Madeira 2023 - Day 3

Wednesday 

Our walk today, Caldeirao Verde Levada.

We had a pick up arranged from the hotel into the mountains to the start at Parque das Queimas.

The path was wide and shady to start and followed the levada the whole time which meant the terrain was generally flat but certainly not level,  there were rocks and tree roots ready to trip you up.

Further along the path became much narrower and we were walking on the actual levada wall with in places just a wire fence protecting us from a 500m drop!


The levada is 6.5km long to the waterfall at the Caldeirao Verde ( green cauldron) it is a volcano after all. The engineering and manpower that built it is amazing. There are 3 tunnels hewn out of the mountain. 

It is a popular trail so the only real place to picnic was at waterfall, we retraced our steps for a couple of km  before branching off on the path to Ilha,  800m of decent in 3km, somewhat heavy going on the knees. 


Ilha was a very sleepy village and faced with a 2 hour wait for the only bus of the day we opted for a taxi back to our hotel. 




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