An Afternoon at Manchester's Transport Museum

Not too much to report, perhaps the title Transport Museum is a little grand - it is in fact a Bus Museum (though to be fair they do have a tram, a fire engine, a street cleaner and two invalid carriages). The web site is http://www.gmts.co.uk/ and is informative and accurate.

So, by special request we went (Caz, Quinn, Sera and me) - here are the photos:

The last leg home

After a great week in Madeira the final few miles back to Bolton by rail from Manchester Airport

Sailing to the Ilhas Desertas

Madeira is in fact an island in an archipelago (oh how I've longed to use that word!) - the whole group consists of Madeira (the largest), Porto Santo, The Ilhas Desertas (3 islands Ilhéu Chão, Deserta Grande and Bugio) and the Selvagen Islands (and indeed in some articles I've read, the Canary Islands are also included).

Porto Santo has a large airport and a daily ferry to and from Madeira whilst the Selvagens are deserted and two days sailing south.

The Desertas Islands are in prominent visibility from the South of Madeira and are just 2 or 3 hours away (depending upon the speed of your boat!).

We took a day excursion on the Ventura do Mar a converted fishing boat. We left Funchal at 9 am and headed South East towards the Ilhas Desertas (as you see I can speak Portuguese!).

Around noon we arrived and tied up in a small bay on Deserta Grande - the largest of the three islands. The area is designated as a nature reserve and fishing and diving are strictly regulated.

Four wardens live on the island (see the little hut in the photo below) and act as protectors for the area.

The trip was terrific - lunch once we'd anchored was tuna, fresh bread, salad, baked potato and a very passable red wine, then we were taken ashore via a small inflatable dinghy for a "very" short tour of the island.

"Tour" probably inflates the experience - it's actually a footpath with some information boards, around 1/4 mile in total but still you do get to see the odd inhabitant.

In fact the Desertas also host an endemic Tarantula, but we didn't see that!






There was an opportunity to buy the T-Shirt, the brochure AND the DVD but we passed on that and then it was back onto the Ventura do Mar and sails set, back to Madeira, getting back to Funchal as night fell around 6:30 pm

Walking the Levadas

Madeira is famous in walking fraternities for its Levadas. These are small (in width) watercourses built to bring water from the wet north and central mountains to the southern part of the island.

They are typically small concrete channels, sometimes with path alongside, but sometimes with one wall of the channel a bit wider than the other so it can be used to walk along.
The picture is of the Levada Piornais near Funchal - a little earlier in its course it is covered over and you walk on the covers.

The levada meanders along up one side of the Socoridos valley, in some parts protected by a handrail (though whether that would pass UK Health & Safety is pretty debatable!)

It also goes through a number of small tunnels driven through the rock, and populated, rather alarmingly when we were there by men with shotguns - who gave a warning "be very careful", though whether that was relating to balancing along the levada edge or dodging the shooting was not immediately clear!


After the tunnels you finally emerge on what seems a very precarious path - one of our party definitely needing two hands and a list to starboard to avoid looking into the gorge to the left