Câmara de Lobos is the fishing harbour everyone paints. Winston Churchill sat here in 1950 to do exactly that, on a holiday to Madeira, and the place still trades on the connection with a viewpoint named after him. Below the road, a small bay of brightly painted wooden boats, drying nets and stone steps looks very much as it must have done a century ago, and above it white houses climb the slope in terraces.
The name means chamber of the wolves, and the wolves in question were monk seals, which the Portuguese navigator João Gonçalves Zarco found sleeping here in the early fifteenth century when he explored the island. The seals are almost gone from Madeira now, but the fishermen are not. They go out at night after espada, the black scabbardfish, a long, silvery, rather alarming-looking deep-sea fish that is served fried with banana, a combination that sounds odd and tastes excellent. The harbour smells of diesel, salt and grilled fish, which is exactly what it should.
For riders, the town is a gateway. It lies just west of Funchal on the south coast and acts as a springboard for the roads up into the hills, including the climb to the cliff of Cabo Girão and the winding lanes that run through banana plantations and vineyards. In the town itself the streets are narrow and steep, parking is tight, and traffic gets busy around the harbour, so take it slowly and watch for locals stepping out between parked cars. The best moment is early morning, when the boats come in and the light is soft, or at sunset when the bay turns gold.
Fuel and food are no problem. With more than thirty thousand people in the municipality and the capital almost next door, Câmara de Lobos has petrol stations, supermarkets and plenty of cafés. The local drink is poncha, a strong mix of sugar cane spirit, honey and lemon juice, mixed with a wooden stick called a mexedor; take it in small sips, particularly if you are riding afterwards, which is a sound reason to try it at the end of the day instead.
Sit with a coffee by the water for a while. The harbour is small, but the mood and the colours are worth a few minutes of your day.