Madeira Island Ultra Trail 2012

On the past 9th of June I had the pleasure of being on the Pico Ruívo, early in the morning, waiting for the passage of the Madeira Island Ultra Trail competitors.

Already on the fourth edition, this event is getting more and more worldwide respect year after year. Since my fellow photo colleague Paulo was also a participant in the 55 kms race, I've decided to wake up early that day and proceed to Pico Ruívo, where I arrived at 9 am, just to have the pleasure of watching them passing by.

By that time the check point of Pico Ruívo was already operational, since the first athletes, that left Machico at midnight, were passing by at 5 am.

Overall, it was a nice show for the (few) people watching there, and while the dozens of athletes were passing by I could guess by the happiness shown in their eyes that the MIUT 2012, still a long way to be finished, was already a huge sucess.

Next year, if I have the guts, I'll join them.

Paulo Rodrigues, one of the athletes competing on the 55 kms race, arriving to the Pico Ruívo check point. Next stop would be Encumeada, about twelve kilometres away, running over the central massif and along one of the most beautiful trails of Madeira.

Picture made with Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 and Panasonic Lumix G Vario 1:3.5-5.6/14-42mm Asph. lens.
Post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CS3.

The Spanish athlete Cristina Abrié hiking the trail above the Pico Ruívo mountain hut. The smile on her face says it all about the competition, the nice weather and the comraderie that grassed in the mountains during that remarkable day. 300 participants and 16 nationalities.

Picture made with Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 and Panasonic Lumix G Vario 1:3.5-5.6/14-42mm Asph. lens.

Post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CS3.

From Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruívo and back - Hiking on the high peaks

A couple of days ago I was standing in front of the Portuguese Air Force Radar Station nº4, located in Pico do Areeiro, questioning myself whether or not I should start, by the third time, the mountain track that would lead me to the island highest peak.

Truth be said, the hike between these two peaks is the closest thing to a masochistic ritual that we can find in the Madeira mountains. So why is it so popular among hikers of all nationalities? Well, basically... the fabulous landscape. Let's see, at first it doesn't seem so intimidating. You start in Pico do Areeiro, at 1818 mts, and about seven kilometres after you end up in Pico Ruívo, at 1862 mts. A calm and relaxed five-mile walk to climb 44 metres in high, right? Wrong! The problem is in-between. Starting close to the radar dome, the path will lead you first, in a gentle descent, to the Ninho da Manta belvedere. There, you can relax a bit, watching the surrounding landscape and trying to spot the famous "Freira da Madeira" (Pterodroma madeira), an endemic bird at the verge of extinction. Following the route, you are now, after a slight ascent, walking over a rocky ridge no wider than the trail itself and with a vertiginous abyss of hundreds of meters on either side. Ever imagined walking over a knife blade? Here is reality overtaking fiction.

At the end of the basalt ridge you start the steep descent to Pico do Gato. And when I mean steep, I really mean steep. No problem with the route, tho. The path is well marked and well kept and on the most exposed parts you have railings on either side. The problem is the steepness. Those stairs seem to never end. Step after step after step. And when you finally reach level ground, some three hundred meters below, at the entrance of the Pico do Gato tunnel, you gaze one last time back, to what you've just done, and say to yourself: "Good God, I'll have to climb this on my way back".

After the Pico do Gato tunnel and a few more stairs, you'll be facing a crossing. Both directions will lead to Pico Ruívo. If you choose the left path, you will reach Pico Ruívo after 3.4 kms and a few tunnels on the way (always bring a flash light with you. In Madeira mountains it's pretty much convenient!), on a mostly leveled path. However, if you choose the right one you'll end up at Pico Ruívo, all right. After almost five kilometres climbing to the Torres ridge and then coming down and once again coming up to your final destination, at 1862 meters. In short: if you are a religious person and you feel that you are square with God, by all means choose the left path. But if you are a sinner, you should punish your body and your soul a little bit more. So, please, choose the right path and add 300 metres of steep ascent followed by the same amount of descent to your penitence.

