Rock pool dips and cable car trips: get active in Madeira

Basket case: gravity-assisted transport

An abundance of altitude helps – as you discover at the pretty hilltop town of Monte, 550 metres above sea level. At the foot of the steps of the Church of Our Lady of Monte, you may feel you have stumbled into a gathering of gentlemen about to go boating or play cricket. In fact, they are practitioners of an ancient and effective form of gravity-assisted transport.

The carro de cesto is not a complex piece of engineering. This exotic conveyance evolved from the same gene pool as the toboggan two centuries ago. A large wicker basket capable of carrying up to three passengers is attached to a pair of wooden runners. Its initial purpose was to carry produce downhill to Funchal more safely and reliably than a wheeled vehicle, given the gradients.

Today the cargo comprises tourists – enjoying the exhilaration of speeding down a series of steep hills using public roads. As with a jet airliner, two pilots guide the craft as it descends. These fit young men are known as Carreiros do Monte. One of them, Arnando Gama, says his passengers tend to react in the same way: “They get very excited before the run, then they go quiet on the way down.”

I speculate that the descendants (as I call them) are inwardly whooping with joy as they glide downhill with a superb view of the capital, Funchal, aboard a fairground attraction that has been released into the wild.

Take the cable car from Funchal to Monte, from where the carros are a short walk. If you’re a solo traveller, you’ll save if you team up with someone else. For more information visit carreirosdomonte.com

Higher and higher: discover ancient forest and thrilling trails

For a compact island, Madeira packs some impressive heights – with roads and tracks criss-crossing the island at more than 1,000m. An excellent way to see the scenic highlights is on a 4×4 tour with a company such as Discovery Island. Driver Gil Pestana took me to parts that only the most robust of vehicles can reach.

Madeira was propelled into existence from beneath the Atlantic about 20 million years ago, when volcanic eruptions created an island that later became draped with forest. Some of that raw nature survives, and you can explore it on tracks that have been here for hundreds of years. “Enjoy the mountains, enjoy the forest,” advises Gil. “Makes brilliant photos, brilliant images, stays on the mind for lots of years.”

Discovery Island is…