THE FANAL FORESTMaria & Jonathan

Maria and Jonathan got married on São Miguel last summer, and I flew home thinking that was that. Then they wrote again. This time, Madeira. We have a thing for tiny Portuguese islands, the three of us.

The plan was Pico do Arieiro. We got as far as the car park, where it was snowing sideways, a proper ice storm, on an island people fly to for the eternal spring. We sat in the car and weighed it up. Years of doing this have taught me one thing about cold starts: you do not warm back up. So we turned the car around and rebuilt the day on the spot.

The new route ran down the west of the island. The Miradouro da Ribeira da Janela first, then up into the Fanal forest, where most of these photographs come from. Fanal is the old laurel forest at the top of Madeira, centuries-old trees twisted into shapes no one would believe in a drawing, and the fog was moving through it the whole time we were there: white one minute, sun the next. After that we tried for the cable car at Achadas da Cruz, but the queue was long and the light was not waiting, so we let it go and carried on: the Miradouro da Boa Morte, the lighthouse at Ponta do Pargo, and the end of the day down at Ponta do Sol. The photographs run in the order the day did.

The first island is here: their São Miguel wedding. If you are planning a wedding or an elopement of your own on Madeira, the guide covers the practical side. And if these two write to me a third time, I am going. There are only so many islands left.