Since I was feeling pretty much in peace with God and Humanity, I've decided for the left. This path is not as aerial as the one by the Torres ridge. In fact, you are always walking thru a narrow and canyon-like landscape. However, due to the amount of moisture in the air, the flora is quite colourful and although in small quantities (you are in the high mountains) the flowers are everywhere. When you pass the last tunnel you are standing on the path that's coming from the Torres ridge. So you proceed to your left and to the final part of your hike. From here, should be around two more kilometres to the Pico Ruívo, in a gentle ascent gradient, first to the Pico Ruívo mountain hut and then to the peak itself. On the way back, you can choose the tunnels route or you can go straight ahead to the Torres, following the gentle trail that leads you to the Torres ridge. Just don't forget that, as soon as you have peaked it, you'll face the steep descent down to Pico do Gato that you avoided before coming by the tunnels. If you are not on your best shape, your knees will suffer on the steep stairs. I wasn't. So I suffered like hell in that passage. A hike that usually takes about two and a half hours did cost me almost five. Honestly, I was seriously thinking about spending the night in the mountain, if I couldn't manage to reach Pico do Areeiro by daytime. With my legs like gelatin and already after the sunset, I finally managed to drag myself to the car parking lot close to the radar station. That's how fit I was. And that was a serious lesson learnt about despising regular physical training. However, for a normal hiker, there is absolutely no reason stopping you to accomplish the route Pico do Areeiro-Pico Ruívo-Pico do Areeiro in five hours.

The most beautiful mountain walk in Madeira starts here, close to the Radar Station Nº 4, of the Portuguese Air Force. For you tech fanatics, this is supposed to be a long-range tri-dimensional SA Lanza 3D radar, built by INDRA Sistemas SA, from Spain. This system is supposed to increase the vigilance of both the civil and military air space of Madeira and adjacent waters up to a distance of 250 nautical miles.

Pico do Areeiro, as seen from the Torres.

The (in)famous Torres crossing, right after the Pico do Gato tunnel. Right here you decide. If you follow the left path, you'll find several tunnels ahead on a mostly horizontal trail. If you choose the right one... soon afterwards you'll be climbing up to the Torres ridge by a very steep trail and you will be adding an additional 300 meters of ascent and as much in descent to your ride. Your choice.

The left path will lead you to a crossing of the Torres ("Towers") with a few subterranean moments.

Either way the trail is always well marked...

...well kept and mostly well protected, as you can see by the pictures above, taken close to the Torres and when were remaining about 30 minutes to reach Madeira's highest peak.

It's Spring time, so flowers are constant...

...and constant...

...along the way.

The mountain trail passing near the Torres.

After two and a half hours on the trail, you finally see the Pico Ruívo mountain hut appearing over the trees.

A landscape reflection in a Pico Ruívo hut window, late in the afternoon.

The view from the Pico Ruívo is never the same. It varies with the seasons and even during the same day, due to the cloud cover of the sky. At the distance, near the sea, you can see the village of Santana. In the right extreme of the picture there's the Achada do Teixeira parking place.

Pico Ruívo, as seen from the Torres ridge, on my way back.

The quickest way to reach Pico Ruívo is by an easy path departing from Achada do Teixeira (at a height of 1592 meters). This trail, with about three kilometres of extension, will lead you to the Madeira's highest peak in a gentle crossing of the mountain ridge that you can see on the horizon. It's safe, it's fast... but not nearly as much fun as the bigger one.

From Pico das Pedras to Queimadas

A "levada walk for everybody". That's what it says in the sign, in the beginning of the path, close to the Rancho Madeirense bungalows, in Pico das Pedras.

And, in fact, it is. After leaving your car in the small parking area close to the hotel, you'll see in front of you the long levada that starts in Caldeirão do Inferno and goes as far away as Faial. However, if you are not feeling to athletic, if you are a newcomer to levadas, or if you are in those days in witch a short and peaceful walk might just be fine... then this short walk is the answer to your doubts.

