Madeira - Day 12 - Maracos, Mimosa Valley walk

After having to wait rather a long time for the pick up (some miscommunication over time) I boarded the Flora Travel minivan and met our guide for the day, Marguarite. We were a French couple, and English couple, 2 Canadians and a woman with French and English citizenship. So Marguarite comfortably flipped back and forth between speaking to us in English and French. The other Canadian woman was from Kingston and here with her sister for 2 weeks.
We drove for about half an hour, along the coast, past the airport, through various tunnels until reaching our destination, Maracos.

Funchal, where I am staying is on the Southern coast and Maracos to the East and North. Our path is marked in blue.

We followed a levada, their water transport and distribution system. There are 2,000 km of levadas, with trails beside and before the road system was developed they were how people got around the island.

There are people whose job it is to maintain the levada system (this is a recent one, about 50 years old, made of cement but there are some older ones made of wood and some of stone) and the little metal sluice gates are used to allow excess water down into the rivers or allotments of water to farms and gardens. They are managed by the state and individuals pay a yearly fee for their water usage.

The valley is named after the Mimosa growing there. There are 4 different kinds of Mimosa but the ones in flower right now are the 4 season variety. They are creamy coloured rather than the bright yellow I am used to seeing and they don't seem to have as strong a scent.

Marguarite was very informative. When the Portuguese arrived the island was covered with Laurel trees but they cut most of them down for homes and ship building. They then started experiencing floods and landslides so reforested. This is an Eucalypus tree, one of the reforestation species, but they have found that it needs a lot of water and competes with the remaining Laurels for it. It also burns easily and they have had some devastating forest fires because of it.

These succulents are native

as is Fennel. Funchal is named after the abundance of Fennel growing in that area.

Most of the rest of the flora and all of the fauna have been introduced to the island, many from tropical climates. There were no indigenous animals on the island. Hydrangeas are considered an invasive species as they have migrated from gardens and take over the hillsides. We saw white, blue, pink and burgundy growing beside the path.

Frequently there were lovely valley views.

We passed small plots of land, on terraces, worked by hand, with potatoes, beans, cabbages, peas, sugar cane and grape vines - subsistence farming.

We were passed by other walkers but also by farm families making their way between their farms on the hillside and the village below.

Novel use for old toilets. They make great planters.

Some of the farmers had planted vegetables and flowers right beside the levada.

The ground, volcanic, is very fertile and their water system very efficient. For instance Marguarte told us that they get a crop of potatoes every 6 months.

We heard roosters, sheep and goats.

It was a comfortable (warm), mostly flat, 3 hour walk

with time to chat, take pictures and ask questions.

It was really nice to be out of the city and into the countryside. Also nice to have some English conversation.