Madeira II
I was dreaming about Pico to Pico hike from September 2022. I had an idiotic romantic idea of myself effortlessly walking above the clouds. So it was utterly upsetting when Monday morning came with fog, rain and wind. From that moment, my mind was glued to Pico do Arieiro’s webcam. Finally, Wednesday morning at 4 am, I saw a beautiful clear night with a moon and just a few clouds.
Time to go. I sent a message to a friend of mine. We got dressed and sneaked out from our hostel as quietly as possible. We drove up to the car park of Pico do Arieiro in the pitch dark for about 40 minutes. Before 5 am, we have already been walking towards the majestic views of the mountains. There is one thing about Madeira; sunrise doesn’t happen till 7 am. So as you can guess, we walked for over two hours in the darkness. Looking back, part of me is pretty glad I didn’t see where I was stepping. Stairs everywhere, thousands of them, narrow paths with barely any protection.
When the sun started rising, we realised we had already passed by Pico do Arieiro and were much closer to Pico do Ruvio. Two and a half kilometres, to be precise. And the best part of all this was we were on the other side of the mountain to see any sunrise, not to mention magical clouds below us. We spend the best part in the mountain tunnels. At this point, we were already starving, absolutely physically drained, that to be honest, I didn’t really care all that much.
Never ever, ever, ever trust google maps. I mean, I don’t really know what we were thinking, but a 1-minute walk in the mountain means another hour and a half or so. Another charming bit about Madeira, the weather is constantly changing, so soon we encountered rain and wind, and I wished to be in bed.
You can hike from Pico to Pico from one of the Picos to the other and back, or if you are starting at Pico do Arieiro like us, you can walk from Pico do Ruvio another 2 km to Achada do Teixeira where the car park is located, and you can book a cab. Unsurprisingly, we choose the cab option, despite some other species of humans walking the entire hike like a Sunday after-lunch family walk. Overall Pico to Pico is a beautiful hike. However, if you have bad knees, consider getting knee support; you will not regret it (I wish I knew…).
Levadas walk is a must have in Madeira. There is a dozen of them, so you can choose whichever you like and walk as many as you wish. Because of the limited time, we picked one of the most famous. Levada das 25 Fontes is relatively easy. There are again some stupid stairs (this is your sign to hit the Stairmaster in the gym). We chose the Rabacal route for our hike route. You will have to walk about two kilometres down from the car park when you reach the fork. You can take a slight detour for about 1 km to the Risco waterfall or continue to the Levadas. This particular Levada is busy, and if you want to avoid crowds at least a tiny bit, I recommend starting early.
We spend five days on the island. We saw a lot. I felt the pain in my knees like never before (oh well, I guess I am old now). We stepped out of our comfort zone and went for dinner with 12 strangers from the hostels. We tried tuna stake for the first time and liked it. We learned that Leeds is a charming city in England (still not sure about that). We saw dolphins and pilot whales. I wasn’t sick on the boat.
And then we were back in London…