The path along the levada is always wide enough and free from dangers. Just be careful with the muddy ground. Lots of people passing by together with the moist environment of the North coast makes the trail very slippery, to say the least. So, walk always looking to your feet, hence avoiding the typical levada walker pose (myself included!), which is walking around with your eyes looking at the air, trying to see the birds and the pretty flowers. That can cost you, at least, a sore arse. In extremes it can cost you your own life.

A Small Remark On Safety



Every year we face a few of these dramas in Madeira. A few persons that come to Madeira to enjoy this beautiful island end up by returning home in a coffin. It's a waste of life in a moment of it that should be all about enjoyment, fun and good memories to take home.

So, make no mistake. Madeira has a very steep orography. Which means that the levadas are, most of the times, carved in steep (sometimes plain vertical) rock walls. But this doesn't mean that they are dangerous. The danger is within us. You ever heard the saying "when in Rome, be roman"? That's exactly how you should behave in the levadas.

I'm living in Madeira for seven years. Not once I ever heard a story about a "levadeiro" (that's the name of the government professionals that take care of the levadas) killed from a fall in these water channels. Why? Easy: because they know what they are doing. Granted, probably during the construction of this magnificent engineering work of art there were a few fatalities. Those were different times, difficult ones. Safety procedures were not the most important things at that times. People just had to work... better... to sacrifice themselves to have a decent living. Nowadays things changed, thank God. And human life is very important. At least among us. So, why do people die in the levadas?

Easy: because they are not careful. You have only two main dangers in the levadas. Let's put this in mountaineering terms: one is objective (means that its generated by the surrounding environment), the other is subjective (meaning that is generated by you). The first one is the rock falls. And the second one is your fall. Rock falls are very uncommon in Madeira levadas. They normally happen in the Winter period. And during that season, if you are smart, you avoid the most dangerous and exposed ones. That leaves us with the subjective dangers.

And these are the ones that kill most people. You may be over-confident in your capabilities, you may lack the necessary technique to tackle a more difficult path, you may forgot the check the weather report before heading to the wilds, etc, etc, etc. Let's recognize one thing: people die in the mountains of Madeira mostly due to their faults. How to avoid this sad ending?

Easy! Watch your steps. Don't forget, levadas, by definition, are slippery. They pass by very wet areas and the paths along the water channels are, sometimes, very narrow and dangerous. Most of them don't have safety lines. So always look to where you are going to place you feet. If you want to take pictures of the birds keep on walking until you can find a place that is safe enough for you to rest a while, stop and then make your pictures.

Don't just walk around with your head on the air. If, by any chance, your are surprised along the way with a section of the levada that seems to much exposed for you, you'll have always two choices: give up and return back (sometimes, and more than once, this might just be the smartest move!) or prepare yourself to a wet pair of feet. That's right: jump on to the water channel... hiking boots and everything.

Why? Easy: in the Madeira levadas the water channels are almost always carved in the rock wall and the ground path that runs along with them (where you walk on) is always on the opposite side (the exposed one, facing the abyss). So, by walking in the water channel, with water in you knees, you are relatively secure by the protection of the nearby rock wall, instead of behaving like a rope-walker on the opposite side. Witch do you prefer? A wet pair of feet (they will dry out after an additional half'n hour of walking, anyway) and safety or an introduction to funambulism? Your answer. Just be safe. And never leave your mobile phone at home.

Contrary to many levadas in Madeira, this short walk between Pico das Pedras and Queimadas supposes no danger whatsoever, since the path is clear and wide. Just be careful with the muddy ground to avoid falling on your "arse".

Picture taken with Nikon D300 and Sigma EX 10-20mm f:4-5.6 DC HSM

Manfrotto tripod and geared 410 Junior head

Panoramic shot stitched together with Photoshop CS3

Anyway, this short walk, like I've said in the beginning, is quite safe. A pleasurable Sunday walk that you can do with everybody, from seven to seventy-seven years old.

