Madeira 3

Strictly speaking a levada is a water channel constructed up in the Madeiran highlands to capture and carry water from the rainier north to the dryer south. However as so many of the beautiful walks in Madeira involve levadas, walks in general have become known as levada walks.

Today's walk is called the Rabaçal walk and takes in the Risco waterfall, and another called 25 Fontes (25 Springs). Most of the walk runs along levadas. These are channels that gather the runoff water from the spongy laurisilva. They were created on a large scale in the 19th century, carved out of rock using nothing more than blasting powder and hand tools by Madeirans, at the cost of some lives due to the hard work in steep terrain. There are some 2000 km of channels. Today cement channels and steel pipes augment the traditional hewn channels, They still supply Madeira's water, whether for domestic, industrial or tourism use. The guide said that their potential is not fully tapped, it is estimated that only 60% of the available water is used. The state maintains the channels now.

An interesting note is that eucalyptus was brought in to provide a fast-growing source of wood for the sugar mills, thus sparing the slow-growing Erica. However the introduced species has become an intruder and threatens the water gathering capability of the laurisilva due to their thirst.

After yesterday's mountain walk this was a relatively easy walk for me. The guide was rather jocular, talking about "papparazzi stops" and other similar jokes. Another time while showing us a giant dandelion, he mentions the saying that in Madeira only the bananas and people are normal size. He related that when he had shown the giant plants to Americans, they had exclaimed omigawd, so he had told them that if ever they were chased by what looked like a grizzly, they were not to worry because it would only be a rabbit. I don't know if they bit that one.