Day 13 - South Plateau, last ascent

After the weather prediction advertised a rainy day in Madeira, we were left waiting for the big luck. Today I would have the help of Pedro and Isamberto, and the Lisbon team headed to Ilhéu Chão. We waited for middle of the afternoon to climb the Vereda, to set up the 48 pitfall traps and finish those 4 hours of night sampling. Right as I was preparing the combat meal to be used as dinner, *bollocks!* rain falling down… >:| I was cursing for quite a while, standing at the porch and looking at the clouds thinking that this cobra protocol couldn’t be finished for about an hour until, suddenly, a clearing in the sky approaches the top south of the Deserta Grande. I immediately suggested the climb at about 17:30 and there we went, at the fastest speed possible by me (always the slowest element when comparing to Pedro and Isamberto, it’s impossible to compete with these guys, they come from another planet inhabited by a special species of mountaineering people). After we reached the destination, it was “dig! dig! dig!” Isamberto did the holes, I set up the cup and Pedro prepped the “roofs” of the traps. We were done of this task at about 20:30 and we had 1 hour to have some food and rest till nightfall, and to hope that the rain wouldn’t spoil the 4 remaining hours left of fieldwork. But again, St. Peter didn’t turn on the sprinkler and we managed to do those last hours with no rain, and that was the last sampling to be done in the Deserta Grande! And one last nocturnal descent of the Vereda followed, with all the time of the world, as the night revealed a sky full of stars and Pedro stopped for a long exposure photo in Eira, capturing the “lava bombs” by night.

Day 12 - Cobra @ South Plateau

Today we split ourselves in 2 mixed teams, which would share sampling efforts according to both the teams’ priorities. I and Mário went to the South Plateau, guided by Clemente and the rest went on the boat to Bugio, a target for the Lisbon team. By the morning, we stayed by Eira, where I helped Mário to set up one transect. After lunch, there we went to the South Plateau and again I helped Mário to put a new pitfall transect. Afterwards, the time started to run short, because I needed to start the 4 hours of daytime direct sampling. I started by 16:00 and finished around 20:30, time when I was only accompanied by the sea gulls that inhabit this place. After this time, I started waiting for my nocturnal assistance, as Pedro, Isamberto and Pardal would join me for the night sampling to try to do the work in 2 hours (2 x 4 samples), after arriving from Bugio. However, today revealed to be an unlucky day. We started around 22:30 and, just 5 minutes before the first sample finished rain came down and wet the vegetation so that the 2nd hour of night sampling had to be cancelled. L We had to head down back to the Doca. The nocturnal descent was quite a nice moment, because a landscape that was starting to be familiar was suddenly changed to a new nocturnal sighting. After sliding and jumping down some hill tops, we even passed by some Calonectris diomedea borealis and almas-negras on the way back through the Vereda, that were nesting in some hideouts in the cliffs. The nocturnal cobra samplings always have their charm… J Too bad it’s not done yet.

Day 11 - bye bye Hogna ingens

Before we bid farewell to our beloved tarantula, there were 48 pitfalls left to set up for the cobra protocol and 30 more for the Lisbon team. Pedro had the spirit to head to the northernmost part of the valley to set up 15 pitfalls for the Lisbon team, (he also needed to mark the spot with his GPS) and I and Isamberto were left with the 48 cobra pitfalls. With the help of a lovely shovel stored in Hotel Castanheira, we had an excellent productivity. We did the job, ate, and waited for Pedro to arrive back from the northern end of the valley to tell us where would he set up the remaining 15 pitfalls for the Lisbon team and we done it in no time!

One last thing before we go: Pedro took some great macros of the fearsome lady who owns this valley, Hogna ingens!

The walk back through the top was done with a natural satisfaction due to the feeling of a complete job, and I could even walk closer to Pedro and Isamberto (the fact might also be due to the extra 5,5 km done by Pedro in the morning and the effort he had to do to set up the pitfalls for the Lisbon team). As we arrived to the Doca, the Lisbon team was already installed and after greeting Serrano, Mário and Pardal, a nice bath and a couple of swims were done in the great sea that we had this day.

