Walking in Madeira
Well, we liked walking in Madeira so much that we just had to go back - and so we did. Our first visit was over Christmas and New Year 1998/99 with Suzy, sister Mal and her husband Bob, this time we thought that we’d go in April when we assumed that the weather would be warmer.
This was a reasonable assumption but partially flawed as it turned out,
as we'd failed to notice that April is often the wettest month of the year
in Madeira. Still, it kept the levadas full. The weather was quite unsettled
particularly on the north side of the island with the high tops staying
in the cloud on most days. We stayed in what are known as Pousadas, the
Madeiran equivalent of mountain huts though for the most part indistinguishable
from a European two or three star hotel.
Madeira is
a verdant place, famous for its flowers and extensive cultivation,
indeed every scrap of cultivatable land seems to be terraced lush with
vegetables or fruit trees, see picture 1. It’s not all like that
though, the north coast has huge cliffs into which the road seems merely
etched in places. Picture 2 shows the cliffs between Sao Vicente and
Seixal, spot the road. Internally, the landscape is volcanic and extremely
rugged, giving scope for some serious adventures, indeed, the island
seems much undersold to serious walkers and would seem to have immense
scope for some demanding scrambles and 'via ferratas'. See via
ferrata page.
The highest peak on Madeira is Pico Ruivo with an altitude of 1861m (6106 feet). Conveniently there is a hotel, the Pico do Arieiro Pousada at one end of the 10 km jagged ridge that connects with the highest point, though the heights are so similar that it's difficult to spot any difference. The path is well engineered in the soft volcanic ashes and the walking relatively easy though there is considerable exposure in some places. Currently there is a variation open that allows a kind of circuit to be completed though the tougher leg is sometimes closed due to rock fall or collapse. The easy leg goes through several tunnels, the tougher alternative climbs numerous zigzags to cross the col on the right. Picture 4 shows a view along the ridge from the Pousada end and Pico Ruivo is the rounded top in the left of the picture. The rugged central mass in Pico de Gato is passed either via tunnels on the left or the col on the right. Picture 5 shows a splendid and exposed section of the tougher route to the col. On the gallery view slight traces of the track can just be seen climbing right of the central buttress then traversing right to the low point in the ridge. The highest summit was a slight disappointment as it featured a large hut some 10 minutes below its easy top. We were lucky however, next day and all the following week the cloud was down on the tops.
During our evening meal at the Pico do Arieiro Pousada the rain rattled against the picture windows and thick cloud obscured everything. Towards sunset however, the rain stopped and the cloud poured away like dishwater into the drains of the deep valleys, 6.
Levadas are a comprehensive network of water channels the contour many of the hillsides in Madeira. The water is mainly used for irrigation and hydro power. These are great fun and some of get to places that no road or footpath can reach. Many are very easy family affairs with gentle walking alongside the water channel, others are much narrower and contain gnarly wet tunnels sometimes over 1 km long. The levada of the Ribeira da Janela in the Northwest corner of the island is a classic. It contains 8 tunnels with 500m long number 7 being the crux passage. After an easy start into this tunnel there is a section with water spurting from the walls and later cascading from the roof. The tunnel is only just high enough to stand in and the channel of water is about 60 cm (2 feet) deep. With fading torch I caught my rucksack on the tunnel wall, tripped over the raised parapet of the channel and fell in. Despite noises of concern, I had this suspicion that Bob could barely catch his breath from laughing. Picture 7 shows a wet section of levada crossing a waterfall at the back of a steep ravine, 8 is Suzy emerging, telling us that all these tunnels make her go quite dizzy. This shot was hand held at 1/15 second and isn't worth enlarging. The levada loops round into terra incognito at a boulder strewn river bed but it proved possible to escape the Ribeira via a difficult to locate track that cut 850m up to the rim of the valley. Fortunately we had anticipated this, nay depended on this and after several false starts and several mauvais pas we made it to the rim and found the car, obviating the need for a long road walk or a return through the tunnels. Pretty good tunnels but once a day was enough.