And after a couple of kilometres and thirty minutes of walking you will find yourself in the Queimadas forest park, where you can relax by laying on the grass or just wandering around the several small forest roads that surrounds this park and leads you in an enchanted visit to the Laurissilva forest.

Before returning to the parking place of Pico das Pedras, by the same route, I advise you to stay awhile in the Queimadas forest park. Spend one hour there, walking around within the nearby forest paths. You'll be amazed with the enchanted forest within you are.

The wild flowers are always a constant presence in Madeira's many trails. This short one is no exception. Take your time. Stop and enjoy the views.

Photo taken with Nikon D300 and Sigma EX 18-50mm f:2.8 Macro DC HSM in macro mode.

Manfrotto tripod and 410 Junior geared head.

From Boca da Encumeada to Curral Jangão

A few days ago, with a full morning to spare, I decided to hike for the first time this small trail. Located at the top North end of the Ribeira Brava valley, this easy path connects Boca da Encumeada to Curral Jangão by a well marked and straight forward track. Regardless of the fact that the trail itself is far from being dangerous or even strenuous, the magic of it is quite present from the beginning. Stopping the car in a small parking area on the right side of the main road, a couple hundred meters before arriving to the Encumeada pass, you'll soon see the sign pointing your destination: the hanging valley of Curral Jangão. The first 500 or so meters are in a well marked forest road, accessible only for all-terrain vehicles. But as soon as you arrive near the large pipe conduct that leads the water from the Levada do Norte, high above, to the Power Plant of Serra de Água located in the valley below, the road ends and you make a detour to the right. You descend a few stony steps, pass under the conduct, and the mountain trail is in front of your eyes.

Map source: Instituto Geográfico do Exército, Chart nº5 (Ilha da Madeira - Curral das Freiras) Scale: 1/25.000

The first kilometre is, actually, quite boring. We walk in a forest of eucalyptus; not the most endemic flora if you know what I mean. However, as soon as we reach open ground things change and we are once again surrounded by the magnificent Madeira mountain landscape.

When we reach open ground, on the "grass floor", the trail opens to the beautiful mountain landscape that characterizes Madeira.

At this point we are already surrounded by some of the highest peaks in the island. Curral Jangão is, itself, a natural amphitheatre. The birth place of Ribeiro do Poço and a perfect and cosy hanging valley, Curral Jangão, at a high of roughly 850 meters, is surrounded by peaks that rise to almost 1600 meters high. So, a dramatic landscape and orography is something that we can expect when arriving there.

Curral Jangão, with its dramatic orography, seen from afar.

After the "grass floor", the path becomes more intimate and we find ourselves surrounded by native forest and vegetation. Sometimes we cross a few "green tunnels", where vegetation completely embraces the trail, and on others we cross some small streams with improvised wooden bridges.

Sometimes, small streams are crossed with wooden bridges...

...other times we cross them with stone ones, like this one, already in the Curral.

One hour, since departure, is more or less the time to reach Curral Jangão. Pacing ourselves, stopping a few times to take some pictures, and the full hike should take us about three hours from Boca da Encumeada and back. For the ones of us that love stronger emotions the path continues, from Curral Jangão, and at an additional 10 kilometres, to Boca da Corrida, passing close to Pico Grande. In fact, Curral Jangão is located in the old path that used to connect Boca da Corrida to Encumeada and also Serra de Água. So it comes as no surprise that we find, in the middle of nowhere, the perfect architecture of the stone bridge above.

The trails that we use nowadays for fun, were, for centuries, the only way possible for the Madeira inhabitants to travel within it.

Upon arrival to Curral Jangão, I meditated for awhile about that. Here, in this peaceful and sheltered high valley, while eating a few chestnuts that I've picked up from the trees, I cannot feel less than amazed for the centuries of efforts taken to vanquish Madeira's violent orography. Without anything more than manual tools and muscle power, these people built a net of water channels (the "levadas"), hundreds of kilometres long, to bring water from the moistly North coast to the sunnier and agricultural-friendly fields on the South. For this hydraulic effort, they vanquished the natural barriers with tunnels and suspended aqueducts, many of them in vertiginous places.

