From the top I could see most of this popular Portuguese outpost. Madeira may be famous for cake, wine and as the birthplace of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, but it is also a relaxed island, where visitors stroll around semi-tropical gardens and fishing villages. There are no golden beaches but the warm climate keeps visitors coming back.
With no major attractions to distract them, Madeira has become a favourite for walkers. Increasingly this involves guided walks along levadas – irrigation canals running for hundreds of miles around the mountainous interior.
Often built by slaves or prisoners, these channels have helped bring water from the steep rainforest down to more gentle slopes for hundreds of years. Farmers use the levada water and semi-tropical climate to grow avocados, papaya and passionfruit.
However, the levada routes are a little predictable and unexciting, and their narrow pathways are also sometimes precarious and increasingly crowded. So more adventurous walkers have started to ask: can I go further afield?
My guide, Eduardo, welcomed the chance to show me some more challenging routes. His first choice – the Larano – started at the original Portuguese settlement of Machico, founded when explorers landed on the south-eastern tip of the island in 1419.
Terraced fields rise steeply into the wooded mountains and we followed a path that was once a vital mule trail. It led to the dramatic pass of Boca do Risco where we took a break, and then the route twisted along the coastline.
