All photograhs: Around Funchal, Madeira.
Date: July 28, 2008 (above) and August 1 (below).
Camera: Panasonic DMC-TZ3.
The roads in Madeira were hairy, to say the least. The inclines were incredibly steep, the hairpin bends numerous and the blind corners especially dangerous.
We toyed with the idea of getting a hire car, but decided that we didn't need the stress. Instead, we forked out a small fortune on taxis or strained our leg muscles by taking to the streets on foot.
The first day we walked the mile from our hotel to the marina and immediately regretted it: the constant pounding of my toes against the inside of my walking boots as we plodded Yeti-style down the hill resulted in a massive blood blister under the big toenail on my right foot. Of course, at the time, I didn't realise this was why my toe was so sore and so, after catching the cable car to the top of the mountain, 550 metres above sea level, we did another marathon downhill slog, thudding another mile or so from Monte back to our hotel. I could barely walk the next day.
Any wonder the next time we went to the top of the mountain we caught the toboggan back down?
