The sights of Madeira

Thursday began quite strangely. Waking up quite early I could hear a strange sound in the distance, coming from the direction of the sea. I decided to sit out on the balcony for a while to see if the sound got any clearer, but it was only when the wind blew in the direction of the hotel, that it was possible hear anything at all. Could it be the sound attributed by "sailors of old" to that of the mermaids, singing on the rocks? I sat and listened for what seemed like hours, slowly piecing together the fragments of the intermittent sounds.

...Finally after some time, the words slowly began to fit into place...

"...Oh tell your Aunt Louise, tell anything you please
Myself already knows that I'm okay
Oh you can tell my eyes to watch out for my mind
It might be walking out on me today

But don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
I just don't think it'd understand
And if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man..."

I looked down, and there about 100 feet below, Gladys was still dancing all alone and singing to herself as she danced!!

The rest of the morning was taken up with more swimming in the sea, before we set out on an organised tour in the afternoon.

The tour which lasted over three and a half hours took us to both Monte; were we took the infamous toboggan ride - being pushed down a steep hill for 2km in what amounted to a glorified bread basket - but great fun! - and then onto the Nun's Refuge; a view over a remote village, high up in the hills and reached by ascending 52 hairpin bends.

A great trip which, when over, also allowed us enough time to have yet another swim in the sea!

Over a beer or two in the evening I began to think that there was possibly a business opportunity to set up something akin to the toboggan ride in the UK...which I will expand on more in a blog entitled "The man from Health and Safety says No!!"