To start the day the sky greeted us with colour as the sun rose over the sea and I looked out from my balcony. A quick look also at the pools filled with sea water.
A different much flatter walk today along a newer Levada. This was a much more agricultural area and also passed through several villages.
We started at Faja da Ovelha and walked along the Calheta Levada.
We found various fruits along the way and tasted nectar from a Passion flower.
It was interesting to see the range of crops being grown and also to look over to the terraces where vines have been growing for many hundreds of years. Sweet potato is quite common. Benny explained the very labour intensive way the irrigation is used with old clothing blocking the way to the next furrows and demonstrating how long it would take to move down the field.
Some areas were very lush and it’s always interesting to see plants that we would consider house plants, growing wild. There was also a certain amount of forest even nearer housing. We stopped for lunch in an area next to a road with picnic benches, a tap and a BBQ space – very civilised.
The Levadas are maintained by filtering off debris and land owners are able to switch the direction of the channels from the main water route, but only for limited and agreed times.
There are also a few places along the way which could be used for shelter.
This was an interesting walk which ended in Prazeres and was about 8.5 kilometres, both in and out of the shade. Prazeres can be translated as ‘pleasure’ and we visited a classic tea house which specialised in a hot spice cider and jams – a strange combination but had to be tried. an interesting mix of architecture as we arrived in this area.
There was an option to walk down a very steep path which lasted for about 1.8 km and descended 500m. It was a special design with curved steps which the locals used to use to transport with the wicker baskets, featured in walk 5.
I and two others chose not to do this as I felt that that amount of stress may not be beneficial to my hip muscles. I spent the rest of the week regretting missing this part of the walk but it probably was the correct decision.
So having taken a rather spectacular journey down in the minibus ….
Eileen and I started to walk up the hill to at least experience a small section. It started at street level in the town of Paul do Mar with a discrete passage way and typical basalt path, very black and polished looking. It soon changed to something much rougher and went steeply up hill. We aimed first for a veranda we could see beneath the rock face. Having met Liz there she advised us that it was up a bit and flattish around the next corner! Another member of the group appeared at this point and we decided to return back down to sea level and a beer!
Marion's 50 Walk Challenge 