PUSHING THE BORDERS

Yeah, that's good too 😁

One of our favourite madeira walks https://www.pushingtheborders.com/php ... 5#p2345

taffy wrote :

Hi Valdy.
The Angiopteris is in the municipal garden ( Jardim Municipal do Funchal)

Hey, Taffy, thanks for the heads up for the Angiopteris. And well done for getting a sporeling!

Charlie wrote

One of our favourite madeira walks https://www.pushingtheborders.com/php ... 5#p2345

Thanks Charlie. That looks amazing, one we will have to do.
Did you get a bus to Portella?

Yes, the buses go via machico, but because it's also the end of the ribrio frio walk there are also usually taxi's you can share with for a ride back. If you hang out at the bus stop taxi's will usually stop and haggle a price normally end up paying the same as the bus fair but it's a lot quicker!

Just wanted to say thanks to Charlie, Paul, Martin and Taffy for the hints and tips about Madeira, especially for the ferns.

We saw the fabulous Angiopteris in the Municipal Gardens and the Cyatheas were a sight to behold at the Monte Palace Gardens. I've never see so many of these majestic tree ferns in one place and such a huge size and height!

We visited Ribeiro Frio as Paul had suggested and did the walk to the fabulous viewpoint at Balcoes, and then did a couple of km of the Levada de Furado. Again amazing ferns everywhere, Woodwardia radicans, Diplazium caudatum and Pteris incompleta, Dryopteris guanchica and others, all huge! Filmy ferns as well - the Killarney Fern, so rare in the British Isles, Vandenboschia speciosa and the smaller Hymenophyllum tunbridgense growing on slopes and cliffs. At the Forestry Station there were plants of the Dicksonia relative, Culcita macrocarpa.

On a drier levada near Machico we saw lots of the Kidney-Leaf Maidenhair fern, Adiantum reniforme as well as Adiantum capillus-veneris and Adiantum hispidulum.

Overall, we were very impressed with Madeira (we also did an East-West tour to see the rest of the island). So green and lush, more so than Tenerife, and we would definitely go again.

I will try and sort some photos and post them on the forum.

Sounds like a fantastic trip Valdy. Looking forward to those pics!