Madeira Private Central Peaks Day Sunset at Pico do Arieiro

Most people see Pico do Arieiro at dawn, shoulder to shoulder in a car park. We go at the other end of the day.

We start in the centre of the island: Pico dos Barcelos, then Eira do Serrado at 1,095 metres looking down into Nun's Valley, and Curral das Freiras, one of the few villages on Madeira that cannot be seen from the sea. At Ribeiro Frio we walk the Levada dos Balcões, three kilometres out and back, where the Madeiran firecrest usually shows itself, a bird found nowhere else on earth.

Then we climb for sunset. Three kilometres on the PR1 trail, past Ninho da Manta, usually above the clouds, to the Stairs of Heaven. The same view people queue for at dawn, in warmer light, in near silence.

One car, four guests at most. I drive, I park, and I walk the trail with you. I take no commission from anything I recommend.