Madeira

We all awoke at an ungodly hour on Thursday morning to take the minibus down to Gatwick, and despite the sunrise being a long way off, everyone was in great spirits and excited at our little adventure ahead. After a pleasant hassle-free flight, we took the short coach trip to our hotel in Funchal and got checked in, chilled out, and headed out to enjoy some fantastic Italian food at Restaurant Portaliano before heading back to our hotel for some well-earned sleep.

Friday naturally saw us heading straight to the dive centre, the main purpose for which we’d all come. Once checked in, necessary paperwork done, suited up, and kit set up, it was a short ride to our boat in a beaten up truck, where we then ventured a short way East to the our destination ‘Praia Garajau’ for the day. Once we were in the water (Vis 10-12m) and descended to approx. 20m, we swam among the volcanic rocks enjoying the wildlife including Coronet Fish, Triggerfish, Rainbow Wrass, and several large Groupers that were quite relaxed around us, as well as usual large shoals of smaller fish too. During our surface interval, the skipper took us to the nearby Pinacula site where the underwater enjoyment continued. Our evening consisted of a few drinks in the old town and delicious meal and drinks at restaurant Olivia before settling in for the night back at the hotel.

 The next day, was the site I’d been most looking forward to – diving the impressive Corvetta Afonso Cerqueira wreck – an 85m long upright frigate wreck carefully prepared and sunk in 2018, so still really fresh and intact. Situated at a max depth of about 30m, it’s well within single tank recreational diving, and after we descended we were taken on a full stern to bow interior tour including the engine room. This was a unique experience for me, as I’d only dived fairly small wrecks and had minor swim-throughs until today. We stayed at the site for our second dive and split into two groups, one for a swim-through and one for the exterior. Two of the outside group managed to see a ray soaring past as well.

Later, some of us ventured into town to take the cable car up from Funchal to Monte for the stunning views over the South East coast, with me a little apprehensive as I’m definitely not one for heights. After a quick drink on a picturesque bar balcony, we opted for the most fun way down – street toboggans for the first half of the way – an activity that has been carried out since 1850 as a fun and fast means of descending quickly towards Funchal. Another restaurant followed and after the stroll back to the hotel, we all put our heads down for the night.

Sunday was the last diving day, with 2 more enjoyable dives in the marine reserve (‘Mammas T-Reef’ and ‘Arena’ to the East of Funchal, then we organised our kit to dry at the dive centre. When we came back from dinner and got ready for bed, we spotted that despite the lovely sunny weather we’d been having during our stay, heavy downpours of rain were expected imminently and throughout the night – which would have meant soaked through kit in the morning and a real challenge for us to travel the next day. The dive centre was closed, but just about accessible (unbolting a few doors and gates, so a group of us managed to retrieve our kit in the dead of night with our torches to finish drying in our hotel rooms), we must have looked like burglars if anyone saw, but the mission was accomplished just as they heavens were opening up.

Monday was taken up by packing, getting ready, and heading home. We all had a fantastic time in the sunshine in a beautiful country together, something well needed to thaw ourselves out for a few days from the cold and dreary British winter weather. Our thanks go out to James P for organising the trip and sharing this destination with us – one that’s definitely worth repeating in future.