Madeira, Portugal's Wild Atlantic Garden
Madeira has been Described as a Garden Floating in the Ocean
Dec 20, 2008
It was to here that the gods of Greek mythology brought the heroes when their adventurous lives were over. They are volcanic in origin, their hard, basalt mountains rising above Atlantic deeps, unconnected to the European or African continental shelves.
Madeira’s mountains provide a spectacular backdrop to the airborne approach to the island. The runway at Funchal juts on pillars toward the sea, so that landing feels like coming down onto the deck of an aircraft carrier. It was once regarded as the world’s most dangerous airport.
UNESCO World Heritage Forest
Portuguese sailors first settled the "Ilha da Madeira", or Isle of Timber in the fifteenth century. Though they cleared much of the primeval forest, large areas remain. This laurel forest, or Laurissilva once covered most of the Mediterranean region, but more than 50% of the world’s diminishing total is now confined to Madeira. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, and is home to more than 700 densely-packed plant species, which clothe the precipitous valley walls in a largely impenetrable jungle. Within this are hundreds of varieties of mosses, lichens, ferns, fungi and flowering plants and more than 500 species of invertebrate.
Trees and Flowers
The climate of Madeira is such that almost any plants can flourish here, including North European pines, Australian eucalypts and shrubs from Asia, Africa and the Americas. Madeira is famous for its flowers, which bloom throughout the year. These include native variants of common European flowers and introduced begonias, bougainvilleas, oleanders, wisterias and the spectacular Bird of Paradise flower.
Isolation has meant that endemic mammals are represented only by three species of bat, while the sole reptile is a small lizard, confined mainly to the coast, but sometimes found in the forests or darting across sun-warmed mountain rocks.
Bird Life on Madeira
Birds have occupied Madeira long enough for many to have evolved into distinct sub-species of their European relatives. There are Madeiran varieties of chaffinch, linnet, sparrow, blackbird, kestrel, sparrowhawk and buzzard. Berthellot’s pipit lives only on the Madeiran and Canary islands, while the large, blue-grey Trocaz pigeon is found only in the lower reaches of Madeira’s laurissilva. Zino’s petrel is among the rarest birds in the world. Despite being a seabird, around 60-75 breeding pairs have been recorded on the least accessible crags of the central mountains.
Levadas
Water that precipitates onto the laurel forest from Atlantic mists and rains is transported around the island by a system of channels, or levadas, of almost imperceptible gradient, which snake along contours, through tunnels and across the steepest of valley walls. They were built originally by slave labour, and their maintenance pathways provide often the only ways a walker can penetrate the forests. Their total length is more than double that of all Madeira’s roads.
Madeira’s Mountains
Many of the mountains are covered by the dense forest. Others present bare faces of vivid red, from which rise shark-fins of black basalt. The third highest summit, Pico do Arieiro, can be reached by coach or car. Vehicles can approach to within 2 miles of the highest mountain, Pico Ruivo. The 1861-metre-high summit can be reached from there in an hour by means of a relatively easy walk. In contrast, the 3-mile track that links the two summits, while well-constructed and easy to follow, takes in some very steep drops and arduous ascents, and crosses some of the most spectacular mountain faces on the island.
A Walking Festival is held on Madeira and nearby Porto Santo each January.
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