Funchal; Monday, 11 April, 2016

I had managed to get some sleep, but I’d been up several times in the night, and never so glad of the presence of a bidet in the bathroom! By breakfast time I was starting to feel hungry again and the gaps between being ill had lengthened so I had a light bite to eat and a lot of water and juice before heading out into town.

I’d always decided that today I was going to do the Yellow Bus tours, and I was glad to be spending much of the day sat down. I started by taking the tour out to Câmera de Lobos where I changed onto the shuttle bus service up to Cabo Girão. The Cape is the 2nd highest sea cliff with a vertical drop in the world, and to make it that more impressive they’ve built a viewing platform that juts out from the top of the cliff, with a glass floor meaning you can look straight down 1,500 feet or so to the beach below.

I’d managed to avoid two showers on the way up to the cape by sitting downstairs on the bus, and skipped a third one by having a cup of coffee in the café at the cape before wandering back to the bus stop to take the bus back down into Câmera de Lobos. Back down at sea level I had a bit of a wander around the town before heading over to the bus stop and picking the tour bus back up to head on back into town.

By now the weather had improved considerably so I stayed on the bus and did a full circuit from the top-deck in the sun, though by the time we arrived back into the harbour area at Funchal I was feeling unwell again. I decided to cut my losses and grabbed a taxi back the short distance to the hotel and about 30 minutes later left the hotel feeling considerably better.

I headed back to the harbour side and picked up the town tour bus to do two circuits of the tour and then went for a little wander around the cathedral area of the city before heading back to the bus stop and picking up the last Câmera de Lobos tour of the day.

For some reason, as it was free, I sat in the front seat and consequently was under cover when about two thirds of the way round the skies opened again and deposited another massive soaking on the island.

Back in town I wandered over to the Old Town area to have a bit of a look around and then to have a bite to eat. I had a very pleasant meal, but still wasn’t feeling perfect so hailed a cab back to the hotel rather than walking the mile or so, once again I was very glad I did as by the time I reached the hotel I was in need of the facilities.

Thankfully, that turned out to be the end of it and I was able to get a decent night’s sleep.