No "major" holidays this year just a few special single weeks and long weekends. Venice was the first holiday to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary and here we are in Funchal for a relaxing week in June. Once again, we stayed at the Quinta da Casa Branca, a lovely hotel up a steep hill from Funchal with beautiful gardens, friendly staff, excellent food etc etc. All you could want in a hotel.

The driver who brought us to the hotel mentioned that there would be a firework display that night in Funchal harbour so we "stayed up late" and went down to watch it. It was spectacular.

It's amazing how fast the light moves!

Sunday was a lazy day - recharging our batteries. Breakfast (yummy as always), dozing / book reading, swim (the pool is a lot warmer in June than in February / March), lunch, sort out boat trips for the rest of the week, more book reading, gym (Shirley), walk into town for dinner at the Marina Terrace (one of our favourite restaurants) and one of our favourite dishes (Steak on a Stone).

Monday sunrise was pretty and promised another lovely, sunny day. Boat trip booked for the afternoon so plenty of time to relax in the morning.

Having finished my second book of the holiday, I couldn't resist walking round QCB's pretty garden with camera in hand.

 

Yet another lovely lunch at QCB then it was time to go into town for the first of several boat trips.

We did see a few birds (not many) so we could practice taking shots of moving targets!

We managed to get both these seats at the front in the end. I think everybody else was either dozing or inside the boat (it did get a little bit chilly on the way back in).

We wended our weary way back up the hill but decided to stop half way at Jardins do Infante - very nice Espada (fish) with banana followed by strawberries and chantilly (that Jonathon thought were strawberries and chilli when he ordered them for me)!

Tuesday was a "do nothing" day. A bit of gym, swim, book read and plenty of eating. In contrast, Wednesday was full of activity. First up was a trip out on Gaviao, one of our favourite yachts in Madeira. Sad for them, but good for us, there were only 4 passengers of which we were 2 so plenty of room and no hassle.

The weather was beautiful, the sea calm and the animals busy!

Well, when I say "busy" I mean we saw quite a lot, but these Sheerwater certainly weren't busy - they stayed put as we sailed past.

The Fraser's Dolphin (?), on the other hand, were leaping about all over the place! We now think they were Stripy Dophins rather than Fraser's but are waiting for confirmation.

Next animal encounter was a Turtle - spotted by Jonathon.

We travelled back to port nearer the coast, admiring Camara de Lobos, a pretty fishing village, en route.

Lunch at Marina Terrace then a short walk along the sea front to the cable car to go up to the botanic gardens. That part of the sea front has been all "poshed up" since we were here in 2014 - very nice it looks too.

We took a first cable car up to Monte and then a second one to the botanic gardens. The views on the way up and from the top were great and the little welcoming gekko sat still so Jonathon could take his photo.

The gardens are well worth a visit and walking down from the cable car to the far entrance gives you a good idea of all the different things on offer.

We saw a few fish (no photos) and a couple of frogs along the way. We were more surprised to see a cockerel strutting and pecking about. Not sure I'd want him in my garden!

We reached the end, took a taxi home and had a rest!

Thursday found us on Ventura do Mar, another of our favourite vessels in Madeira. It was another lovely, sunny day when we set off but, as with the earlier days this week, got steadily cloudier as the morning went on. The team told us that June is known as "Helmet month" because there is usually a helmet of cloud over the island!

The first thing I spotted in the water was this strange thing. No idea if it is a creature or if it's rubbish so any help would be appreciated.

More exciting were the Spotted Dolphin that we came across and that later came to join us.

We also saw a few turtles while we were out at sea but they were quite shy!

We saw a few birds as well ...

We had hoped to go out again in the afternoon but nobody else had booked so we had a quick snack for lunch in the cafe below (we spent quite a bit of time there before, between and after trips) and then wended our way back up the hill to the hotel, via a cafe for ice-cream / milkshakes.

Friday and another couple of boat trips were on the cards. The first with Gaviao and the second on Bonita da Madeira, another of our favourites. When we're in Madeira in February / March some of the boats are having their annual service etc so we were lucky that we got to go out on all three favourites this week.

We came across a large pod of dolphin and only later found out that it was a mix of Bottlenosed and Rough Toothed. Amazing to see Rough Toothed as they are very rare in this part of the world.

The trip we'd booked to go on with Bonita was Beautiful Bays but, given the choice, the passengers voted to go look for dolphins instead.

The first pod we came across were these playful Common Dolphin. They move so quickly but seemed quite friendly and came close to the boat.

We were really lucky and found the Rough Toothed Dolphin again but this time they seemed to be on their own.

Finally a pod of Spotted Dolphin came and played around the boat for a while.

Bonita gave us a lovely dinner as part of the trip. Jonathon was not looking forward to the Dorado but it would have been very fresh! We had chicken and rice instead - very tasty.

We spotted a few birds while we were out and about as well then we got a lift home (much easier than trogging up the hill!).

Saturday and the last day of our holiday but we weren't leaving until the evening so we had one last trip with Gaviao and saw a couple of pods of Common Dolphin.

These seagulls helped us find the first lot of dolphin - usually a good sign if there are a lot of sea birds around in this area.

Look who got to "drive" for a while - they even let me stay at the helm coming in to the harbour but, thankfully, took the wheel back before we got to the "parking" bit!!