The Ribeira Grande valley Levada from Rabacal.

Our Levada walk today was from Rabacal to the waterfalls on the staircase route. The Ribeira Grande valley. Beautiful views and very sunny, but the walk itself was nicely shaded. The walk begins at the car park above Rabacal and takes a higher route through the tree heathers along the Levada. The walk took around two and a half hours with a couple of most enjoyable coffee stops and a picnic at the waterfall. It's an easy, level walk in the mountains, with a few gaps in the heather to enjoy the amazing views. The Levada itself is full of trout and we very much enjoyed feeding them bread at lunchtime. 

Risco, Rabacal, Madeira.

A lovely walk today starting from the beautiful Paul da Serra on the central mountains of Madeira today. The walk began in the parking area above Rabacal today, it's a great car park for starting many wonderful walks.  We walked down to the Risco waterfall in the morning sun and picniced at the waterfalls feeding the little chaffinches and enjoying the wonderful views. The walk was partly on a track and partly on the 25 fontes levada. There is a minibus that takes people to Rabacal, avoiding the up and down hill parts of the walk, but if you do that you miss the sunshine and views too. Lots of lizards and buzzards about and the upper slopes were covered in yellow gorse.