Part of our complete guide: Levada walks on Madeira
The walk
The start is the Queimadas forest house above Santana. From there PR 9 runs a good six kilometres into the head of the valley, and the same distance back. The path is almost level — it follows the channel — and it is exposed for long stretches.
The laurel forest it runs through is a World Heritage site as Laurissilva. That is not a label: the stand is a remnant of the forests that surrounded the Mediterranean before the ice ages and survived only on the Macaronesian islands.
The tunnels
Four tunnels lie on the route and none is lit. The longest one drags noticeably, the floor is wet and uneven, and water drips from the roof throughout. Without your own lamp the walk ends there — a phone torch will do a few metres, not a tunnel.
A head torch is the item most often missing on this route. Its advantage is that your hands stay free, which is worth more on wet, uneven ground than the brightness is.
Practicalities
The car park at Queimadas is small and taken early on fine days. The drive from Funchal takes around 70 minutes on the northern route. Start at midday and you will walk back through forest that goes dim an hour before the town does.
Pack a rain jacket even when Funchal is in the sun. The north makes its own weather.
