MADEIRA - PART 4
We learned a couple of things about weather at Madeira, one we knew and one we didn’t. First of all, Madeira has several micro-climates. It can be pouring down rain in one part of the island, and sunny in another. Fortunately, there is a website with quite a few webcams where you can check out the weather at various locations on the island (hint, if the Pico Arieiro webcam is a slate grey, it’s not because it’s broken, the peak is socked in cloud cover and you won’t see anything if you go there). If you don’t like the weather at one part of the island, check out the webcams to find out what might suit your fancy. Second, you can forget any sort of long-term forecast for the island. Apple weather, Dark Sky, YR (from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute) and WeatherUnderground are all pretty much worthless in predicting what the weather in Madeira will be . . . tomorrow, nonetheless 3 days from now.
So instead of rain, the next morning we woke up to cloudless, star-filled skies. Well, if there wasn’t going to be fog at the Fanal Forest, perhaps we should take advantage of one of my original ideas upon arrival in Madeira - let’s get a photograph of Pico Arieiro and Pico Ruivo from the Balções at Ribeiro Frio!
If that sounds somewhat familiar to you, it should. I’m talking about the day that was the subject of the earlier post, Shooting the Shooter - Crazy Day Edition. Instead of reliving that day (with the corresponding spike in blood pressure I’m sure that would entail), I recommend you read (or re-read) that post.
In case you’ve forgotten, we never made it to the Balções. We did, however, make it up to the parking area for the hike up to Pico Ruivo. As that earlier post mentioned, I hiked up the trail a short ways to get to a ridge that looked in two directions. Looking to the south, you could see the layers of mountains in the foreground, and Madeira’s Ilhas Desertas (deserted islands) off in the distance.
From the ridge I was on, there was a view of the ridge that Pico Aieiro tops, which shows just how steep and rough the geography of the interior part of Madeira can be. The sight of Pico Aierio, with it’s golf-ball white structure is, in itself, nothing exceptional - the ridges leading up to it, however, are.
Looking up the trail (where I did not go) was a lovely view of the moon. Pico Ruivo is behind that hill.
And to the north is Santana (on the right) and Sao Jorge (on the left), with the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
As the shooting the shooter story mentions, we stopped at a recreation area on the way down where we walked around the woods a bit and made some photographs. It was one of the few areas where there were real trees that you could walk around. So of course we took our time.
The view below should be familiar, it’s where I found my shooting the shooter image. Still, it shows the variety of interesting trees this location provided and just how vegetated this north side of Madeira is.
As we made our way back to the car, the sun came out and gave me one more opportunity to take another one of Dan’s crazy chaotic images.
After another wonderful 2-hour lunch we decided to head back to the Fanal Forest. Naturally, we could not take the shortest way there because of landslides on the road, so we took the long way there via Seixal and Ribeira da Janela. Just as we approached the parking lot a giant fog bank engulfed the forest. As we pulled our camera gear out of the car photographers (some of whom were leaving, stopped and turned around) ran out to make photographs.
In five minutes we were out there as well . . .
. . only for the fog bank to lift up 5 minutes later (the clock on my camera shows a five minute interval between my first and second [and last] fog shot that day). It was funny watching all of the disgruntled photographers head back to their cars when it was apparent that the fog wasn’t going to hang around (like the pun?).
Fewer photographers hanging around suited Ann and me just fine. Despite the sunlight, we took our time seeing what the forest had to offer.
Indeed, there really are some types of images that you can only take with brilliant sunlight.
That afternoon gave us an opportunity to wander around and closely examine some areas that we hadn’t fully explored previously. And, once again, I played Simon Booth, though I couldn’t tell you the name of these mushrooms. All that mattered was that they caught my eye and made me think of my mom. One doesn’t need more than that to make a photograph. At least I don’t.
Over time the skies became overcast which diffused the light quite a bit, and allowed the detail in the tree shadows to become much more evident. How in the world do those tree branches not fall off?
My imagery varied from solitary tree photographs to close-ups, with the occasional wider view thrown in.
We were enjoying ourselves so much we decided to stay for the rest of the afternoon and wandered from the eastern grove around and down to the lower area that we’d also repeatedly visited. Given the better light conditions, I decided to revisit the tree I’d photographed before to see if a photograph would better show the ferns growing on the north side of the trunk.
And, of course, I couldn’t help but move to the east side of the fence.
Though once again, I found myself troubled after the fact by the merging of elements in the final image (seen on my laptop screen) that I didn’t see while making the photograph.
We were approaching the end of our trip, so the next morning meant we were back once again at the Fanal Forest. When we arrived, fog engulfed the area and there were more vehicles in the parking lot than any other morning that we were there. Strangely, once again, after about half an hour, the fog lifted and with it, so seemed the flood of photographers. While a few groups of photographers lingered, we mostly had the place to ourselves.
