Our day started with a two hour Levada hike up the Levada do Moinho located in the hills behind our accommodation in Ponta do Sol. The trailhead is reached by a narrow winding road threading its way through a lovely residential district which lacked one feature – there were very few lawns. Instead the small outdoor areas around the homes were thickly planted with food:banana trees, sugar cane, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, beans etc.
The hike followed the Levada along the valley hillside, offering glorious views along the valley out to the sea. The first part of the hike passed above densely cultivated terraces. Gates designed to release levada water onto the hillside were found regularly along the main stream. The earth looks lush and fertile: happy plants were everywhere, including some of the biggest squash I have ever seen.
A quick stop at two local markets resulted in some dried fruit and fresh local fruit to be added to our pantry – fruit salad tomorrow!
Mary’s words : We dropped Anne off and Mary headed for a long awaited swim. The weather was grey and windy as it’s been all week but the swim was a must before leaving Madeira. We pulled into Calheti, a village whose primary existence due is two round beach areas protected by a breakwater and dressed up with white sand barged in from Morocco – the original black sand was used by builders and not surprisingly the white sand is starting to wash away. The result is a strange, mottled mix of white sand with black rocks sprinkled in. But the water was lively and given the bad weather, Mary had the place almost to herself.
The last stop of the day was Jardim do Mar, a small village on the ocean that started becoming popular 10 years ago. Someone had the idea of creating a funky, artistic type village of tiny homes with cool restaurants and shops and people started to come from elsewhere buying and fixing up old abandoned stone homes and building new, tiny homes, claiming it as a new destination on the island away from most of the crowds . The result is a potentially charming, little community with a nice, long promenade set below a menacing cliff that’s threatening to collapse. The kilometre long promenade is 10 meters wide and protected by hundreds of concrete blocks that can be seen everywhere on the island reinforcing the waterfront. The story goes that a previously unknown developer found an ‘in’ with the island government and tapping into EU funding, he was able to make a career, and a fortune, building these reinforced walls around the island- and not done yet . The village is knit together with windy, narrow little walkways and a proliferation of airbnbs that’s are beginning to become problematic to the locals. The cats seem to love it though.
We wrapped up our promenade walk and slowly made our way through the traffic back home. Another good day. Tomorrow we hope to rest before our flight to the Azores on Monday.
