MADEIRA - PART 3
Given that all three weather apps we consult for our photography excursions were showing one final day of clear skies followed by 7 days (i.e. until after we have to leave) of rain, Ann and I decided we should select a levada hike to take. Most of the hikes involve moderate, with occasional steep sections to hike, which generally isn’t a problem, but they’re mostly on well-polished stones, which is an issue when its wet.
After carefully reviewing the various hikes I’d scoped out, and rejecting anything that went along a 150+-foot drop off on one side (which in Madeira, means most hikes in general, even levada hikes), I found one that seemed pretty interesting. It was in the western part of the island and involved two sets of staircases (one concrete, in-village between a few houses, and one log-reinforced slope) and a switchback to get to a forested plateau, with a short descent back to the town where we parked the car. It should have been easy.
The beginning of the hike was promising, albeit the concrete steps were as steep as described (it’s gotta be that mountain goat DNA I talked about), but once we got to the levada after about 300’ of climbing, it was smooth going. The path along the levada had recently been cleared of brush and we quickly entered a forested area.
It wasn’t long before I dropped my pack and pulled out the camera.
We then hit some switchbacks that wove between the trees, and a “waterfall” that was actually the levada dropping from its channel on the plateau to its channel along the ridgeline. Everything was going to plan until we hit the end of the last switchback and stood at the foot of the second set of steps. I could see the water cistern at the top of the steps (exactly as described in the guide book), but there was a problem Houston. About 4 of the log-reinforced steps had washed out (probably in the recent overnight rain storms we’d had). Looking at the conditions - loose soils on top of clay, on a very, very steep slope - had me thinking twice about how early I wanted to end my vacation. Maybe a stupid 20-year old me might have went for it; I like to think that 60-year old Dan is a bit smarter and I suggested to Ann that we turn around and call it a bust. Since that was consistent with her statement already made (“Do we really want to try going up that?”), she agreed with me, and we turned around.
As we made our way back down the stairs I decided to take one of the off-shoot paths that went between residences on the hillside, seeming to go to the village gardens that inevitably terraced up the hillside. A bit down the path we came across an abandoned, dilapidated garden house with a window that looked upon a roof-top with a couple of cats on it. It seemed they were as curious about us as we were of them.
So to anyone who says I hate cats, I don’t hate them, I just don’t like them. They’re definitely not dogs. So don’t worry about me posting dozens of cat photos. I assure you, that’s not going to happen.
Given our hike was a bust, we decided to drive along the coast a bit. As we passed one miradouro sign, it said, “Miradouro Garganta Funda.” Ann asked, “Dan, what does ‘gargantuan funda’ mean?” “I dunno, why don’t you look it up.” A few kilometers down the road Ann says, “Deep Throat.” Given my juvenile sense of humor, you know I just couldn’t pass that one up, so we turned around.
Getting to the viewpoint turned into its own mini-adventure. There was, of course, the very narrow village roads and impossible turns to make (thank goodness the viewpoint signs clearly marked the way . . . for once), which then ran us down a really narrow alley with concrete walls on either side for 100 meters (praying another vehicle does not come your way). Then we ran into a sign that showed the viewpoint to be down what looked to be an old, Roman road (couldn’t be Roman, no Romans came to Madeira . . . but it sure looked like one). And below that sign were two signs we’d never seen on a road in Madeira (but should have) - a white circular sign that had a red circle and the words “aviso” on it. “Warning.” That was interesting. And below that, a yellow triangle, with a black triangle and a giant exclamation point below it. Even more interesting.
I decided to park at a garbage collection point next to the sign. Ann decided to relax at the car while I tromped down the old “Roman” road to check out Deep Throat. It was quite a bit of a hike over a road that surely would have damaged the car (smart move on my part to stop and hike it). At the end of it all (Ann texted me as I approached the viewpoint, “You ok?”) was a deep cleavage into the coastline, and at the inland point was a lovely little waterfall.
Lucky I brought the LUMIX. The iPhone camera didn’t do it justice. And to make it an even better image, a flock of birds decided to take flight into the sunlight to add some life to the photograph.
The hike back up hill was not nearly as fun, but the tromp was worth it.
After an incredible lunch, we decided to swing by the Fanal Forest on the way back to Seixal. The problem is, the western plateau of Madeira is split in two by a very deep gorge/valley. So while the Fanal Forest (over on the right in the photograph below) was only a few kilometers away, it took about a 45 minute drive to get there.
No worries, we were on a pleasure drive, so we made several stops along the way and even took some time to appreciate the clouds.
Once at the Fanal Forest, we were back to trying to make the best photographs possible in bright sunlight, and scouting for compositions that might work given different lighting conditions. As you can see, as incredible a place as the Fanal Forest is, it’s very difficult to bring any visual order to the chaos of nature.
So it often meant working an image, over and over, trying to reframe things so there is some “subject” to the image, and where the background elements don’t detract from the overall photograph.
