I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Madeira. But usually, the best holidays are ones where you go with an open mind and few preconceptions.

The pall of a cold, drizzly day in London was replaced less than four hours later by the sunshine and warmth of a January afternoon. I meandered around the market in Funchal, the Portuguese island’s capital, with its array of flowers, fruits and mean-looking Black Scabbardfish, which, actually, turned out to taste delicious when fried lightly with a passion fruit sauce.

But I was here for the hiking and, on this point, I genuinely had no idea what lay ahead of me. But to say, by the end, I was blown away was an understatement.

Partly it was down to my guide Roberto, who brought the countryside to life every kilometre with his tall tales and explanations of flora and fauna. And it was certainly down to the varied, lush, green countryside with its many ups and downs. In fact, I was amazed by the variety of hiking on Madeira, which I just hadn’t anticipated.

One day we started at Pico do Arieiro, which at 1,181m, is the island’s third highest peak, before zigzagging through both sun and mist up hills and down steep gorges to the coast. En route, we passed some of the island’s 2000km-long network of levadas, the man-made canals that have made Madeira agriculturally rich over the centuries.

On another morning, we hiked from Queimadas, with giant dandelions and rhododendrons, along the 18^th-century Levada do Caldeirão Verde. This took us through seemingly-prehistoric laurel forests where water dripped from ferns and branches. Tiny Firecrest birds darted about busily, extracting insects from underneath tree bark.

On other days, we walked on the sunnier western side of the island where giant cactuses lined the path as we descended to the sea, finishing by dabbling our feet in the Atlantic and downing a refreshing lager to celebrate more kilometres under our belt.

I came home from Madeira refreshed, and reminded that we don’t always have to travel half way around the world when gorgeous scenery and adventure lie on our doorstep.

>> Discover Levada Trails and Peaks of Madeira