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Deserta Grande, Madeira Archipelago |
From the south side of
Madeira Island we can can see three distant islands to the southeast. These are the mysterious Ilhas Desertas, which means 'the deserted islands' and this is due to the lack of permanent water and the consequent barrenness of the soil.
These three islands are Deserta Grande (the largest, with a length of 11 km), Ilhéu Chão and Bugio.
In 1990 the
Desertas became a Nature Reserve, comprising the islands themselves and the surrounding sea to a depth of 100 metres. The reserve is divided into two protected zones of which the southern half of Deserta Grande and Bugio are strictly forbidden to visitors even by boat. On Deserta Grande there is a permanent research station with two guards from
Parque Natural da Madeira, who are the only human inhabitants of the islands today.
Deserta Grande is one of the places where the
monk seals still exist, although everytime I went there I never saw any.
The island is located 15 nautical miles southeast of Funchal (Madeira Island).
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