Camping permits help needed
Hi group!
Me and my fiancée were planning for a long time that we'll spend our honeymoon on Madeira doing a through-hike from west to east on the island, using the designated wild camping spots. Researching the topic I found out that we'll need camping permits for these camping sites, so naturally I tried to obtain them in time from the SIMplifica platform (https://simplifica.madeira.gov.pt/services/7-22-101).
Here's the problem though: as many of you may already know, the SIMplifica platform is apparently not accessible from abroad. In spite of checking it regularly (I assumed it was a temporary downtime), I couldn't get the site working. There is no information about this anywhere on the official websites, so it took me quite a while to accidentally stumble upon the information that using a VPN with a Portuguese IP address might help. I did so hastily and indeed succeeded in accessing the site — but had to face the fact that the camping sites are already fully booked, with no slots remaining for the duration of our planned trip.
I tried contacting the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation (IFCN) hoping they might help, given that we couldn't book due to the inaccessible website. Unfortunately they confirmed that permits are issued exclusively through SIMplifica and there are no exceptions.
The situation is that our plane tickets are long purchased, and our whole vacation plan is centered around this through-hike.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation. What do people actually do when they can't secure permits? Are slots known to free up closer to the date?
Thanks in advance!