Port Santo is one of the Portuguese islands which make up the Madeira archipelago. Situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the north west coast of Africa and north of the Canary Islands, the islands were accidentally discovered in 1418 when some Portuguese captains in the service of the Infante Henrique of Portugal were blown off course by a storm and ended up there by mistake.  Their ships found shelter in Porto Santo and survived the storm as a result of what they believed to be Divine deliverance. They named the island Porto Santo or Holy Harbour in gratitude and acknowledgement.  The islands are known to have been discovered prior to this date as they appear on Italian maps as early as 1339 but no-one recorded their discovery. The first Portuguese settlers arrived in the 1420s.

Bartolomeu Perestreolo, a member of the team that later came to explore the Madeira Islands, became the first Captain-donatório of Porto Santo by royal award in November 1445. He later became Christopher Columbus’ father-in-law. He was responsible for releasing into the wild, a female rabbit that had given birth to a litter on the voyage, together with her offspring.  The rabbits multiplied catastrophically in a xeric island ecosystem (one that exists with little water). The island’s flora and fauna had evolved in isolation and had never known a flightless mammal. This wreaked havoc on the island’s  environment as the rabbits ate all the native plant life and laid the slopes bare to erosion and colonization by alien weeds also brought by the settlers. The ecosystem was changed forever. Life was difficult for the early settlers due to the lack of drinking water and the huge numbers of wild rabbits!

Second largest island in the archipelago Porto Santo covers an area of 42.17 km² with a population of over 5,000 inhabitants. The main source of income here is tourism and the island is popular with golfers who are drawn by the world-class golf course designed by Seve Ballasteros, its beaches and its year round temperate climate.

I had planned to visit Porto Santo on a day trip from Madeira but the weather had other plans.  The runway in Madeira is famously ‘challenging’ as it has mountains at one end and the sea at the other! On the day I flew there, the cloud cover was so thick that the pilot couldn’t see the runway at all!  He therefore made the decision to land in Porto Santo instead and so I arrived earlier than anticipated.  Once we had been on the runway for a couple of hours, we were offered the opportunity to either go back to Gatwick and be put up overnight for free or to take ourselves off (at our own expense)  and take the evening ferry to Madeira – a 3 hour journey.  Having already spent the previous night at Gatwick airport, I didn’t fancy going back there so I decided to get off the ‘plane along with most of the other passengers.  There were more ‘planes on the runway than the tiny airport could cope with so we had to wait another hour or so until they found some ground crew and some steps to get us off!

I teamed up with Judy, a doctor from Oxford and her son who had sat next to me on the plane.  The information office at the airport told me where to go to get ferry tickets. Outside the airport there wasn’t a taxi in sight but a helpful local man called a taxi for us and the friendly driver dropped us off at the travel agents and explained where to get food and the ferry. There was quite a crowd as passengers from the 5 diverted planes arrived to buy tickets! As in many places in Portugal it was a ‘take-a-ticket-from-the-machine-and-wait-your-turn’ system. The team of 3 staff efficiently issued tickets and the waiting crowd from all over Europe chatted amiably with each other and helped each other with the ticket system passing tickets back along the queue in the street in a very civilized and co-operative manner! It was all quite jolly and sociable!

The town was tiny and we were starving so we made for the nearest bar/restaurant and had a very welcome lunch and some beer whilst watching the local electrician swaying alarmingly in the high winds at the top of very long ladder (which no-one was holding) whilst trying to put up the Christmas lights. Clearly no healthy and safety here! Afterwards, we walked down to the shore and admired the long, sandy stretch of beach, had a quick look around the town and at the Christmas decorations. The town has a very typical Portuguese feel with whitewashed houses, red rooftops and the cobbled streets made from black and white stones which can be seen in Madeira or Lisbon. The palm trees and tropical plants remind you that you are in warmer climes. I would have liked more time to wander around as the town looked interesting. We picked up some supplies from the supermarket then took a taxi to the end of the harbour to board our vessel.  Fortunately, it was a large and quite luxurious ship and we found comfortable seats for our journey. We sailed at 1800 by which time I had been up for about 32 hours. The journey to Funchal takes just under 3 hours – I slept!

Sadly I didn’t see as much of Porto Santo as I would have liked but couldn’t face the 6 hour round trip to come back again for a day trip.

NEXT ISLAND: Madeira!