12 June 2024 Over Pico Fernandes and the Vereda do Pau Seco to the 25 Fontes

Course

From the car park to the levada house at the end of the Reitertunnel, and from there on the end branch of the 25 Fontes levada as far as the new waterfall. We went on along the winding gorse path to the new pressure pipe; here we looked for the way onto the service track, but got stuck in the prickly gorse.

So on up the PR to the newly built structures below the old reservoir.

I am not entirely clear what the two pumps built here are for.

Anyway, on to the old reservoir, a short stretch along the ER110, and then to the new reservoir and the small upper basin in the Ribeira do Alecrim.

Then across the serra to the old bridge over the Ribeira do Lajeado, and through the gorse to Pico Fernandes.

Descent on the Vereda do Pau Seco to the 25 Fontes, where after a short while we again had to slip a little out of the way.

The descent we had originally planned, on the path to the Levada da Rocha Vermelha, was closed. The way through the Rocha Vermelha tunnel would, as we learned later, have been perfectly possible. So we had to bite the bullet and walk along in the stream of tourists.

At least I could confirm my theory that from the side tunnel under the Levada do Risco, which I had found in 2022, a drinking-water pipe runs down to the 25 Fontes levada, is buried in it as far as the Reitertunnel, and continues towards the ER211.

So we followed the traces of the buried pipe to the Furado Novo, and at the levada house I still had to check quickly whether the Rocha Vermelha tunnel really was closed, as the board up above had announced. It was not.....

Then back to the car park.

Distance: 19 km, 700 m of ascent, 700 m of descent

Start: 09.20 ER211

End

16.00 ER211

Condition

The gorse climb was already a bit overgrown, but easy enough to walk.

The way to Pico Fernandes over the bridge was quite overgrown, but where there is a will, there is a way!

The Pau Seco path is in very good condition.

The bustle on the path from the 25 Fontes to the Reitertunnel was simply unbearable!

Remarks

If you leave out the return along the levada and go down to the Levada da Rocha Vermelha, it is a very lonely circuit; even so, the feeling afterwards was rather mixed!