Levada do Caldeirão Verde

PR9 starts at Queimadas, a forest park of thatched houses in mossy laurel woodland above Santana, and follows the Levada do Caldeirão Verde - a channel of 1808 cut along the flank of the Ribeira Grande valley - for about six and a half kilometres each way to the Caldeirão Verde, a hundred-metre waterfall falling into a deep green pool in an enclosed basin. The route is largely level, since levadas hold their gradient, but it crosses four tunnels driven through rock that are unlit and low, requiring a torch and a bent head, and it runs along ledges above serious drops with a cable handrail on the worst sections. The forest is laurisilva, dripping, hung with moss and ferns. It is the other great Madeira walk alongside the 25 Fontes, and like that one it is now ticketed, and closes for rockfall.

What you actually see

• The 1808 levada - a channel cut along the valley flank with a path beside it.
• The tunnels - four unlit rock passages needing a torch.
• The waterfall - about a hundred metres into a green pool in a closed basin.
• The laurisilva - dripping moss and fern forest the whole way.

When to go

Year-round, drier from May to September. Five to six hours for the return walk. Start early - the return leg in the dark is not an option in the tunnels.

Honest expectations

Bring a torch: the tunnels are genuinely dark, low and wet. Long unprotected drops beside the path, with a cable in the worst places. Rockfall closes the trail regularly. Constant mud and dripping water. Ticketed and busy.

Nearby

Queimadas Forest Park is the trailhead; Santana and its thatched houses are below.