Levadinha da Serra

Madrei

• Main Madre: Fonte Ruivas N 32°46.480 W 17°05.000 ca. 1530 m a.s.l.,

• Further inflows:

  • Fonte de Louro N 32°45.850 W 17°04.550 ca. 1540 m a.s.l.

  • Outflow from the Ribeira do Bezerro storage lake (winter) N 32°45.650 W 17°04.850 ca. 1500 m a.s.l.

  • Fonte Norte N 32°45.250 W 17°04.930 ca. 1500 m a.s.l.

  • Outflow from the Campo Grande storage lake (winter) N 32°44.750 W 17°05.800 ca. 1410 m a.s.l.

Course

Through the small patch of woodland below the Pico Ruivo do Paul to the junction with the ER-110, where the ER-208 also branches off. On to the Ribeira do Bezerro, where the inflow from the Fonte do Louro is. Here, in winter, there is also an inflow from the reservoir.

On to the inflow from the Fonte Norte. South-west to the inflow from the Campo Grande reservoir (winter only). Junction with the ER-209, through a small patch of woodland to Cristo Rei, another junction with the ER-209, and an inflow to the Levada do Paul 2.

The present state of the junction of the Levadinha with the Levada do Paul 2 shows that the inflow from the Levadinha is interrupted at the moment, at least in summer.

End

Levada do Paul 2 at Cristo Rei ca. 1320 m a.s.l.

Function and use

Inflow to the Levada do Paul 2

Access

• Access by many gravel tracks and path traces, starting from the ER110, the ER-209 and the ER-208

• Junction with the ER-110

• Junction with the ER-209

• Junction with the ER-209 in Cristo Rei

Condition

varies with the season; especially in winter, with more water

Historical notes

The Levadinha da Serra in its present extent is now only part of the old Levadinha da Serra, which before the great levada-building phase of 1953 secured the water supply of Canhas as a vertical levada. From the point where the water now flows into the Levada do Paul 2 (at Cristo Rei), it continued to above Canhas!

See also Historical development of the levadas around Rabaçal and on the south side between Ribeira Brava and Ponta do Pargo

Remarks

What is striking about the Levadinha are the two winter reservoirs on the Ribeira do Bezerro and on the Campo Grande. I have never been to Madeira in winter, but I was told that the drive north from Cristo Rei is at times practically through a lake.

What can be made out on StreetView is the eastern weir and the outflow into the Levadinha.

Further west of the ER-209 there is a weir 340 metres long, and the remaining possible outlets have in part been sealed with earth fills.

In the lower part there are still active sections of the historic Levadinha (between Lance de Água and o Lombo da Piedade). Here it crosses the ER209, likewise here, and here it runs beside the road.