As spring is said to be (one of) the best periods to visit Madeira (“The Flower Island”) we went there in second half of April on a 14-day trip.
But as elsewhere in Europe, it wasn’t the best of springs: cold, wet and windy. Nevertheless, it wasn’t that bad on the island, so we could do some nice walks along the “Levadas” – canals that transport water from the lush Northern side of the island to the dryer South. Laboured long ago by the first Portuguese settlers, these canals follow the contour of the mountains and all have some form of footpath along them for maintenance. So great for easy walking. At least, most of the time. But there are troublesome stretches (or wet ones) as well.
Someone told us “Madeira is flat” :). Well, that holds once you are along the levada, but to get there requires climbing – by foot or by car – and sometimes it means quite a gain in altitude.
Despite the outlook, most of the time the weather was nice for walking – just one occasion we were trapped (more or less) by a hail storm and severe winds, on another location just severe winds, but given the location it wasn’t much of a surprise.
I tracked most of the walks and took pictures on each of them – in this environment it means collections to be stitched because of either wideness or height of the view (or both).