Madeira Feb2016 - Days 1 to 7 - Overview
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 111.2 mi
- Elevation gain
- 32,621 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 33,432 ft
- Max elevation
- 6,280 ft
- TrailRank
- 29
- Min elevation
- 187 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 6 days 10 hours 20 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2489
- Uploaded
- March 2, 2016
- Recorded
- February 2016
near Santa do Porto Moniz, Madeira (Portugal)
Viewed 8693 times, downloaded 91 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Walk across Madeira from Sunday 7th to Saturday 13th of February 2016.
From Porto Moniz (NW corner) to Ponta de São Lorenço (east cape) in 7 days. All 8 nightstays (from start point to end point) were in hotels that I had booked in advance (some of them upper class). 7 hotels in total, as the 3rd day was a there-and-back-again tour, returning to the same hotel. I had arrived at Funchal airport on Saturday afternoon and departed from there on Sunday noon. I would better have stayed 2 days longer: 1 day for seeing Funchal and 1 day for splitting the last walk (Porto da Cruz to Ponta de São Lorenço) into two days. The most popular hike which is missing in this tour is from Rabaçal to 25 Fontes.
If you carry a tent, you should easily find a more direct route that you can do in less days without passing at Funchal.
The only surprises were on the first day: (1.) a sign at the lower end of the Levada da Janela said "closed at km8", so I chose a different way, walking too much along the road and (2.) the hotel at the end of the day was closed since one year, although I had been able to book it at the hotel's own booking website. So, (1.) consider starting at Ponta da Pargo instead of Porto Moniz, unless you get confirmation that the Levada da Janela is OK to walk and (2.) if you want to do this walk, get well informed about that particular hotel or prepare for bivouac or transport.
This is a tour for experienced hikers who don't suffer with the distances and elevation gains (altitude differences) estimated in the descriptions of the 7 routes (in many cases the estimated elevation gains are below the unbelievable values registered by my smartphone's GPS). In addition to what you would carry for a day tour (including emergency equipment, e.g. headlamp!), I carried:
* Fresh clothes for the hotel dining rooms and return flight (long-sleeve, sandals and 1 or more T-shirt & pairs of warm socks) which I use a minimum of hours per day while ventilating the sweaty stuff (boots, more T-shirts and socks, etc.). Remember that drying washed clothes can be difficult if the weather is wet;
* Cookies for breakfasts;
* Some more things to nibble at lunch time.
The first 3 walking days don't pass near any village. So don't count on shops.The 4th day, at Curral das Freiras, there was an open shop (probably several) where I could have stocked up my food supply. The 5th day, in Funchal, too, and probably also the 6th (did not look for one). I had a hotel dinner every night, as expected. I carried breakfast for those long days where I wanted to start walking at sunrise, since I did not know if I could get breakfast at the hotels so early. I had the following breakfasts (B=normal hotel hours, b =lunch packet, room service breakfast or exceptional early hours on request), restaurant lunches (L) and hotel dinners (D): Day 0 - D; Day 1 - b D, Day 2 - b D, Day 3 - B D, Day 4 - B L D, Day 5 - b L D, Day 6 - b D, Day 7 - B D. On days 6 and 7 I could have found a snack bar for lunch, but preferred to consume the food I carried with me.
I was lucky with the weather. The only rain was a shower in the morning after the last walking day. Statistics say the Funchal has 7 or 10 wet days in February. These are days with more than 0,1mm of precipitation, which is a very low threshold. In the grill-bar-restaurant at Pico da Urze (1.350m, end of day 1), they have a photo on the wall, showing the whole area covered with snow in a rare meterological event about 5 years ago.
You hopefully find the 7 individual routes by searching Wikiloc for "Madeira Feb2016".
I will add them in a comment below (you will see it in the classical PC view, but usually not in the mobile view).
The image attached to this overview track includes alternatives and "emergency exits" I considered when planning my route. To see the plannings, search Wikiloc for "Madeira Planning(!)".
I carried the following maps and liked them:
* Open Streemap, layer "Cycle Map", offline, downloaded to the Wikiloc App on my smartphone (a small model that hasn't even a selfie camera).
* Plastified map, copyright 2014, brand name "t....Q....".
I saw a traditional paper map (brand name "K......") that I did not like.
The new road from the south end of the Curral das Freiras tunnel up to Areeiro area (day 5) is displayed in Google maps, but not in Google satellite photos and older maps.
