Madeira 2025 - Day 3

We have arranged a hire car for 4 days so this morning Colin took a Bolt to the pick up garage.

Great weather today and we headed out to the Curral Das Freis (the Valley of the Nuns).

The Nuns settled here in 1600s after being persecuted and evicted from Funchal. It is high in the mountains and until the 1980's the only way in was by foot or by donkey,  a 2500m tunnel through the mountain now provides vehicular access. 

To reach our next destination we had to take a tortuous mountain road which is only open in daylight hours and there is good visibility. There was an excellent viewpoint above the village we had just visited and towards Pico do Aerio, the geology is amazing. 



We finished our trip with a visit to Ribeira Frio.  We had done a levada walk from here on our first trip to Madeira but today we took a different route on PR 11 to another stunning viewpoint Balcoes.

A 40 minute drive back to Funchal,  a drink by the pool before an excellent dinner in local food court.

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