More BBC deficiencies exposed

We are going to sue the BBC. We understand that there might be a queue that we need to join but their weather forecasting is just the pits. Today's plan is to drive up into the mountains and do some walking. The forecast looks pretty good.

After 45 minutes of driving, during which we never get into fourth gear due to rush hour traffic and narrow, steep winding roads the reality looks like this. 

Anybody who has spent a bank holiday weekend in Borrowdale will recognise the scene immediately. We sit in the car watching the rain for twenty minutes or so until it eases a little. We decide to be brave, donning walking shoes and waterproofs so we can walk 200 metres to the cafe in the small village of Ribeiro Frio (Cold River). On this short stroll we pass a trout farm and the reassuring presence of the Forest Police. It doesn't feel like a hotbed of crime but we all know about Midsomer Murders.

As we sit in the cafe and drink our coffee the rain gets heavier before suddenly easing. The walk we had intended to do was a 11km circuit taking in a couple of levada walks. Levadas are irrigation channels that follow around the contours of the hills and the adjacent footpaths are a bit like canal towpaths when it comes to gradients. The sky was still lowering so we opted instead for a 3km out and back walk to a viewpoint along one of the minor levadas. The rain had mainly stopped although conditions underfoot were pretty soggy

The viewpoint was well worth the walk. It had a resident pussy cat, a few birds and some views. The best view was the one of the north coast where there appeared to be blue skies and sunshine.

So that is where we went. One of the big attractions on the north coast of Madeira is the town of Santana. If you believe the hype most of the houses are steep roofed, thatched and out of a fairy tale. The reality looks like this.

There are a couple of floors below this, built in concrete blockhouse style. The road west along the coast takes us high into the mountains and then back down to the coast. Unlike everywhere else in Madeira there has been no funding for road tunnels. Do they vote LibDem here? The hillsides are terraced but in an ecologically good way.

Eventually we are back in civilisation, threading through a series of tunnels towards Porto Moniz, at the far north west of the island. Not all of the tunnels are easy money, EU funded handouts. Some of them look like they date back to Salazar's days as the high heid yin.

Porto Moniz, at the extreme north west of the island, is written up in the guidebook as somewhere not worth a day trip from Funchal. Clearly a man who did not lack for sunshine. We thought that it was OK as long as the sun shone.