That takes time. And as we found out on more than one occasion, time usually means that the cows decide to creep into your field of view. Like I said, not easy.
That day I spent quite a bit of time around this tree and the (very) small pond at its base. I’d stopped here on our very first visit, but was frustrated with the fence. Once I came to accept and incorporate the fence as part of the image, making images became a lot easier.
Still, each of these efforts (I hesitate to call them “early” efforts because of our repeated visits) contain flaws, realized only after reviewing the images later that night. With so many things to compositionally juggle in these images, it’s easy to miss one or two things, which of course jump out at me every time I look at the image (Like why didn’t I lower myself just a few inches to get a better separation between the extending tree branch and the ridgeline on the horizon?).
One reason to visit a location over and over is that you’re able to relax a bit and expand the scope of subject matter. On my first visit to the forest I told myself not to get too fixated on close-up compositions. They were plentiful and my eye kept going to them. I wanted to work on stepping back a bit to make more “landscape” images, not fall back on what is “easy” for me (looking at some of Ann’s images, I realize that I didn’t step back enough in my visualization, but that’s just another thing for me to work on in the future). Having returned a few times already, and knowing there would be more visits, I gave myself the luxury of getting in close for a shot or two.
But naturally I returned to the wider views, trying to capture a feel for the overall place as well as for particular trees.
It was nice to be there with the afternoon light, despite the fact that the parking lot was packed when we got there. Fortunately, given most folks operate out of Funchal or thereabouts and had an hour drive to get home, and we were taking our time enjoying our photography, it wasn’t long before the crowds thinned and we were largely on our own.
The next day was as promised - rain. A front had moved in and we had no desire to get drenched. We’d save that for another day, perhaps when the rains were not so heavy. So we decided to head back into Funchal to have a nice dinner and to restock on goods for our last few days.
Funchal was seeing only intermittent rain, so we wandered around a bit, both before and after our early afternoon dinner. At one point I had to stop and photograph some government offices through the iron gates that blocked entry. The light and the tile work (not to mention the wood door) were beautiful
You can guess where we were the next morning. We woke up to rain, so slept in a bit. We still arrived at the Fanal Forest before full sunlight. Madeira is about 425 miles west of Portugal, but has the same time zone. This means the sun rises much later (by time) than in Braga. Given our normally early photography rising times, we could sleep in late and still catch the early morning sunrise. Nice!
The rains stopped as we drove up to the forest. Although we didn’t have fog, at least it was dry (well, the ground wasn’t). We decided to take a new route though the fenced areas to get to the eastern grove. Along the way I stopped to make a couple of photographs of a fungus (I’ve been watching too many Simon Booth videos) . . .
. . . and of the tree it was on.
I think the tree image is better.
Despite the weather forecast’s projection of 100% clouds and intermittent rain, the skies suddenly cleared on us. So Ann and I went with it, taking advantage of the early morning light raking across the landscape.
We slowly worked our way up and around the hillside, pausing whenever something caught our eye, knowing the nice light and long shadows wouldn’t last very long.
I even took the time to make a corny moon shot. Like rainbows, who can resist the moon?
We spent the rest of the day driving around, exploring, but not taking any photographs. As much as we wanted this to be a photography vacation, I think both of us realized (once we were there) how much of a vacation vacation we needed. So we both didn’t mind taking our time just driving around, stopping for a look-see, and driving on. Of course it helped that Ann and I have become really skilled at the Portuguese 2-hour lunch and generally feel in no rush to hurry through eating and getting on with the day.
Late that afternoon found us driving down by the mouth of the Ribeira da Janela.
We decided to take what a sign showed to be a dead-end road up the valley that ultimately separates the plateau where the Fanal Forest is located. The map showed it went for a little ways, but then switched back up the hillside to end at some, you guessed it, farm terraces. It was worth a shot to check out.
The valley quickly narrowed (from a 2-lane to a 1-lane road) and we pulled off to check things out. On one side of the road were beautiful geologic formations.
On the other side of the road . . . well a steep drop off, the river and the other cliff face. All beautiful.
Unfortunately, looking up the valley meant looking south, right into the sun. Images looking into the sun are tough, but that didn’t stop me from trying.
We drove up the one-lane road for a ways until we found another pull out. Again, interesting, but different, rock formations had been exposed by carving out the road
And the view up-stream showed the road as it switched back up to the garden plots. You also see the river and, unfortunately, how difficult it is to get down to it, and how overgrown with brush it is. That was yet another frustration with Madeira, plenty of streams/rivers, but few access points and really no way to be down at stream level to photograph.
Still, instead of rueing what was not possible, my eyes searched for what was possible. Given the narrowness of the valley and the steepness of the valley walls, I spent quite some time exploring the range of vegetation that somehow had found footholds to survive.
As the sun started dropping behind the mountains, we called it a day and took the short drive back to Seixal.