Day three in Madeira began with a beautiful hike on the southern side of the island along a fun Levada route that wasn’t an official PR trail. 

It was a great choice as it avoided the crowds and offered a tranquil walk along the steep, forested walls of a valley. It was also a nice level trail, as a flat path had been cut into the walls to create the irrigation system. 

The trail was quite sketchy at times as it wasn’t maintained, so occasionally the guardrail would vanish when we were walking past a 200m drop. The railing was a big hazard as it wasn’t even secure in places, but it stood upright, tempting people to grab on before falling into the abyss. Maybe even more concerning was a huge, round boulder lying directly in the path from a recent landslide. It looked like a meteorite had plummeted to earth. 

There was a fun section where stepping stones led us across a stream, and water spilt over the edge, creating a neat string of waterfalls. Eventually, we reached the main sight along the trail – two gushing waterfalls which you could walk behind. I asked Craig to stand under the falls so I could take some photos – I thought he was just under a little sprinkle of water, but he came out looking like a drowned rat while mumbling “I hope you got some good photos!” 

The trail led uphill to a sort of second level where we followed another Levada along the same valley walls, but higher up. We were warned that the path was more dangerous than the first one because there were so many sheer drops – but luckily it didn’t seem to affect my vertigo.

Once we were back in our rental car, our satnav sent us down a hair-raising road resembling a rollercoaster ride. Houses were on either side of us as we navigated our way down the steep alleyway. At some point, it became so steep that the middle section had little steps carved into the concrete for people to get up and down. I was relieved when we joined what looked like an actual road. 

After a picnic lunch with a sea view, we decided to check out a bird park across the road as we could see they had a large aviary. As soon as we entered we were standing beside a pond with beautiful flamingoes. Sadly, things went considerably downhill after that and we discovered lots of tropical birds were kept in cages far too small for them. It was disgraceful as they couldn’t even fly. It seemed like they’d accumulated too many birds and didn’t have the space to accommodate them. There were lots of the same parrots, so why not have fewer and provide larger cages? 

The aviary was spacious with a variety of colourful birds swooping overhead, and even landing on us in an attempt to steal our jewellery. But overall it was a disgraceful place that I wouldn’t recommend and I hope things change for the birds in the future and some animal rights charity can intervene. It absolutely broke my heart reading the signs on the parrots’ cages saying they live for 50+ years. What sort of life is that? 

We ended the day at an abandoned fishing village which we reached by walking down hundreds of steps. We had sea views ahead of us, and to the right was an orange-tinted cliff with a waterfall plummeting over the edge, and rainbows dancing in the mist. 

Once we reached the bay at the bottom, we could see that a cluster of houses had been carved into the sheer, volcanic cliff. A series of steps led up to the homes where we could see the little verandas, some still had furniture and old BBQ grills, but all of the doors were sealed shut with padlocks. 

We were able to peek through one window, where we saw how large the cave-like dwellings were. It looked like a new-build, as if someone had started carving out the interior within the past year, and then just abandoned the entire project. 

It was a bizarre place, like everyone just got up and left. The strange thing was that there were some plaques on a few doors which suggested the buildings were accommodation for tourists – but it was all very much closed down when we were there – maybe they reopen in summer? 

When I did some reading up on the village afterwards, I found out that the houses were built 300 years ago – possibly by some of the island’s first inhabitants! They also used to access the area by boat, which is much easier than climbing up and down the 700 steps. 

Before we headed back to our accommodation, we ventured into the cute fishing village of Câmara de Lobos which was just a stone’s throw away from where we were staying. There was a colourful port area with painted wooden boats, cobbled lanes, cosy bars, and mosaic steps. 

We decided it was a good area to taste a couple of Madeira’s famous drinks. Craig opted for Poncha, which was rum, lemon and honey, served in a small glass. I picked a Nikita, which turned out to be my new favourite drink. The ingredients sound crazy, but somehow they worked – it was beer, mixed with pineapple ice-cream, pineapple juice and sometimes a bit of white wine. The bar lady saw the excitement on my face as she made it, so she treated me to a lovely dollop of passion fruit on top. It was like a pina colada. I absolutely loved it – what a perfect way to end the day.