 |
 |
 |
 |
The Rabacal
Valley |
A staircase where
the levada changes levels |
Two
shots showing the general lie of the land |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Below the Risco
Falls |
The Falls
themselves |
Beryl posing on
the tricky section above the Falls |
The lunch spot
...... |
 |
 |
 |
 |
.....but the
guides get the best spots |
A shot taken
whilst exploring round the lunch spot |
Looking back to
the lunch spot from the post-prandial pull up the valley side |
Higher still |
 |
 |
|
|
Interesting
heather- it grows like this cos the sheep eat what they can reach |
Beryl crossing
rickety bridge |
|
|
But it was a walk and all walks in unfamiliar countryside
are by definition enjoyable. The journey there wasn’t very promising. We had
to cross the central plateau of the island and the cloud was right down on it.
We kept hoping that we’d break through into cloud inversion but no such luck.
We decamped from the vehicles in a God-forsaken spot with fierce winds and
raining threatening, but at least with thinner cloud. Everyone immediately
donned storm gear.
Actually this didn’t last long. We had a 50 yd walk to a
levada and then the tree heather grew up quickly around it so we were in cover
and out of the wind. Shortly after that the sun appeared and the walk was quite
pleasant. We were actually walking uphill (because the water was flowing towards
us) but it felt very flat as we ambled along. We had views down the Rabacal
Valley – see the photos for some atmospheric shots.
At the head of this levada was a waterfall, the Risco
Falls. Just as the
Germans are alleged to always get there towels down first on the best seats by
the pool, they always seems to have their rucksacks down by the best picnic
spots. They were certainly here. So we stopped briefly to take photos and then
climbed out up the side of the waterfall and along a trickier path before having
lunch by the stream above the falls – another photo opportunity. The sun was
out and it was lovely.
There was a pull out of the valley immediately after lunch
up on to a higher levada. We walked up to the spring that is its source. I was
at the back because I’d been taking photos and I spotted lots of (smallish)
trout in the levada – strangely Beryl who was up ahead didn’t see any,
although she’d seen one during the morning. We doubled back along the levada;
this was quite a natural looking path and enjoyable to walk. This emerged on the
central plateau – high windswept moorland. We had to cross one tricky bridge
– only one person allowed across at a time with lots of unkind comments about
whether it would take my weight. But it was a surprise to find how quickly we
got back to the minibuses. We were expecting to be about another hour.
A brief bus ride to a bar. I did have a beer today as it
was getting quite warm and we had a relaxing natter from the veranda enjoying
the view.
