With restless feet, we drive south to walk part of the Levada do Norte at Estreita de Camara do Lobos, although as its name suggests, the Levada begins on the North side up at Encumaeda. We start high up, entering the path beneath trellises bearing red and green vine, and within minutes the levada path leaves the village behind and takes us into the green of the valley. It is amazing how close you can be to civilization here and yet feel completely at one with nature. For a while the wide path takes us at first above, and then alongside, the levada making for easy walking. As we walk deeper into the Ribiera da Caixa though, the path almost vanishes becoming at some points just an awkwardly narrow ledge. To our right the rock wall of the hillside juts over the water channel into our path and to our left the valley falls away often steeply making for a vertiginous trek; you really need to have a head for heights and your wits about you on some of these walks as even those that are reported to be easy can have tricky parts like this. Following the contours of the valley, the path widens and we are surrounded by banana, fig and cherry trees and rewarded with views across the valley and out to sea. A little further on far reaching views open up over the south coast from Camara do Lobos to Funchal and beyond; white buildings and orange rooftops squatting in the broad basin with church spires rising amid them. The south side of the island is neither as steep nor as green as the north, having less rainfall and having suffered forest fires in the past. It is still beautiful in its own right though with its gently undulating terrain which eventually rises to the bigger peaks in the west.
After stopping to admire the views we climbed steeply to arrive at Cabo Girao and enjoy the amazing views of the fajas below and the coastline above Caldeira from the glass floored viewing platform, which at 580m is the highest Cape in Europe and an unnerving but unmissable experience.
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