Published: 03/05/2010 11:35 - Updated: 03/05/2010 11:42

 

The people of Madeira must be wondering who they have upset. Years of reconstruction of their road system and the deep channels running through the capital Funchal, to divert flood waters, were literally washed away last December.

Then, just as their hard work had rebuilt and restored most of the damage, one of the high points of their season for tourists, the flower festival, was hit by a volcano in Iceland.

We, the not very famous five, arrived on the island on April 12 for a week’s holiday in a villa in the heart of Funchal.

The villa was lovely, with its own pool and, like most properties in Madeira, had a beautiful garden, bedecked with the most vibrant flowers. For the first few days, we did the touristy things – walk a levada, visit Monte in the hills by cable car and return by toboggan, sit drinking a beer in the heart of Funchal while watching the world go by and swim in the pool.

Everywhere we went workers were hard at it, clearing up the mess made by the winter storms, which killed more than 60 people.

Some friends were due to come out on the Thursday and the first we realised all was not well was when we received a text message from them that they had arrived at Stansted to be sent home again as no planes were flying that day because of a volcano erupting in Iceland.

We immediately fired up our laptops and turned on the TV to see what all the fuss was about.

Ash was the problem. For a small country Iceland seems to cause a lot of trouble.

Anyway we were not over-concerned, our friends’ flight was rebooked for Sunday and we just relaxed, hired a car and started to tour the island.

No planes on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Our friends gave up, we had a quick look at the flower festival then decided to take in a football match instead, which bemused some of the locals.

On Monday still no planes, so instead of packing to return home, we were packing to move somewhere else. We spoke with easyJet, and their communications manager Andrew McConnell, to get advice.

The best advice for anyone is that the airlines have a duty to look after you if they cannot get you back, but the costs must be reasonable and you must do as they tell you. If you go off doing your own thing, you risk losing your insurance cover.

I am sure there are a thousand different stories to tell on how people fared but I can only tell mine.

We had no problems with easyJet, and we moved to another villa inside the advised price range, some 20 miles down the road to a small town called Calheta.

Calheta clings to the shore beneath huge cliffs but does boast Madeira’s only beach.

The new villa had a bigger pool, so we did not bother with a swim in the Atlantic.

We kept the hire car and did a bit more sightseeing.

One word of caution. We drove to a beauty spot called the 25 fountains(which are actually 25 waterfalls). The road was diabolical and a very steep climb, mostly in rain cloud. The interior of Madeira, while not large can be wild and those kind of trips are best done on official tours with a guide.

Anyway, we had an extra five days holiday and flew back into Bristol last Saturday evening.

All in all, quite exciting and for us the deal was made quite bearable by a beautiful villa, warm sunshine and excellent service and advice from easyJet.

Cod, cash, ash, what can Iceland do next? Invade us?