Levada Velha do Lajeado

Madrei

Ribeira Grande (here also Ribeira do Lajeado) N 32°45.400 W 17°06.500 ca. 1400 m a.s.l.

Course

Parallel to the Ribeira Grande, then crossings of a former gravel pit or something similar; after a large bend a black pipe joins from the stream side and then lies in the levada bed to the end. This pipe starts at a small hut in the Ribeira Grande (drinking-water intake), runs for a stretch in the ribeira, and comes up to the levada

Then a somewhat exposed, protected passage into a stream cut. With a bit of scrambling a small Caldeirao can be reached there, similar to the 25 Fontes, a little smaller, but empty of people. Straight afterwards you pass a sort of shower; a ventilation pipe of a pipeline sticks up suddenly.

After that it continues west among small trees and bushes, and then south. A concrete bridge carrying a gravel track crosses the levada. The levada then disappears into the thicket. You can follow it on both sides, at a distance. You come to a defective aqueduct in which the ominous black pipe lies. The water from the levada flows here into the Ribeira do Alecrim; the pipe disappears into the undergrowth on the other side of the stream.

End

Ribeira do Alecrim ca. 1380 m a.s.l.; the water is taken by the Levada do Paul 1 and led on to the Camara da Carga.

Function and use

Originally a water supply as far as Arco da Calheta; today it feeds the Ribeira do Alecrim and thus the inflow to the Levada do Paul 1

I have not found out where the black pipe goes; I suspect, though, that it supplies drinking water to the Hotel Pico da Urze

Access

• From the side road of the ER-110, and from there via

  • The path straight to the Madre

  • The path to the Pico Rabacal over the bridge and, from the other side of the stream, to the Ribeira Grande and upstream to the Madre

• Via the gravel track to the 'gravel pit'

• From the Madre of the Levada do Paul 1 via the path on the right bank of the stream, and from here to the middle section of the levada or to the Madre

• Access to the end via

  • Levada do Paul 1

  • Path from the side road beside the ER-110

  • Path from the side road of the ER-110 right by the Hotel Pico da Urze

  • Path from the ER-110 west of the Hotel Pico da Urze (start here and here)

  • Path from the ER-110 further west

Condition

easy

Remarks

The levada ends in the Ribeira do Alecrim; an old aqueduct for crossing the stream is still there. The levada is partly cut into the tuff; a relatively old levada

Unfortunately this description is now only history!