Levada (da Ribeira) da Janela

Madrei

The Levada da Ribeira da Janela has 2 Madres

• Madre 1: side stream of the Ribeira da Janela N 32°48.050 W 17°09.500 at 430 m a.s.l.

• Madre 2: Ribeira da Janela: N 32°47.330 W 17°09.450 at 425 m a.s.l.

Course

The levada can be divided into 3 sections:

Section 1: From Madre 1 (with a geocache!), wedged in a side stream of the Ribeira da Janela below an impressive waterfall and fed by an emerald-green pond, straight into a tunnel that has a side window facing up the mountain at its end and is supplied with more water through that window. Then straight over a small levada bridge, a short tunnel, and on a narrow path, exposed in places, along the Ribeira da Janela against the flow. Shortly before the end of this section you balance on the right bank along a low levada wall, looking across to the start of the second section on the other side of the valley and to the concrete sill of Madre 2, which also shows up well on satellite images.

The description of the section on the EEM website is not correct:

• The Madre is not in the Ribeira Gordo (if the name on the IGeoE map is right), but in an unnamed stream two lombos further to the south-east (Lombo Gordo, Lombo Magro). On the new IGeoE map this is shown correctly, but the tunnel starts in the wrong place!

• The total length of section 1 is not 2,8 km, but 2,1 km

• The length of the tunnels is not 115 metres; the first tunnel alone is 350 metres, and there is also a short one that can be ignored.

Section 2: From the concrete sill in the Ribeira da Janela, at the place where the Ribeira do Pico do Remal flows in, first down a relatively wide valley in the direction of flow. On the other side of the valley there is a view of section 1. After a levada settling basin with a leaf screen, the access path to Fonte do Bispo branches off upwards, then through a short tunnel and, as the pièce de résistance, the 1.6 km tunnel, which nobody comes out of dry: either because it is partly under water, or because the showers come not only from above but also from the side. Fortunately there is a small statue of Saint Barbara before it. After the tunnel, the crossing of the Ribeira do Bonito ou das Lajes Negras ou do Galhano, and then a winding course through 5 tunnels to the spot with the 180-degree bend, where most walkers turn round.

Section 3: The classic walking route. After the spectacular crossing of the Ribeira da Quebrada, with a tunnel before it, the corrugated-iron roof on the crossing and the tunnel after it, things get easier, free of tunnels and well built. The crossing of the Ribeira da Cova is in a deep cutting; the access path comes down from the football pitch in Lagoa, and the levada continues through ever more open ground to the classic start in Lamaceiros. Inflow to the storage lake, and from here a penstock to the Ribeira da Janela power station

End

Storage basin before the pressure pipe to the Ribeira da Janela power station at 410 m a.s.l.

Function and use

Electricity generation at the Ribeira da Janela power station

Access

• Report of a descent from the start of the Levada dos Cedros by the Amigos da Natureza

• Descent by the stream bed from the Levada da Rocha Vermelha

• Descent from Fonte do Bispo from the ER-110

• Report of an ascent from the Levada do Brasileiro by the Amigos da Natureza

• Descent from the football pitch in Lagoa, reached from the ER-110

• Lamaceiros to the end, reached from the ER-110

Condition

• Section 1: officially closed at the moment (see the reports on the geocache), exposed and slippery, only for sure-footed adventurers with a head for heights

• Section 2: easy in principle, if it were not for the tunnels; not suitable for anyone afraid of tunnels

• Section 3: easy, the tunnels are simple to walk, and the waterfall passage depends on the weather

Remarks

The Ribeira da Janela power station runs continuously, because the water is not used for irrigation