Madeira, Mountains & Mist
It’s eleven years since, stuck under a cloud of Icelandic volcanic dust, I was urging a tiny, underpowered Skoda hire car over high mountain passes and along twisty coastal roads, to the start of trails that would transport me into a primeval world of mountain and mist. Each route offered up a unique set of perils and delights; ink black tunnels, tumultuous waterfalls, countless hewn steps, precipitous drops. It was, in retrospective, the beginning of a photographic journey and a turning point in life.
The image above was taken on the trail that links Madiera’s two highest mountains, Pico Do Areeiro (1817m) and Pico Ruivo (1862m). Luckily Pico Do Areeiro is accessible by road (and has a cafe and gift shop), so no need to hike to the top to start the walk! This accessibility (and cafe) make Pico Do Areeiro popular with coach parties, but its height means it’s often shrouded in mist. As I sat outside the cafe, slurping coffee and savouring the taste of Madeira cake before the walk, coach trip after coach trip arrived and departed in the gloom. I still wonder if they ever knew what glorious views they missed! When I eventually set out the mist seemed undecided (should it stay or should it go now), not so great for sight seeing, but interesting conditions for photography!
The photograph was straightforward to take and (I’ve since found) is pretty popular. The narrow path, with precipitous drops (above) at each side, constrain the composition; it’s really just a matter of framing and shooting. So why the fuss? Well this is the photograph, that perhaps more than any other, turned a hobby into a pursuit and eventually a profession!
To be more exact it wasn’t this photograph, but one of the same view hung in the lobby of my hotel printed large (at least 3ft by 2ft) in black and white. It was almost the first thing I saw when I arrived fresh off the flight: a stairway, seemingly carved into the rock, ascending towards a mountain peak before disappearing into the mist. When I saw it I was gobsmacked! The image epitomised everything I would wish for in a photograph. I tried in vain to find the location, but with no title, no other visual clues and the hotel staff non-plussed, the task was just about hopeless …
… and then, out on the trail, as the mist descended one last time, I looked up and there it was!
In my recollection the original version remains the superior photograph. Though all the ingredients are there in my own version - mountain, mist, stairway - no matter how I process it the moodiness, melodrama and otherworldliness of the original doesn’t quite come through. Perhaps this is a trick of a fading memory and mind, but more likely it’s because when the original was taken there were no handrails and this (I think) makes all the difference. I’m just waiting for the next version of Photoshop to have a hand rail remover tool!
All that said I’m still pretty content with my own attempt. It’s may not win any awards, but it does its job well, taking me back to a time and place of discovery, both out on the trail and in the hotel when I first saw that image, and ultimately back to Madeira, this incredible land of mountain and mist. What more can you ask of any photograph?
Madeira proved to be a wonderful adventure. As the image set above shows, a huge variety of scenery is packed into this tiny dot in the Atlantic, enough I think for a very hungry photographer to feast on for weeks and months. Perhaps, after eleven years, it’s time to go back!