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Published: October 17th 2022
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Tuesday October 11– I was up at 6am but already awake for a while by then. Not a great sleeper at the best of times, and definitely not when I know I have plans. I took the bus from in front of the cable car station to Ribeiro Frio, then realized I could have caught the bus much closer to the apartment! I’ve tried to plan around the weather, but the weather in Madeira is somewhat unpredictable. It was raining/misting when I arrived, and I really thought this hike might turn out to be a mistake, even though I really wanted to hike a levada. I’m just not good with fussing with things like when I had to stop and put on fleece, a poncho, and a rain cover for my backpack. Then I started to walk up to the Balcoes, or balcony viewpoint. It was actually a second smaller hike that I would combine with my longer hike today. I almost didn’t go since the visibility was virtually non-existent. But I’m so glad I did. I got to walk along my first levada for a bit. Levadas are channels that carry water around the island and were built a long
time ago. They run thousands of kilometers on the island, much longer than the island itself. They all have a path alongside and they are well-maintained. It seemed good for me since a map would not really be needed. And many are very beautiful with lush scenery.
At the viewpoint, there actually was a view! The weather had gotten a little better and I took off everything but my poncho and used that to cover myself and my big backpack. I think I mostly looked like a large disfigured nightmare, but at least I was green and blended into the scenery. There were also some birds there that will eat out of your hand, but I did not bring bird seed and it’s not healthy for them to eat bread, so I just admired them and moved on.
I walked back to Ribeiro Frio and had a little look at the trout farm. From there, I started the Levada do Furado hike. There were several people standing around and I was worried it would be crowded – lots of people on yesterday’s hike – but once I started I was alone. And I stayed alone for almost 3
hours. It was great. The weather at this time was a little misty but eventually was fine. I kept the poncho on for a while. It was a bit cloudy/foggy so on the walk under all the foliage it was rather dark in spots without much of a view, but quite green and pretty along the way. I really enjoyed walking alone and along the flowing levada. I did come across a large French group and a couple of people along the way but mostly I had the trail all to myself. Like yesterday, I walked quite quickly, partly due to fear of missing the bus and partly because I walk fast (at least when I’m not going uphill). On the way down there was one place where I was uncertain of which direction to go and just then a German guy named Jan came down as well. He checked an app and said yes, the way I was going to go was right. So we walked the last part of the trail together and had a nice chat. He’s here on a walking holiday for two weeks. An agency arranged his hikes and hotels and picks him up in
the morning and then he walks to the next hotel. Not bad. We parted ways when we got to Portela, the end of my hike. But he told me about a coastal cliff walk he did and I think I will look into it. I had to wait 45 min in Portela for the bus back to town, so I suppose I could have stopped for lunch rather than eating my sandwiches while walking, but better safe than sorry.
The bus back to Funchal took about an hour. I stopped and bought some bread for future hikes and then walked around the old town taking a lot of pictures of the Painted Door Project, an initiative to revitalize a lot of the old doors in the neighborhood with art. I had gelato and then went straight to an early dinner at Mad Cuba and had pulled pork. Good food, good prices, and a really nice waiter and waitress. All that and I was home by 5:30pm. I expect tomorrow will be a rainy day so I plan to chill.
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