THE WEEKLY #215: I MADE IT TO MADEIRA

In five years of travel, I’ve honestly never felt more freedom than when I stepped out of the airport on Madeira Island. It was a fresh start for 2020 and although I enjoyed my time in Adelaide, setting off on a new adventure had me feeling reinvigorated and stoked to explore the island.

My plan is to base on Madeira for a few months enjoying a relaxed lifestyle with lots of exploring, writing, photography, fitness, and just general wellbeing. Nothing too fast, nothing too crazy just some consistent adventures to keep the mind and body firing.

In a spontaneous lockdown decision, my friends Atiba and Ilse decided they would also base in Madeira for a while so we rented an apartment and a car together and the Madeira crew was set. If you are interested to check out their adventures and story you can do so over on their travel blog: Digital Travel Couple or their Instagram.

Atiba and Ilse have convinced me that one hike every two days is a good balance so I am restraining myself at this stage and have been enjoying the trails of Madeira. My Achilles has held on and with the recovery work I’ve been doing it seems to be on the revival although I haven’t yet tested it with any running.

Madeira is the ‘Hawaii of Europe’ and it genuinely lives up to that title. It was by far one of the steepest islands I’ve ever been on and I can’t even imagine riding a bike here, which is what stopped me from buying one as soon as I arrived. Driving around the island is like Santorini meets Jurassic park with small villas speckled all over the terraces and hills with towering mountains and ridges looming in the background. The water here is crystal clear with dolphins and sea-life in abundance. It’s basically the European paradise!

I’ve published a number of individual blogs about all different places we have been so far, which you can check out by viewing the Madeira Archives Page. However, if you are just interested to check out some photos of Madeira, I have put my favorite shots of the week below.

I hope you all had a great week and continue to make the most of what 2020 throws at us.