Shelagh: Off The Grid: Life-changing full-day Levada hike. Whoa.

Levada Walk

Rabacal Valley and the 25 Fountains

I could talk about this day for many many consecutive hours. Instead, I will unload on this blog.

On Thursday, I signed up for a full day Levada walk in the Rabacal Valley of Madeira. I had read extensively on the internet about visiting Madeira, and the only thing that everyone agreed upon about anything was that the levadas were worth visiting. The reviews about the walks were glowing, and after sitting in a tour bus for several days hearing the history and seeing the sights through a bus window, breathing bus air, I was DYING to get the heck off the bus and climb/walk/hike/smell/touch/look around.

The hike was arranged by our tour's fearless leader, Richard Westley, and the only two people from our group going were me and Gail McLaughlin, who is always good company and up for anything. Neither of us really knew what we were in for, but were hopeful for some fresh air and good views, and a good climb.

We got one, and then some.

Up and fed by 8, on the minibus by 9, and at the ridge at Rabacal by 10. We had a guide named Ali. Ali was one of the coolest things about the day, but his coolness took some time to manifest itself. He initially came across as a meanie. Like a TOTAL meanie. He came into the hotel lobby and had A LOT to say about how Gail and I were dressed and ill-prepared for the trip, which obviously freaked us out from the get-go, complete with angry gesticulation and many eye rolls. Gail scurried upstairs to change into better shoes, get some rain ponchos, I got an umbrella (on a hike?? really?!?!), and unloaded some crap from my bag that he insisted that I wouldn't need. All this took place with 10 German tourists waiting impatiently in the minibus for our slow, unprepared American butts. Awesome. Makin' friends.....

Ali, showing us the day's planaroni before we headed off.

Once we got to our starting point, however, all the cranky people got over themselves and took in the views and the fresh air, and the SUN. Such a beautiful day, which in this region and the mountains in general is extremely unusual.

Ok, let's get some basics down:

Levada

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A levada (Portuguese for "led") is an irrigation channel or aqueduct specific to the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean (about 500 miles (800 km) southwest of Portugal).

History

The levadas originated out of the necessity of bringing large amounts of water from the west and northwest of the island to the drier southeast, which is more conducive to habitation and agriculture (such as sugar cane production). In the sixteenth century the Portuguese started building levadas to carry water to the agricultural regions. The most recent were made in the 1940s. Madeira is very mountainous, and building the levadas was often difficult. Many are cut into the sides of mountains, and it was also necessary to dig 25 miles (40 km) of tunnels.

Our hike was approximately 10km. It took 4 full hours, with little breaks to pee and have a snack, and of course, take some photos.

The pictures here will really tell the story--but watch the videos too. There are not many videos, actually--the walking was from extreme heights on skinny paths that were NOT even. Lots of water (duh) and rocks that had to be negotiated, so filming and walking at the same time was not a good idea. In fact, I got yelled at at the end of the hike by Ali for this very reason, and I got the big old reprimand on video. Great. Mom LOVED that....after about an hour, Ali begins to relax a bit and not scare the crap out of me, which makes things really fun. I should also explain that there were 12 of us in total. 10 of us were German tourists who were all travelling together. Our guide spoke excellent German, so we were shafted a bit on the verbal explanation of things, but I didn't feel gypped. It was nice to tune him out and just walk.

My favorite thing about the whole levada walk was the SMELL of things. The smell of damp earth has always been something that I love, and as you can imagine it was in abundance there. The eucalyptus trees were amazingly fragrant, and the water was delicious and clean, with a hint of mossy flavor. Yay!

Mimosa

This tree is covered with lichens. Usually, this whole region is covered by clouds and thick moisture, which is what creates the Portuguese version of Spanish Moss. Very cool.

A section of Levada

If you look at the center of the photo, you can see the vague presence of a footpath, which is where we started, and eventually found ourselves around to the other side of the valley.

The 25 Fountains

This was one of the focal points of the hike. Truly beautiful and other-worldly--one of the drawbacks of my cute little digital camera is the lack of a panoramic option. That would have really come in handy here. There are actually 25 fountains, we counted. There is a gorgeous pool in the middle that is ( so I was told ) great to swim in during the summer months. Dang.

The 800+ Meter Tunnel:

The culmination of the hike was a trip through a half mile of mountain. This tunnel was blasted through more than 100 years ago, and brings a water pipe from one side to the other. The presence of this tunnel changed lives, and made more of the island more inhabitable, which was obviously a good thing. It was fun, drippy, slippy, and mercifully devoid of bats or other crawling things. Whew. :D This would not agree with someone who was claustrophobic at all. Or afraid of the dark.