Part of our complete guide: Madeira webcams: 18 live streams from across the island
Camera by Portal Netmadeira. Nothing reaches YouTube until you click. The click sends data to Google, including your IP address.
What you see
Painted wooden boats up on the shingle, and behind them houses stacked up the slope. The boats are called xavelhas and they are not scenery — this is where crews go out at night for black scabbardfish, the espada that’s on every menu on the island.
Look in the morning and the boats are there. Look in the evening and they’re going.
When it’s best
Late afternoon, when the sun comes into the bay from the west and the colours on the boats switch on. At midday the light is steep and the place looks dustier than it is.
Watch it or go?
Go, without hesitating. Câmara de Lobos is one of the few places on Madeira that still looks like the fishing village it is, and it’s a fifteen-minute drive. Two things when you’re there:
- Poncha in one of the bars on the bay — sugar-cane spirit, honey, lemon, worked with a wooden muddler. The town claims to be its home.
- The view from Cabo Girão is ten minutes further west. Both in one afternoon is the obvious pairing.
More on the area: The South.