Information about the actual conditions of selected hiking trails (and about closed roads) can be found at http://www.visitmadeira.pt/ under "useful info".
German information about Levadas, with an excellent level of completeness and detail, can be found at http://danishome.ch/Madeira.htm .
From Porto Moniz (NW corner) to Ponta de São Lorenço (east cape) in 7 days. All 8 nightstays (from start point to end point) were in hotels that I had booked in advance (some of them upper class). 7 hotels in total, as the 3rd day was a there-and-back-again tour, returning to the same hotel. I had arrived at Funchal airport on Saturday afternoon and departed from there on Sunday noon. I would better have stayed 2 days longer: 1 day for seeing Funchal and 1 day for splitting the last walk (Porto da Cruz to Ponta de São Lorenço) into two days. The most popular hike which is missing in this tour is from Rabaçal to 25 Fontes.
If you carry a tent, you should easily find a more direct route that you can do in less days without passing at Funchal.
The only surprises were on the first day: (1.) a sign at the lower end of the Levada da Janela said "closed at km8", so I chose a different way, walking too much along the road and (2.) the hotel at the end of the day was closed since one year, although I had been able to book it at the hotel's own booking website. So, (1.) consider starting at Ponta da Pargo instead of Porto Moniz, unless you get confirmation that the Levada da Janela is OK to walk and (2.) if you want to do this walk, get well informed about that particular hotel or prepare for bivouac or transport.
This is a tour for experienced hikers who don't suffer with the distances and elevation gains (altitude differences) estimated in the descriptions of the 7 routes (in many cases the estimated elevation gains are below the unbelievable values registered by my smartphone's GPS). In addition to what you would carry for a day tour (including emergency equipment, e.g. headlamp!), I carried:
* Fresh clothes for the hotel dining rooms and return flight (long-sleeve, sandals and 1 or more T-shirt & pairs of warm socks) which I use a minimum of hours per day while ventilating the sweaty stuff (boots, more T-shirts and socks, etc.). Remember that drying washed clothes can be difficult if the weather is wet;
* Cookies for breakfasts;
* Some more things to nibble at lunch time.
The first 3 walking days don't pass near any village. So don't count on shops.The 4th day, at Curral das Freiras, there was an open shop (probably several) where I could have stocked up my food supply. The 5th day, in Funchal, too, and probably also the 6th (did not look for one). I had a hotel dinner every night, as expected. I carried breakfast for those long days where I wanted to start walking at sunrise, since I did not know if I could get breakfast at the hotels so early. I had the following breakfasts (B=normal hotel hours, b =lunch packet, room service breakfast or exceptional early hours on request), restaurant lunches (L) and hotel dinners (D): Day 0 - D; Day 1 - b D, Day 2 - b D, Day 3 - B D, Day 4 - B L D, Day 5 - b L D, Day 6 - b D, Day 7 - B D. On days 6 and 7 I could have found a snack bar for lunch, but preferred to consume the food I carried with me.
I was lucky with the weather. The only rain was a shower in the morning after the last walking day. Statistics say the Funchal has 7 or 10 wet days in February. These are days with more than 0,1mm of precipitation, which is a very low threshold. In the grill-bar-restaurant at Pico da Urze (1.350m, end of day 1), they have a photo on the wall, showing the whole area covered with snow in a rare meterological event about 5 years ago.
You hopefully find the 7 individual routes by searching Wikiloc for "Madeira Feb2016".
I will add them in a comment below (you will see it in the classical PC view, but usually not in the mobile view).
The image attached to this overview track includes alternatives and "emergency exits" I considered when planning my route. To see the plannings, search Wikiloc for "Madeira Planning(!)".
I carried the following maps and liked them:
* Open Streemap, layer "Cycle Map", offline, downloaded to the Wikiloc App on my smartphone (a small model that hasn't even a selfie camera).
* Plastified map, copyright 2014, brand name "t....Q....".
I saw a traditional paper map (brand name "K......") that I did not like.
The new road from the south end of the Curral das Freiras tunnel up to Areeiro area (day 5) is displayed in Google maps, but not in Google satellite photos and older maps.
Information about the actual conditions of selected hiking trails (and about closed roads) can be found at http://www.visitmadeira.pt/ under "useful info".
German information about Levadas, with an excellent level of completeness and detail, can be found at http://danishome.ch/Madeira.htm .
