Madeira - The Grand Traverse

The mountainous island of Madeira lies in the Atlantic Ocean off the Moroccan coast. Its cragged peaks are merely the tip of a gigantic volcano that plunges 4000m (13,200ft) below sea level to the ocean floor.

Madeira derives its name from the forests that covered the uninhabited island when the first seafarers arrived in 1351 – they named it “The Island of Wood” (Madeira means wood in Portuguese).