Levada de Baixo

Madrei

Ribeira Funda N 32°41.450 W 17°02.300 ca. 525 m a.s.l.

Course

Upstream of the actual Madre in the Ribeira Funda there is a water house with an inflow, and also the end poço of the Levada de Baixo superior. This short levada bridges a bowl in the Ribeira Funda where the water is liable to sink away into a pool. These small works presumably belong functionally to the Levada de Baixo as well. On the way to the actual Madre, where the water is taken from the Ribeira Funda, a waterfall comes down from the south off the Levada do Meio, when that one is carrying water too. The Levada do Meio is now in service only in shortened form and spills its remaining water over this waterfall into the Ribeira (see also the description under Levada do Meio).

After the Madre, a good 100 metres on, the path from Eira do Mourao comes in from the right over a bridge and meets the levada. The path also continues up to the Levada do Meio and on along the old dry course of that levada towards Boa Morte, though quite overgrown (2014)!

On over a rocky knoll, a little exposed here with a superb long view, then a little exposed again to another knoll, a perfect all-round view, and a geocache; some scrambling is needed here because the levada squeezes through a rock bar. Then high above the Ribeira Brava valley, past an inscription from 1937. Airy but not dangerous, past old terraces, as far as the first houses. Here it crosses a regional road, continues along a small road to another regional road, crosses the stream at Pedra Mole, below Sao Joao, and ends in Vale on the road that branches off the Caminho da Pedra (ER-229).

It runs about 100 metres of elevation below the Levada do Meio and about 150 metres of elevation below the Levada do Norte South

End

Vale ca. 340 m a.s.l.

Function and use

Irrigation of the area around Pedra Mole, Sao Joao and Vale

Access

• Descent from the middle section of the Levada do Meio to the Madre

• Path from Eira do Mourao to the first section; a path also comes here from the Levada do Meio and the Levada do Norte South

• To the junction with the first road, a descent from the end of the Levada do Meio by road

• To all the road crossings and to the end, by the road that comes down from the roundabout with access to the VE-1 (tunnel via Corujeira to Igreja), or from the road that branches off the Caminho da Pedra (ER-229)

Condition

Levada intact throughout, the flow varying; the path a little overgrown but easy to walk, in places a little exposed

Remarks

Grand views into the Ribeira Brava valley and across to the other side of the valley