Madeira

#14 Madeira – October 2023 – Age: 29

This was an unexpected reunion with 2 very old friends, Charley and Lucinda. What a history we have had together. Charley was my first ever snog, aged 13, on Cambridge train station platform, also my first girlfriend – our song was Shake That by Eminem – we were so adult. We parted ways, also aged 13 I think (young love eh?). 

Lucinda, a constant “flame” in my life, although perhaps completely one sided. Always great friends and always a little bit of a flirt – I think we’re both just flirty people at the end of the day. There was this one incident where I had lost my virginity at Reading festival in 2010 to my then girlfriend Hannah – at this point I decided to go an celebrate and during my celebrations decided to lunge at Lucinda and kiss her. Seriously bad dude. I promise I’ve grown up since. 

Anyway, who knew after all that, we would organise a reunion trip to Madeira? What were we thinking? It was actually f**king fantastic. I usually am the organiser for my respective friend groups when we go on holiday. I’m good (so I’m told), and plan lots of great activities, but I tend to lack a bit of finesse. I hope they won’t mind me saying they have a penchant for the flash and a taste for the finer things in life, and it showed in the Air Bnb and in the planning. No roughing it here. 

Lucinda and I arrived a day before Charley – I already knew this was going to be fun – we hired a car and drove around the hilly coastline, finding some picturesque spots for Instagram stories including a trek through the mountains to see some of the more beautiful waterfalls the island had to offer. After a day of frivolity and exploring, we got some cocktails and dinner by the sea and discussed the worlds problems, the future and business. It was this night Lucinda encouraged me of the merits and possibilities of selling my business. I thank her immensely and owe her a great debt of gratitude as this was completed this year (30/09/2024) and I am now onto my next venture. 

Charley arrived and we could begin some further adventures. Firstly with a nice meal out (insert restaurant here). The main difference between this kind of trip and my usual man-orientated trips is that girls like to start slowly drinking, enjoy the splendour of the setting and the food before gradually getting merry. Usually, it’s who can sink the most drink the quickest and end up in the bin.. I really need to spend some self-inquiry on this. The former seems much more healthy. 

Funchal was lovely – good food, nice people and nice ambience, but my favourite memories of this trip were spent outside Funchal. The rolling hills and beautiful mountain roads are breath-taking – around every corner there seems to be a better view. We had booked an off-road tour for one of the days and this meant we could discover some of the more hidden gems on the island – we ascended mountains through 4*4 exclusive tracks and hidden paths at great speed which was exhilarating – kudos to our clearly very skilled driver – (insert company here). 

Even without these, the road network is stunning with long uncultivated drives through tunnels, rogue cliff-side waterfalls which spill out over the road, stunning coastal tracks and just in general, a beautiful landscape which leaves you in awe. 

Lucinda was keen on one of the more salubrious treks which involved an early start and a sunrise summit after a beautiful mountain ridge walk. I’d spent the latter part of the previous evening with Charley sinking a few bottles of the local drink (insert here) and reminiscing by the pool, which meant our sore heads were not going to prevail with this kind of activity. Instead, we decided to go paragliding… Sounds mental doesn’t it? Too hungover for a sunrise walk.. let’s go paragliding (insert company here). 

We drove to the place, strapped ourselves in with our respective instructor and then hurtled down a hill and jumped off a cliff – a totally sane thing to do. 

Despite the racing heart and adrenaline of the initial leap of faith, this is one of the most peaceful and tranquil activities I’ve ever done. Slowly rising and falling with the wind taking in the spell-binding sites of Madeira’s unparalleled coastline from the air really gives you some perspective. I’m not sure what perspective, but you can certainly get lost in your head when you experience the wonder of it. Or maybe that was the hangover, I’m not sure. I would thoroughly recommend it though. All good things must come to an end of course. All of the self-inquiry you’ve taken part in during this 30 minutes of bliss falls out your ass when you come to un-ceremonially land on said ass. Welcome back to earth pal. What a trip. Love you both!