Ponta de Sao Lourenco - my experience

Ponta de Sao Lourenco - How difficult is it to hike it?

It has been a few days since I wrote an article about some general information for you when planning on your trip to the eastern-most point of Madeira island. In that article, I promised to bring you a new one which would include my own experience from the trip. So let me start and I am really curious whether you experience was/will be the same as mine.

Picture: I got in favour with this place.

Complications on a bus

I arrived in Madeira in a half of September 2018 and I quickly met many Erasmus students with whom I got on really well. When somebody introduced me an idea of doing a trip to Ponta de Sao Lourenco, I agreed on going there immediately. As it was early October, I did not know much about Madeira so far and I did not know how the bus connections worked. Luckily, some of my friends who arrived in Madeira earlier knew it already.

We met early in the morning so we could start our journey around 9 o’clock. We got to the bus stop (which I described in the previous article) after some time of stopping people on the street and asking them which the correct bus stop was “ours”. In that area, there are many bus stops which can be confusing when you are new in Funchal. Then, the bus finally arrived and our group of eight people got on board with a huge bunch of others who wanted to do the same hike.

Our plan was to get just a one-way ticket and do hitchhiking on the way back. I was standing in front of the driver to buy the ticket and had to pay more than six Euros.  The rest of the group just said they wanted the same. “It is quite expensive, is it not?” we just discussed. “Oh, that is because it seems we have got a return ticket.” One of our friends noticed.  Well,  I mean, I did not specifically said I wanted a one-way ticket, but as I did not mention a return ticket either, it made sense to me that I would be sold just the first option.

I went to ask the driver whether we can be given new tickets and cancel those we had but he got quite angry and started to argue that we did not say anything about one-way option. “Yes, but we did not say anything about the return one either” I said. To cut the story, he did not want to do any changes. He was sure he did everything right and added: “You should have told me it is too much money for the one-way ticket.” “How could we, we do not know the tariff.” Nothing, we sat down on some seats and started the journey. Well, we will see whether we will use the tickets or we will still hitchhike, we thought.

Not only I prepared some snack and a lot of water for the trip, but I also put a small (pocket) guide-book into my rucksack. So after a few kilometres on the road I opened that and read something about our spot of interest of the day and its surrounded villages.

Picture: We knew we wanted to get there, no matter the driver's mood.

Baía d’Abra

If you have read my previous articles, you probably remember that the Madeira island is quite small. So even though Funchal and the most eastern point of the island are not that far from each other, it take approximately one hour and a quarter to reach Baía d’Abra. It is because when you go by bus, it stops in many places so the journey prolongs. Moreover, there are many mountains which you have to go around, so you cannot count just a distance of a straight line between any places. 

Nowadays, the situation with transportation is easier as there have been many tunnels built. Locals say it even saves many lives. It used to be very dangerous to drive on a road right next to some rocks which were falling down unexpectedly.

Now, let us have a look back to Baía d’Abra. Baía d’Abra is the starting point of the Ponta de Sao Lourenco hike. So my friends and I walked a few steps and stopped to enjoy the astonishing view! No matter in what part of the track you are, you will simply enjoy the nature.

As soon as we started, we met a girl who came alone. And as she spoke Ukrainian, she joined our group.  Funny enough – we were a group mostly made of Czech girls. (I mean, Erasmus is about meeting people from all over the world but what happened to me in Madeira was really unexpected. I am going to write a different article about it, so I will leave it now as simply as it is. I went on the trip with girls from the same home country.) In our group, however, were also two girls who spoke Slovakianwith us (our languages are almost the same) even though their native languages were Hungarian and Ukrainian. So that is the “unknown girl” from Ukraine joined us. Good for us as we were supposed to speak also in English.

Picture: There were many of us, so we had fun.

Give me your food!

Approximately in the half of the one-way track there is a spot where you can sit down, eat your snack, relax, do whatever you want. So we did all of these things and enjoyed some fun time together.

Finally, we did not stay alone and got some animal company. Madeira is full of such lizards which you can see anywhere. They are in Funchal, they are in Porto Moniz (where I did the scuba diving), they are in cities as well as in nature. They smelled our food, I guess, because there were so many suddenly. First, they are cute but after a while they became as cheeky as monkeys in Gibraltar. So they started to climb on our backpacks and our bodies. I could not help myself – when they climbed on my leg I jumped up. I was not the only one that showed an amazing quick jump though. One of the girls from our group was enjoying the time with these lizards and ate with such calmness. One of the lizards climbed more high to get closer to her and out of the sudden jumped on herbecause she was holding her food in her hands. It was such a shock! But all of us, including the girl, were laughing.

Picture: These lizards will get to you easily when you stop for having a snack.

The rest of the track

Now, there is not much to be said. We continued forward to get to the final point. We walked even with our incredible friend Any who was stumbling every 200 metres! Can you imagine? She always crossed her heels and toes and quickly catching the balance again. It was funny as well – incredible!

I started the trip with a pain in my back. The previous day I could barely move but in the morning I felt better. When I jumped on the way, I felt it a lot but as we kept walking, my back got warm an relaxed. So this track helped me (I am not telling you, however, to do this trip if you have a backache).  And what about my roommate? She had a throat ache. But this track made it better, too. Would you believe? Maybe it was thank to the ocean, maybe thank to rocks, maybe thank to all the  fun we had.

We walked easily, talked, were having a good time and then the final part was there! The most difficult  one. We stopped talking, we stopped laughing. Instead, we were pushing ourselves to continue and breathed. Except of Kamca who preferred talking to her friend through Skype so she did not have to focus on the huge hill she needed to climb. Our strategies are different. What is yours?

The astonishing view

Yes, we got to the final point, took some pictures and enjoyed being there. The view is really worth it!

After, we had to walk the whole way back again. It was all right, the weather was sunny, we stopped at a terrace of a snack bar on the way to rest a bit. Sure, on the way back, we felt more tired but still had enough energy to get back to the bus stop.

We had to wait for the bus, we decided to take it instead of hitchhiking. In the meanwhile I went to practice my beginner level of Portuguese with a men from a snack shop on wheels. Later on, there was time for going back home.

Our legs very dark from the dusty paths of the track and our faces and shoulders were red from the sun which was stronger that it seemed to be. So I have add – anytime you go to Ponta de Sao Lourenco, bring sunscreenlotion!

Picture: The end of the path brings a beautiful view.

Second time with some rain

When I went to the same place for the second time, it was April already. April is the month when it rains a lot in Madeira. I went there with my parents who came to visit me. We checked the forecast which prevision said there would be some quick shower. It was true. It started to rain suddenly and it did not last that long. But even though we were very close to the terrace of the snack bar, we got sodden before getting there. However, as I said – the sun in this part of the island is very strong. So before going on the bus to go back home we were dry again.

Prepare your rucksack and do this trip

This track is really nice and the place is worth visiting. After all, it is not expensive to get there and I am sure you will enjoy being in such a beautiful place as I did (my friends and parents did as well).

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