2022 has been a year of breaking ground towards new horizons for all of us here at Epic. We grew our expedition programs, we listened to the universal god of adventure, we pursued what we do very well, and perhaps most importantly, we expanded our adventure community.
Our most recent expedition to Madeira Island in Portugal marks the first time Epic Expeditions has run an expedition in Europe (even though Madeira is closer to Africa than it is to mainland Europe). Cheers to that!
After our busiest season on record in Pakistan this past summer – running a brand new expedition in Madeira Island seemed like the perfect way to close out this year’s adventures. And we were not wrong.
Although our team was small due to a few last-minute dropouts, our journey felt very intimate and rewarding; like a bunch of friends getting together for a week of good ol’ fashioned adventure time.
The crew bonded over cloud-inversion sunrises, cactus-lined coastal trails, foggy mountain paths, the spray from waterfalls raining down overhead, and a seemingly never-ending spread of bountiful local food – meaning any calories we burned during our daily treks were immediately annulled by our olympian-level nightly feasts.
We had a running joke that I would dock some of my colleague’s pay if we ran into any other people on our off-the-beaten-track hikes (because we are fairly certain that no tourists in Madeira do these hikes ). Let’s just say that he kept all of his pay.
Here are some quick stats from our journey:
Our Madeira Island expedition was full of magic moments and I can easily say that it was the smoothest “first” go at a new destination that I have ever guided (this ain’t Pakistan!).
Our whole team is looking forward to the next one!
If you’d like to join our next Madeira Island expedition, get in touch to learn about the next available trip dates.
Remember if you are a group of five or more, we can do custom trip dates for you (with some advanced notice).
Check out the Madeira hiking tour now.
