CHRIS RUNDLE

CELEBRATE SUMMER'S VEGETABLES AND HERBS WITH CHRIS RUNDLE'S RECIPES AND AIOLI ON THE SIDE

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F you go to Madeira one of the experiences you will inevitably be inveigled into trying will be the toboggan ride. And you will quite possibly regret it once the proceedings are under way.

I'll explain. In bygone times, Madeira's farmers delivered their goods down to Funchal market by toboggan: loading the things up and propelling them down a vertiginous, one-in-four slope.

These days they used motorised transport but meanwhile the tradition has been preserved as a tourist attraction. You are loaded on to a rather rickety cane sofa mounted on runners and propelled down the narrow lanes at a smart lick by a couple of athletic characters wearing straw boaters and other elements of the local costume.