here – and of course the views are out of this world (I can confirm). So of course we had to go there!

…but first some more images from elsewhere on the island, unfortunately I don’t recall where 😬

Pico do Arieero have to wait (hard to remember anything from 7 years ago…). We first visited the easternmost point of Madeira, Ponta de São Lourenço, to do (what turned out to be) a great hike! It is a volcanic peninsula with some overly dramatic cliffs and very picturesque rock formations contrasting nicely with the lush greenery of the rest of the island.