Madeira - Day 33 - canyon walk.

When I went up to Barbosas and took the cable car to the Botanical gardens, I noticed signs that seemed to be indicating walking paths. So I went back today to investigate.

I didn't find them mentioned on any tourist maps or in the walking book I bought. The top sign shows a trail going down and then up. The lower sign is the one I am going to follow.

The path went down below the cable car terminal on a cobble stone track for about a kilometre before branching into the 2 options. Then it became a dirt track that had obviously been recently worked on.

It was mostly downhill, each step fronted by a log that was then held in place with metal posts.

There were caves, made into shelters, on the hillsides.

Although I knew that this canyon cut through the suburbs of the city, it was very quiet. There was just birdsong, trickling water from the stream below and the whisper of the cable cars above.

I walked for about 2 hours, passed one couple and was passed by one other couple. Not a well traveled trail. It was hard on the knees, lots and lots of steep stairs. I was very glad that I had my walking poles to take some of the pressure.

At this point the trail joined an old levada and the going was a lot flatter.

The levada itself was dry and in some areas it was easier to walk in it than beside it.

In some places there had been rock falls and repairs had not been made yet.

The trail went below the Botanical Garden cable car terminal and then below the Via Rapida (the highway).

The hillside was covered in nasturtiums and in these lower areas there were small cultivated terraces and small banana plantations.

There was a goat tethered beside the path with

two babies.

Round a bend and suddenly I was aware of the city again.

The levada was soon bordered by residential properties and it was obvious that it had provided water in the past to their small vegetable gardens. The trail came out at a road, the levada now covered with large stones. I walked down to a larger road and was able to flag down a bus just as it was starting to leave the bus stop. Took it to centro and then another one back home.