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We were met just after 9am by our guide and driver and boarded the minibus ready for our day sightseeing. We thought it might have been all old Brits but there were a Danish couple and a Portuguese family as well as two other English couples.
The first stop was a view point, and then we went on to Camacha which was the basket weaving centre. I did buy a small basket as a souvenir I would have liked a nice wicker chair but I don't think Easy Jet would have very impressed.
The weather was a bit dull and overcast and we drove up into the mountains expecting some fantastic views but we were now amongst low cloud and by the time we got to Pico de Arieiro it was a reminder of the time we climbed Snowdon , cold wet and no view. Still we took the photos and imagined the view. The landscape changed the further north we went winding up and down mountain roads It became lush rain forest it would have looked better in sunshine but the landscape was quite spectacular all the same. We stopped at Ribeiro Frio which means means cold river and saw the trout farm and then eventually got to the dramatic North coast . Our lunch stop was at Santana where we arrived just after 1pm and our driver wanted us all to go off to a restaurant for a traditional lunch , but all the English couples didn't want a big lunch as we all eat in the evening, so we wandered around in the rain doing some geocaches and stopped for coffee. After an hour and a half the lunch crowd were still eating,so our driver took us to the restaurant and we ending up sampling some very tasty steak kebab leftovers and wine and more coffee, so the lunch stop was well over 2 hours. The rest of the tour continued through dramatic scenery until,we reached the far eastern tip of Madeira where in a headland we wandered off to find another geocache.
The last stop was at Machico which was the old capital of Madeira, and from here we drove straight back to Funchal, arriving an hour and a half later than schedule. It had been an interesting trip,to appreciate the contrast of scenery and to realise that only Funchal is a built up tourist spot.
We had time to have a soak in the spa baths before dinner and it was nice to find that we were the only ones there. Perhaps all the guests had been earlier in the day as it had been wet and miserable.
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