Madeira - Day 6

Today we wanted to get to Pico Ruivo, the highest peak on Madeira at 1861 m. The plan was to drive to Pico do Arieiro, a lesser peak, to catch the sunrise, then walk to Pico Ruivo.

So we left the apartment at about 7.15am and headed up. About 5 km from the end of the road we were flagged down by a car going in the opposite direction, who told us to look out for 3 dead sheep on the road ahead. A bit further on sure enough there were 3 dead black sheep on the road - we never found out what killed them.

As we got nearer the top, there was snow on the road and some cars were giving up and parking. We got to about 2 km from the top and couldn't make it up a steep bit, so we turned the car round to point downhill and parked.

We walked up the road to Pico do Arieiro, and the sun rose as we walked. It wasn't a great one though.

At the summit we walked around for a bit. The path to Pico Ruivo was obviously out of the question due to the snow and ice. There's a military communications installation at the top.

We thought the the "easy" path to the peak from the other side at Achada do Teixeira might be feasible, so we walked back to the car and started to drive round. As we got a bit further down we found that the police had now closed the road, and loads of cars hadn't even made it as far as we did.

We got round to the other side of the island and headed up towards Teixeira, only to get flagged down and told we couldn't get up there because of the ice and snow. Fortunately we had a conversation with a German couple who told use there was a very good levada walk further down the hill at Queimadas.

As it turned out this was a walk we'd done back in 2010, to the Caldeirão Verde (Green Cauldron).

We parked down the hill and set off. After about 2 km we got to Queimadas where there are some traditional thatched houses, and some duck houses.

We then had quite a long walk along the levada. At many points there are waterfalls falling onto the path, and four tunnels to go through, some of which had low roofs.

The Green Cauldron is a pool at the bottom of a waterfall.

We walked back to the car. When we got there the police were trying to close the snow gate just above the car park. However they seemed to have lost the key for it as they were hitting it with a hammer.

We drove home via the supermarket. Later for dinner we made raclette (cheese, potatoes, onions and pancetta) with fresh tomatoes.