Madeira - Day 36 - Boa Morte walk

I took my 4th walk with Flora Travel today and, as usual, was picked up promptly at the bottom of my street. The mini van was full after making the rounds of a few hotels and then we drove West out of town. The walk is called Boa Morte after the community of the same name. It translates to "Good Death" and we were never given an explanation for that, though the guide gave us that translation at a particularly narrow and steep part of the walk.

As soon as we started walking along the levada we were surprised that it was empty but in a short while we could see that the water must have been diverted so that they could do some repairs.

Our guide for this walk was the best of the 3 I have had. She went to great pains to be sure that we all understood the levada process and the hard work of the lavadeiros  (who maintain them)and the farmers. We saw numerous examples on this particular part of Levada do Norte  where the specialized maintenance was underway ready for the summer, when the farmers rely heavily on this irrigation system.

One of the small channels running from the levada, down hill, to feed the irrigation channels spreading like a spiders web to access all the little terraces on the hillside. The farmers use stones or piles of old clothes to temporarily dam the channel and have it feed one of the highest terraces before moving this "dam" down to divert the water into the next one down. And so on, down the hill. Definitely a labour intensive process.

We were walking around a steep valley with one side in sun and one side in shade.

A hopeful dog at the house of the lavadeiro. Our guide did this walk regularly and the dogs all knew her. She carried treats for them.

Taking the goats out to tether them for the day.

Whenever an old stone levada needs to be repaired it is done with cement and they are gradually losing the original ones. But these do not just provide a nice walking route, they are essential to the agriculture on the island where everything is grown on small plots, farmed by hand

The grape vines are just beginning to get buds.

The sugar cane will be harvested in April. The leaves are fed to cattle, the sugar is taken from the stem and made into strong alcohol (used with fruit juice to make the local specialty Poncho) and syrup for use in making Bolo de Mel (Honey Cake. I bought one and it tasted as if it was made from ginger and molasses) and whatever is left is returned to the ground as fertilizer. Nothing wasted.

The canes are tied together to prevent them from bending over and breaking.

The cabbages don't look quite the same. The leaves grow separately up the stalk and can be picked from the bottom up rather than having to harvest them just once, as we do at home.

Our guide said this farmer has a sense of humour. He took one of the terra cotta birds, that usually decorates the edge of the house roof, and where its head was broken he put a beer bottle cap. She told us the roof decorations have their origins in superstition; birds are supposed to bring peace to the household, woman's heads were to ward off the evil eye (or promote fertility, a bit confusing)

"Broom" on the left and "Gorse" on the right were both in bloom on the hillsides above us

while below us were the agricultural terraces, some of them freshly dug and giving off the scent of fresh turned, warm, soil.

This man passed us on the levada and then turned off to go down hill. He was carrying a huge pile of mimosa and ferns. Our guide said he will have cut it in the forests and be taking it to his cow. She said most farmers wouldn't own more than one cow and it would be for meat, not milk. She said Madeiran meat is delicious because of this kind of food, but expensive.The only place where cattle graze outside is up on the hills as the fertile land of the terraces is too precious to graze cattle on.

A relative of garlic, growing wild. Our guide picked some for us to smell and said that the stem is sometimes cut up on salads or used for garlic bread.

Once we were beyond the area being repaired, water was diverted back into the channel.

The were also fruit trees being grown. We saw Passion Fruit, Custard Apple, Apple and Pear.

About half an hour into the walk we could hear church bells ringing from down in the valley and our guide mentioned that sometimes the Sunday Service is broadcast over loud speakers so that anyone, in the valley, unable to go to church, can still hear the service. So we were accompanied by a sermon, in Portuguese, prayers and singing. If you listen carefully on this video you can hear the choir singing.

It was a lovely valley to walk around and constantly things to see.

The highway down there was built when Portugal joined the EU. Considerable EU money went into improving the transportation systems on the island, building roads and tunnels for them to go through.

A fish farm, just off the coast. Growing Sea Bass which I have seen on a lot of menus.

Although most of the walk was along the top edge of the agricultural terraces, some of the time we were in the shade of Mimosa and Eucalyptus forest.

We walked for about 2 and a half hours, covered about 7 km and were picked up by the bus at the far end. We drove a short way and then had a half hour stop at a bar/cafe. A welcome bathroom break and the fellow hiker, I had lent one of my walking poles to, bought me a coffee to thank me.