Today we caught the very early bus out to Ribeiro Frio. An hour later we arrived at the village. We then walked over to start the Vereda dos Balcões. We passed very few people, due to the fact that we were on the earliest bus. After half an hour of walking, we arrived at the viewpoint. It offered views of ‘geologicals’, lush forests, the distant sea and a few houses.
We had a look at the bird diagram before returning. We had already seen the Madeiran chaffinch, but Mum wanted to see two other endemic birds.
The path got busier as we retraced our steps. Luckily we finished the walk before a massive tour group came through. Then, after the best pastel de nata so far, we went on towards our second walk of the day: Levada do Furado.
The 11km walk began with us crossing the river that gave Ribeiro Frio (cold water) its name. We then continued past the derelict ruins of an industrial building, which was pretty cool. The walk then proceeded to wind through the trees, with a few waterfalls along the way. Then, things got tricky.
With a lot of vertigo, we were able to complete this section of narrow, barely supported and very droppy path. But after that first one, it did pay off. Rocks jutted out onto the path, forcing you to duck and avoid the water streaming down them. By now we were all feeling wobbly, but the worst was yet to come.
After half an hour of switching from wide, easy paths to narrow and death-defying ones, it finally stopped. We had only covered 1/3 of the distance, but I had plenty of energy. My only problem was that it was freezing. Sadly my jacket doesn’t have insulation, shiny on the outside, shiny on the inside. Brrrrr.
Back on the slightly wider path, we followed the levada, still with a drop on the left but at least a metre away now. We then encountered a big waterfall. According to Mum’s counting, this was the number onze (11) waterfall of the walk. After admiring it for a bit – Dad even inched his way along to be next to the waterfall – we continued our walk.
After another half an hour, we passed through another waterfall. By now we were 2/3 of the way. Most of our trail mix had disappeared and 1/3 of our water. Mum informed us that she had seen vinte-sete (27) waterfalls – more than the famous 25 Fontes walk, though her definition was optimistic. Then, we saw it, the levada diverted away from the walk – was this the end?
Turns out, it was just a pump station. After finding our way down a lot of steps, the levada rejoined us. But this time it was empty. Considering we were now in farmland, it was probably the driest place to walk on. We reached a group of houses, and this time the levada went away, for good? We trudged along a wide avenue, only 1.7 km to go.
Turns out we were wrong twice: the levada reconnected again, and it was definitely not 1.7 km to go. After getting a bit lost, we found our way down, down and down. With enough steps to compete with Cabo Girão’s descent, we made it to Portela.
There we had plenty of time to relax before hopping on the bus back to Funchal. An exhausting, but rewarding, day out.