The rest of the day was spent planning the next days, in accordance to our needs and those of the Lisbon team. Our next target: the South Plateau.

Day 10 - Castanheira part III

Because this time the goal was to do that night sampling that we didn’t do the previous try, we left Doca after lunch, to optimize the energy intake. And what a nice lunch had we, with an outdoor “meat in the stick” Madeira style, intensely flavoured by laurel, along with some also traditional and home-made “Bôlo do Caco”. Congratulations to the chef, once again!

The walk, made for the third time, becomes familiar. When we turn each hill we know what we’re going to find, but not even because of that you can say that it’s a boring walk, because the rugged landscape is truly impressive, be it for the steep cliffs, or by the “lava bomb” fields, that look like giant dinosaur eggs planted there, or the brown canyons, where little clorophyl can find a support to be.

As we got to the valley, another combat meal for dinner and we were ready and waiting for the night to fall. By this time we feared the worst as some really low clouds were passing over us, but St. Peter was with us and the night turned out to be a very nice one for fieldwork.
The only not so good thing was that the diversity of spiders didn’t appear to be high in our sampling plot, but Pedro decided well that we should not put pitfall traps in the northernmost part of the island, where a larger density of H. ingens was found. As we had the precious help of Isamberto, by 1 am we were done with the direct sampling of this cobra protocol and ready to rest for the last time in Hotel Castanheira.

Day 9 - Easter Sunday

We took the time to rest a bit before attacking the Castanheira for the third and last time.

Manuel José managed to provide us with lamb for the lunch.

In this day, a monk seal greeted us from the bay. The animal was there swimming for short minutes, and after it dived back into the ocean and we didn’t spot it again.

Day 8 - Hogna ingens transect done!

So, in the morning, to start the day, we needed to head down to the north point of the valley where we made the last point of the Hogna

transect, so there we went, with one of the strongest winds that I’ve walked against. It was really hard to keep balance, but we had to do it. After sampling 100 points, only 1 of the 3 tasks of our assignement was complete. One last combat meal, and we were ready to head back, but not for the last time as we still needed to perform that cancelled night sampling and to set up 48 pitfalls for ourselves plus 30 more for the Lisbon team.

A bit frustrated for not completing the night sampling, we initiated the walk back from Castanheira. This time, Pedro wanted to take some pictures from the zone of Pedregal, and we went through an alternative route, leaded by Isamberto, that knows like probably no other every remote site of the Madeira archipelago. The passage through the mini-canyon was quite nice, but when we got the watch of Pedregal (a number of watchposts were built in this island in WW II to monitor german submarines and ships) rain and wind came again to spoil the hike. We speeded up the pace to try to get to Risco before it got really wet. We were lucky, as the rain stopped some minutes after we left Pedregal. Bottom line, we managed to end another extenuating expedition without any incidents, although the job was incomplete.

Day 7 - Castanheira part II

As there is still much to do to have everything done, a new walk to Castanheira was needed and in the morning there we went for that great hike. In this second edition of the most tiresome walk that I would do here, I felt a bit more confidant and fresh and didn’t fall back too much behind Pedro and Isamberto, also due to their stops for some photography of endemic flora.

As soon as we got there and had a combat meal, we performed the diurnal sampling hours of the cobra protocol and went down the valley to finish the H. ingens transect. Sadly, as we were starting the transect, we found out that both the camera and the GPS used for this assignement decided they all needed new batteries… L Back to Hotel Castanheira and wait for the night to do the night hours of the cobra protocol. We would deal with the Hogna transect the morning after.

Today revealed to be one of the most unlucky days for fieldwork. As we waited for the night to fall down upon the valley, there came the wind and the heavy rain and bye bye night sampling… L This time there were no Calonectris diomedea borealis to be heard but the wind took care of shaking everything metallic around the house and sleeping was, once again, barely possible, at least for me.