Daniel’s Levada Directory

Levada do Brasileiro

Also known as Levada da Serra do Porto Moniz

Archival documentation — not a current hiking recommendation. Source file on danishome.ch last modified: 10 October 2022

Area

Northwest

Length

5.2 Km

Madrei

Spring intake in a tunnel, N 32°49.005 W 17°11.300, near the Pico Bonito, ca. 1015 m a.s.l.

Course

The Madre lies a little below the ER105 and is closed with a metal gate, because drinking water is also taken into a pipe here. It soon looks a bit dramatic at first glance, but it is not too demanding if you are not determined to follow the levada at all costs: the levada crosses a rock face, the path runs a little below the levada and is not dangerous, then on through a dreamlike enchanted forest. The levada ends abruptly in a stream bed; beside it the path climbs a few metres up to level 2, crosses the Ribeira da Quebrada here, and is then quite exposed, with damaged railings in places, across a landslide scar. On through dense laurel forest until the levada ends above a waterfall. A little before that, a path again drops down to level 3.

Here you can follow an old levada course to the right, as far as the area of the landslide mentioned above. No way on is possible there; from the stream bed of the Ribeira da Quebrada, though, a pipe comes out and continues to follow the levada. To the left the levada passes the waterfall, which is fed from the upper level. On along a somewhat slippery, narrow path through the forest. The black pipe for the drinking-water supply runs along here the whole way too. You slowly approach the ER-105, which you cross. On the other side of the road a small hut stands at the roadside.

Here the levada comes back to the surface and soon disappears into the undergrowth. Behind it you find the Lagoa do Bardo, a relatively new storage reservoir. The ground is fenced off, but further down you can reach the lower end, and the continuation of the levada, from the ER105. From here through open woodland to a large reservoir. Shortly afterwards the levada divides into an eastern and a northern terminal branch.

The eastern terminal branch continues as a stream, crosses the ER105 and goes on to the large fields below the road.

The northern terminal branch continues as a levada and reaches the ER-105 here. From here it crosses the ER105 and, at the next turning, continues under the road and parallel to it towards the west and then north-west, until it meets the Levada do Moinho. From here they run as parallel levadas, with occasional connections, along a gravel track. The Levada do Brasileiro has two branches off here, under the Levada do Moinho, towards the north (see the map). After the Levada do Moinho has separated from the Brasileiro, the latter runs a little further west and ends there.

End

Fields east and north of the ER105

Function and use

Feeder to the Lagoa do Bardo, and irrigation of the fields on the terminal branches

Access

From the ER105 to the Madre. The start of the path is not entirely easy to find in the maze of tracks!
From the crossing with the ER105
Via the Vereda do Tubo from the Levada da Ribeira da Janela (see Amigos da Natureza). I have seen the start; where it comes out on the Janela levada, I do not know!
To the Lagoa do Bardo from the ER105
From the feeder levada at the stream crossing of the Levada do Moinho, at the crossing of the eastern side branch of the Ribeira do Tristao
Via the gravel track that leads from Porta da Vila to the Lagoa do Bardo
From the end of the northern terminal branch on the ER105