I'm feeling really cheered up now. The mail has arrived, and with it came confirmation of our next holiday, starting on October 28.
We're off to Madeira, (again!), just for 7 days this time. It's a magical place to go, the island is Portuguese and lies 350 miles off the coast of Africa, on a level with Morocco. It's cheap, spotlessly clean, very pro Brit (wow!) and astonishingly beautiful.
This time we are going to spend a few days walking the levada's. Levada's are actually man-made drinking water courses that proliferate in Madeira. They are carved into solid rock, sometimes the side of a mountain, sometimes they run through a town street. Their primary function is to drain the rain water from the mountains for use by the residents in the farms and to supply the capital, Funchal, with freash water.Many have waterfalls:
Its an ideal way to see the island, you never get lost because you follow the levada, and of course you have drinking water just besides you at all times. They are rated in difficulty from 1 - 4, this one above is a 2.5.
Then of course, some are more difficult...
This is a beginners one:
They were mainly built over 120 years ago by these guys:
So yeah, hope my foot heals up in time!
Englishman.
Edited by - Englishman on 19 September 2002 11:18:37