Bikepacking Alone Madeira Island

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I went bikepacking alone in Madeira, known for it’s amazing scenery and incredible mountains, as well as the Trans Madeira race. Madeira is an incredibly beautiful part of the world and I can’t wait to come back here to explore the North properly!

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What gear do I use?:

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Routes here:
Day 1: https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/5312128441
Day 2: https://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/5312147116

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#bikepacking​ #madeira #cycling

Time stamps:

0:00 – Intro
0:21 – Day 1 – Funchal to Santa Antonio Da Serra
2:00 – Day 2 – Santa Antonio to Funchal
4:15 – Day 3 – Funchal to Santa Cruz
5:28 – Some worrying news…
7:58 – BTS and Route Summary

Madira this Portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean is a Haven for bike [Applause] Packing [Laughter] Right [Applause] As I raced back down the mountain to funa I saw a worrying news report we’re seeing reports of flight delays following what is reportedly a major network-wide failure of the UK air traffic control computer system this morning we’ve had a statement that we are currently experiencing a technical

Issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety it turns out all flights to the UK were cancelled so I was stranded on the island I started to panic a bit I headed back down to the hotel who kindly stored my bike box while I was out bik

Packing this was in the August bank holiday so right at the end of August here in the UK I headed to the EasyJet desk to see what I could do they should be able to transfer me to another flight but the next available flight to Manchester wasn’t until the 21st of

September I had to get back to the UK for a family wedding so I was starting to get a little bit stressed I also had work as well so I felt like I didn’t really know what to do at this point now by some miracle after hours and hours of

Speaking to people on the phone looking at Skys scanner trying to find some flights anywhere off the island I managed to find that there was one space available on a flight the following day to London Gatwick so I quickly paid for that I don’t know how much it was I just

Wanted to get off the island and by doing so it meant that the following day I could get back to the UK I was really really lucky I heard so many stories of people on madira especially where there aren’t a huge amount of flights to the UK every week who were stranded there

For a very long period of time and had to spend a lot of money to get off there because I was traveling solo it was a lot easier for me I could book that final seat I didn’t have to book for other people meant I could get back home

Safely which I did the next day I had to Trek up the rest of the UK to get back to my house but I was just so thankful I was n’t stranded on the island now in reality being stranded on madir is quite a nice thing cuz it is an absolutely

Beautiful island if you haven’t got any commitments like work or family to get back to it’s not a bad place to be stuck the weather is absolutely beautiful for most of the year I went towards the end of August like I said so it was quite hot the scenery is incredible incredible

Views really tough climbs but when you get to the top it absolutely blows you away with its beauty so let’s look at the behind the scenes I flew from Manchester here in the UK to funell it’s a direct flight it’s about 4 hours wasn’t too expensive I stayed in a hotel

Near the airport who kindly stored my bike box for the duration of the trip on day one my plan was to go across the entire Island to the north now the north of madira is known as being the more beautiful side of the island a little

Bit more Lush little bit more rural so I was really looking forward to going there the plan was to go right across the middle over to se shell and then over to Port mon e there’s actually only one official campsite on the whole of the island and I had planned on staying

There I’d brought my camping equipment the tent the sleeping bag everything I needed so that I could do that as is often the way with bike packing you have to make changes things don’t always go to plan and they didn’t on this occasion as well I was the main problem here in

That my fitness probably wasn’t where it should be I planned quite a long route roughly 60 to 65 miles and it’s very mountainous here and the heat was getting to to me and the climbing was getting to me as well so I managed to do

Roughly 20 mi and I was just going so slow I managed to find somewhere online in a tiny village called Santo desera which was absolutely beautiful it’s quite a high up Village so it was very cloudy as you can see which meant it wasn’t that warm but it was quite nice

Given that the ride up was pretty intense it was nice to cool down a little bit at the top I ended up staying at what was quite a posh house but not in the house itself uh it was like some sort of quarters on the land for the people that worked there housekeepers

The gardeners and stuff but there was also separate apartments for people who wanted to book there and it was really really cheap it was absolutely beautiful and completely tranquil and quiet I had the whole apartment to myself because I booked it quite last minute they were

Still sort of cleaning it and getting it ready for me as I showed up but they were really accommodating could bring my bike straight in as well which was ideal in hindsight I didn’t really have to book anything because the following day literally two maybe three miles up the

Road there were some lovely open planes which were used by a lot of hikers and other people who are wild camping there so I thought to myself could have saved a bit of money there but I didn’t know that was there so hindsight being 2020 that’s probably what I would have done

If I could go back and do it again it can be quite annoying flying halfway across the world with your camping gear and then not actually using it but to be honest I still had an amazing experience in the place that I was staying I was a

Bit guttered that I couldn’t go to the north of the Island there was so many places I wanted to visit and I wanted to capture with the Drone and the camera but it kind of given me a good excuse to come back another time on day two I

Carried on from Santo deera up the mountain and came above the cloud line and when I did it was absolutely breathtaking I could fly the Drone with clear views it was like a cloud inversion so it just looked really magical that’s the point where I bumped into loads of mountain bikers madira is

One of the most popular places for downhill mountain biking injo whatever you want to call it it’s a really popular thing nowadays and because the weather’s pretty nice the scenery is incredible and the mountains are really big it can be a really exciting place to

Do that sort of thing if you’re the sort of person who’s confident bombing it down the hills which I’m not the road down the mountain was basically a fire Road there was nobody using it was a dead end at the top so as a result there

Were no cars so I could go pretty quick down to the center as fast as I dared go anyway it was amazing going through the cloud line it was like I was flying through the air at the top amazing descent lots of twists and turns and very beautiful so I eventually rejoined

The route that I should have been on the next day back to fun shell the last bit anyway now funell is the capital of madira there’s a lot going on it is a beautiful place managed to get some great footage of the port and I was staying in a kind of cheap hotel/

Restaurant really it was uh a little bit interesting but they had a basement level where I could store my bike and I had my own nice room and a balcony uh really lovely place to stay right in the center I’m really excited to announce a brand new newsletter that I’m bringing

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