Comments (11)
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Planning map, drawn before doing the tour. https://ca.wikiloc.com/rutes-senderisme/madeira-feb2016-days-1-to-7-overview-12444500/photo-7641646
Alternative planning for day 1, from Ponta do Pargo:
http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12443845
(with links to more plannings in the comment)
.
Day 1 - http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12223748
Day 2 - http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12223762
Day 3 - http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12229892
Day 4 - http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12237889
Day 5 - http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12254559
Day 6 - http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12254589
Day 7 - http://ca.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=12265366
Day 8 - second part of day 7, if you split it.
Thanks for these tracks, I did your walk at the end of april with modifications. We were not as sportive/prepared for the walk as you and I found your tour rather hard.
for the day 1, the levada de Janela was not really open, not really close, we just follow it. It was sometime very wet and we had almost at some point a water level up to the knees. As the hotel was closed, we combined it with your alternative route to Ponta do Pargo. It was a difficult day.
Day 2: we took a taxi to the starting point. the hotel was still closed. As modification, on the PR 17, we decide to walk earlier along the levada to avoid more high level differences.
Day 3 (contraction of your days 3 and 4): we walk to the pico Ruivo, then down to the valley and then to Eiro do Serrado. It is difficult and we were very happy/lucky that 2 local ladies took us with their car from almost the first houses to the hotel. Or it would had be at least 2 more hours of walk.
Day 4: no modification of day 5. There is a lot of road and the one going to Pico do Cedro open at 9.30 am, tourist give us a ride to the first seeing point.
Day 5: we took a bus from Funchal to Ribeiro Frio and follow the PR 10, up to the cross section with your road.
Day 6: same way to go from Porto da Cruz to canical
Thank you for the feedback "helene98". Yes, perhaps my comment about distances and elevations gains was too "neutral". Good to know that there was no unsurmountable obstacle on the Levada de Janela. That means you can avoid many kilometers of road walking on the first day. If the bus you mention on "Day 5" is available in the opposite direction in the evening, an option for day 3 would be to walk down from Pico Ruivo to Ribeiro Frio, spend the night in Funchal (or elsewhere on the bus route) and take a bus back to the walking route the next morning..
Many, many thanks to both of you guys! Thanks to you me and my husband made a great trekking trip to Madeira (10-17.12.2016). For planners who want to visit Maderia please consider to upload a great smart phone application with all routes - Back country navigator.
Day 1: Porto Moniz - Ponta do Pargo, ~40km, 9hrs
Day 2: Ponta do Pargo -> Calheta (by bus) -> Hotel Pico da Urze (by taxi, 20EUR) -> Hotel Estalagem Encumeada, trekking of ~25km, 6hrs
Day 3: Hotel Estalagem Encumeada - Pico Ruivo - Hotel Estalagem Encumeada, 27km, 9hrs
Day 4: Hotel Estalagem Encumeada - Jardim da Serra, trekking of 17km, 5.5hrs
Day 5: Funchal (trip to Sao Lorenco)
Day 6: Funchal -> Canical (by bus) -> Porto da Cruz->Funchal (by bus), trekking of 18km, 5hrs
Please take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-S3GlFqhP0
in case of any questions I am more than happy to help you:)
Hello noGPS,
Thanks for publishing your route as well as your very useful comments about food supply. We are thinking of doing this trail this coming winter. Our preference would be to carry our tent and to bivouac wherever we like. Do you think it is feasable ?
Cheers,
Patrick
Now I see Patrick's question. Looking at my 2014 edition of that plastified map, which was really useful for my planning (ISBN 9788361155089 for the 2015 edition, possibly the latest), I see some tent symbols for bivouac places, not equipped campgrounds. I guess bivouacing elsewhere is discouraged by Madeira's authorities in order to protect nature. As I stayed in hotels, on my walks I did not pay attention to how big a challenge it is to find a bit of flat, unplanted
ground on this steep island. With a tent, you can avoide the day walks to and from Funchal and descent from the highest peak (round trip day#3 of my 2016 to a bivouac place at Ribeiro Frio (altitude 1000m) and next day to Porto da Cruz (where I see no alternative to a hotel)
Close to the coast (first and last day Porto da Cruz), I see no tent symbols. If somebody finds a good end-to-end route at Wikiloc which uses tent-nights, please consider linking it here (2 years after my tour I am not motivated to search).
Try to planify a trip for november, yours is very inspirational! How have you traveled from funchal airport to Porto Moniz please?
I booked a taxi beforehand from a website. I guess I found it by googling Madeira Taxi (or transport?).