Ann and I continued our wanderings and just as we were beginning to enjoy the first rays of morning light . . .
. . . fog blew up and over the cliff from the north and lasted for the rest of the morning. In five minutes, everything changed, rewarding those of us with patience.
Ann and I moved back down to what we referred to as the “western grove,” with me giving one final effort at realizing a strong image of the tree, fence and pond.
After I made those images, I worked my way back to Ann, who was doing the same - trying to realize a composition she had returned to again and again.
In many ways, the Fanal Forest in the fog is when it is at its most beautiful. In the fog it’s easier to appreciate the amazing forms of individual trees, while at the same time grasp that the groupings of trees adds to the experience.
It’s amazing wandering through the trees with the scene ever changing as one tree appears in the mist as others disappear.
It wasn’t all perfection though. Fog has different densities, and sometimes you want less fog instead of more fog.
But you take what you can get, sometimes waiting, sometimes moving on.
After awhile we returned to the parking lot to find it quickly filling, so we headed up to the “Eastern Grove.” It had already been a couple of hours and I think I was starting to get tired, both mentally and physically. I revisited some of the images I’d been scouting before, but once I’d made those images I seemed to run out of steam.
It’s hard to not photograph something that strikes you in the face as amazing, . . .
. . . but looking back at these images I can’t help but regret not focusing more on the ideas I’d had about trying to photograph groupings of trees in the landscape instead of responding to what caught my eye. Blame it on lack of practice, or being a bit out of shape, but exhaustion and good photography do not readily mix.
Still, you can’t help but admire the beauty of a place like that. We returned to the parking lot again and it was so packed, cars were parking across the street. As much as I’d hoped to return to the Western Grove to attempt more landscape images, my brain (and ears) told me that was where the majority of people were at and it would be an exercise in frustration. Ann and I (and my body) agreed it had been a great morning of photography, but it was time to head out.
So we headed down (the long way because the short way was still closed by a rock fall) to São Vicente for yet another wonderful early afternoon supper. On the map, São Vicente looks like a nice, flat town with Madeira’s main north-south road running through it. The reality is that the road runs along the bottom of the valley and like the rest of Madeira, either side of the valley rises steeply.
This was the view from our restaurant (we’re on the other side of the valley) and I couldn’t help but try to trace the road as it rises up the valley wall to each residence. Imagine driving that every day just to get into town?
The view to the north (and the ocean) was just as spectacular. And all you need to do is drive around the island a bit and to pay attention to where the churches are located (usually in a very prominent part of the landscape) to realize the role the church played in Portugal’s history.
Our last full day in Madeira greeted us with a beautiful morning.
As I walked out on the deck, I’d realized I hadn’t taken any photographs of where we were living in Seixal. It was a very village type location with steep, impossibly narrow streets and, as you can see below, one residence packed against another.
It didn’t take me long to realize that the skies really wanted to give us a nice good-bye.
The clouds were high and there wasn’t fog at the Fanal Forest, so after discussing our options with Ann, we decided to try to visit the Monte Palace Tropical Garden. We learned that the various tour guide (printed and on-line) suggestions that you simply take the elevated cable car up from Funchal to Monte to visit the gardens (just across the street from the cable car station) is a good one. Let’s just say that our little trip gave the Shooting the Shooter - Crazy Day Edition a run for its money, with REM’s tune, “You can’t get there from here!” constantly in my head as first our car GPS (TomTom) and then Google Maps were thwarted in their efforts to make me drive the wrong way up one way streets, down pedestrian paths, and in directions that the map said was a road, but was, in fact a cliff. In the end, we accepted that REM was right. You can’t get there from here, at least not by car.
We decided to simply give up before I had an aneurism on our last day of vacation and drove down the steep mountainside - the GPS constantly wanting to send me down roads a donkey would be lucky to navigate, with me opting to stay on a road that had a center line. Eventually we made it back to the highway and we made a bee-line to a familiar restaurant in Ponta do Pargo. We arrived a bit early so we went to the lighthouse for a view of the western coast . . .
. . . and drove around the area a bit until the restaurant opened. It was a mighty fine last big meal in Madeira.
We took our time enjoying the scenery on our drive up the coast, stopping every now and then to wonder, in awe, how these folks managed this landscape. I mean, look at that driveway!
And, we made one last stop overlooking Porto Moniz to appreciate just how nutty the landscape is, before we took the switchback roads down to the coast.
The next day we drove across the entire island in the dark for an early flight off the island.
Madeira is an incredible island to visit, with a wealth of opportunity to fulfill any interest. It may not be the best photography destination that I know of, but it’s the best vacation destination I’ve been to with more than enough interesting locations to visit and things to do. So long as you don’t mind insanely steep roads along with your superb meals and interesting sites.