Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), October 15, 2017

LOL!!  -- Your stir fry sounded nice, too!

--  We're also having apple sponge pudding for dessert, as my OH sliced up all the remaining apples we had stored in the garage. Some of them were deteriorating so we thought it best to eat them now.

Next installment of the journey we took:  Still in Madeira, as I took a lot of photos!

We drove on to this, our last stop. This is taken standing admiring the view, above a kind of visitor centre where we stopped for refreshments:  this included a coffee or cup of tea (very welcome) and a slice of the local cake, plus a couple of biscuits.  The cake was a brown spotted concoction and was gently spicy - some complained that they didn't like it.  It was really rather like a pudding in consistency and flavour.  I loved it and polished mine off.....   Much later, when we returned and got changed on the ship for dinner that night, I found that I had some rather strange brown spots on the inside of my bra.....  I was somewhat puzzled, then realised that I must have dropped some crumbs of the cake down my front!!  "Nothing new there, then," said my OH..    I had to wash the bra and dry it overnight in the shower, LOL!!

All around us at the viewpoint were the rugged mountains.

Another view of the village we saw when we arrived, tucked away in a sheltered valley.

The sea was just visible, a couple of miles distant.   After I took this picture, we got into conversation with a girl in a wheelchair and a very chatty gent, not realising that there was a further path to walk with another view, just around the corner.  By the time we found it, it was too late to go and see what the view was, as the coach was leaving, drat!!

A view from my seat on the coach as we negotiated some of the hairpin bends..  The blocks mark the edge of the road but don't look big enough to stop anyone going over the edge!

More views from the coach as we descended back down to sea level:

Old buildings mixed in amongst the new.

The contrast only a few yards away, of the modern motorway.

Our ship was still there, looking dramatic against the backdrop of the pretty town. Every time we left a port, our Captain would come on the tannoy and describe the event, including saying "After we have let go of our bits of string, we will be on our way!"

Was that the Nuns Valley, LINDY?

We had another welcome cup of tea, then dumped our things and went up onto the top deck to see ourselves leaving this fascinating island. The guy who had guided us around, had talked incessantly; he knew a lot about the politics, history and geography of the place.  He was interesting, but just went into too much detail. However,  as we were wending our way back down through Funchal, he told us about the very sad event of a couple of years ago, when they had catastrophic floods and landfall avalanches, which had done much damage.  I remember seeing the pictures on the News and being shocked at the destruction and mess.  It must also have been a major blow to the people hoping to encourage tourism, which is so important to these islands.

View from our top deck - that is the large ship docked behind us on the pier.

Looking the other way, towards the "pointy" end of the ship - the pier and tiny cars and vans on the road to our left, which we gradually pulled away from, sideways (I don't know how they do it!)

As we gracefully left the pier, we were aware of being threatened - by Pirates!!  This ship had appeared, and we waved madly at them.  Most of them waved back!!

I zoomed in with the camera.  We must have looked absolutely huge, to them.

The pier we had left, including the other ship (I forget its name, but it was not P&O like us, it may have been a Celebrity ship). Amazing to think that we had managed to leave from that space without it needing to make way for us.

A gang of gulls followed us, to see us off the premises.  There were one or two who didn't want to leave, and swooped impressively around, keeping up with us very well.  I took lots of pics, thinking of Clare, who I know loves their flying prowess, but sadly this was the best pic and is not very good, sorry.

Our last glimpse as we left land:  a beautiful island and we shall not forget our day there.

Heather B said:

Was that the Nuns Valley, LINDY?

I think so, Heather.  I will have to find my literature about the trip.  It sounded something like that. Very beautiful area.

The coach driver was described as "A very good driver --  we don't have any poor drivers on the island, as they are lost through Natural Selection - in other words, they don't last very long on these winding roads!!"

I've never been on that sail ship, LINDY but have watched it many times. I think it may be something to do with Chrisopher Columbus but I could be talking rubbish, as I often do....

Join the club, I've been known to flag my own posts and also to flag others, instead of clicking on "like"..

Now I look at it, I can't see the Skull & Crossbones flying on that wooden ship, but we all shouted "Pirates!" all the same!

Nice pix Lindy. it's amazing to think of all the early explorers who went sailing off across the oceans in those tiny ships, not  knowing what they'd find or even if they'd make it back home....