I manage to start early again, taking the first bus west to Estrela da Calheta at 8 a.m.. The ride takes two and a half hours for roughly 60 km, which illustrates nicely both the speed of the bus and its stopping frequency. At 10.30 a.m. I start my hike uphill towards Rabaçal.
The Levada Nova is just being renovated and the local water power station refitted so I have to walk up a forest road.
At the start of PR 6 are about 10 parked cars which is a hint at the volume of people to expect on the trail. Through the 900 m long Tunnel do Rabaçal I cross the mountain and proceed along the Levada do Risco towards the waterfall of the same name. The path is pretty crowded, but mostly wide enough to overtake. The Risco waterfall spectacularly falls down almost 100 meters.
The 25 Fontes waterfalls are near and so I proceed there. The path is very narrow in places and also steep and a couple of tourist groups slow me down. 25 Fontes itself isn’t really worth it. It’s just a small main waterfall and many small ones dropping only a few meters into a pool. On its own its nice enough, but coupled with tourist hordes it’s not, so one should visit very early or very late.
Instead of walking back out, I follow the Levada da 25 Fontes upstream to another little waterfall. The path is gone at the end and I need to walk on the narrow levada rim.
From here I take a tiny and hard to find path up the mountain. At the top, clouds draw in once again and hide the view. Still, the plateau and its high bushland is beautiful.
A steep descent on a tiny, little frequented, path into the Seixal river valley follows. It’s beautiful, with many small waterfalls and streams, but the path winding up and down the side of the valley frequently looks like this:
At the end of the day, as I walk towards the village of Seixal, I meet a few friendly cats and get a nice view on Seixal, the sea and the 115 m high Véuda Noiva waterfall.
Amazing sunset on the bus ride back!
