A second Post from Funchal

After the hard slog fighting with the battery on Tuesday we spent Wednesday at a more relaxed pace. I let Mick sleep in and went shopping for breakfast. That took us to lunch time! Then we did a number of tidying up jobs left over from the battery fight and those included included making sure the engine actually started which thankfully it did.

Lunch was VERY late - a sandwich at 1700!

Later in the evening we went in search of a meal ashore and after walking around a very quiet town centre we found a good prospect close to the marina. It turned out to be so good that Mick wants to go back tonight!

Today was a complete break from all boat related activities. We went for a long walk in the mountains along one of the island's famous "Levadas" - 'man' made  irrigation channels to bring water from the mountains to cultivated land nearer the cost. We found evidence that they date from the Victorian era...

You can just make out a date of 1906 on the top of this building. The function was not clear but it seemed likely that it had something to do with controlling the water flow.

First of all we had to get up into the mountains and we very nearly didn't. We chose the local bus service as our mode of transport. I went out to buy tickets from a local vending machine yesterday evening but when we presented them to the bus driver he gave us his best Paddington Bear stare and with clear relish, shook his head and said "No". When i asked if we could buy tickets from him he did the same. We retreated in some anxiety because the bus was due to leave in 5 minutes and searched the immediate area for somewhere to buy the wretched tickets. The ticket office was unattended. In desperation I accosted a local woman and tried to ask her advice. Of course she was one of the few Portugese who could speak no English and the stress of the occasion had seen off my ability to utter one syllable of Portugese! However, she got the gist and pointed to a bus driver indicating he could help. He explained we could buy them on the bus. In some confusion we made our way back to the bus in question to have another go. There was now another member of staff on the steps and he also confirmed that we could buy the tickets on the bus. So we asked the same Mr Grumpy bus driver the same question we had asked 5 minutes before and without batting an eyelid he sold us the necessary tickets!

Just under an hour later we had crossed the ridge of mountains in the bus and had started our descent down the other side and Mr Grumpy had dropped us off at the beginning of the walk. We had feared he would drive past without stopping but there were other passengers who needed to get off at the same place and so all was well.

The walk was an impressive experience. It started off in pretty dence undergrowth with a narrow path alongside the Levada being a channel carved out of the rock and built up with concrete and laid at a very gentle incline so the water gurgled alongside us as we walked along the path. 

After an hour or so the views across the island began to upon up....

We had a couple of local visitors..

Very very tame finches. Later when we had lunch they or their cousins were back and were almost eating out of our hands..

At this stage in writing up the post the App/Internet connection is playing up and i can't add any more photos and so i will end this post.

We plan to leave tomorrow for Santa Maria in the Azores.