Then the connection between the several human settlements in the island. The net of trails (or "veredas" like they call them in Portuguese) is, certainly, older than the "levadas". But not less difficult to achieve, as we can see in so many parts of the island. Not all of them are so easy to build like this one where I'm standing. There are so many others where nature was uncooperative. Even today, after a more rough Winter, we still face difficulties in returning to the mountain paths. A rock fall here, a mud slide there and some paths become impractical for months. And today we have mechanical tools. How it would be like, in the fifteen century? I think about those ancient construction workers. If their spirits are somewhere, in a nice balcony with a view to their works of art, they must be glad to see their legacy still being used by the new generations.

I know I would.

And with this comforting thought on my mind I return home.

Terraced agricultural fields on the South face of Pico da Encumeada, Curral Jangão.

A vision of past days

Sadly, the high peaks of Madeira island no longer look like this. All this beauty is lost for the next generation. And nowadays all that the tourists can see on the high mountains is scorched earth. Slowly, the green vegetation is gaining terrain to the sad black landscape. But the secular trees that were destroyed... well... maybe in our grandchildrens time. Since we are in mid-Spring, I tought of publishing here, to you, a picture of older days. When all was green and men still haven't disturbed the equilibrium.

Handheld Nikon D40X and Nikkor VR55-200 f4/5.6G

Dead tree and distant ridge

Dead tree and distant mountain ridge on the way to Pico Ruívo, in Madeira island central massif. Image shot at evening time during the last days of Winter.

Nikon D40X, Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, Manfrotto 190XDB tripod with Manfrotto 490RC4 ballhead.

Pico Ruívo mountain hut in snowy conditions

I have a fellow mate at work that says that a walk to Pico Ruívo, the highest peak in Madeira, is his shrink. I couldn't agree more, since that short walk (about half n hour from the Achada do Teixeira car parking) can be so invigorating to your mind and body. The sheer sense of enjoying a walk above the clouds, leading to an almost 2000 meters peak from where you can see the all island and the sea surrounding it is really quite amazing. Surprisingly, this past Winter was a little bit cold and the mountain tops were covered in white blankets for several times. Since it's such an unusual phenomena, and regardless the fact that we are already in mid-Spring, I leave you this curious picture of the Pico Ruívo mountain hut, located 200 meters below the peak and on its northern slope, covered with snow.

Fire in the high mountains of Madeira island - August 2010 - Before and after

Year after year and Summer after Summer, we, in Portugal, face the same drama. Forest fires destroy a little bit more of the green that managed to survive to the previous year's carbonization.

At the time of writing (August 2010), the present statistics give information of rougly 200 square kilometres burnt since the beggining of 2010. One of the biggest fires of the year, itself alone, destroyied, a few days ago, more than 9000 acres of pristine forest in the Serra do Soajo, located within the borders of the only national park of Portugal.

We can blame whatever we want, from the climate change to unscrupulous timber-dealers, but the plain and simple fact is that we've never had a true politic to prevent forest fires, that should start with an exaustive territorial arrangement.

For many years protected from this terrible catastrophe, due to it's particular sub-tropical moisty climate, Madeira is now facing the same threat as the summers in the "Atlantic Pearl" are getting more warm and dry. Last year the island suffered already a few fires. Nothing, however, would prepare us for the tragedy of the last weekend. During that time, 4000 hectares of forest were destroyed in a couple of days, comprising 95% of the Ecological Park of Funchal and almost all the vegetation along the Pico do Areeiro-Pico Ruívo trail. This trail, connecting the two highest peaks of Madeira, with a lenght of 7 kms, is an ex-líbris of the Madeira trekking tourism and deserves, by its own right, to be considered one of the best mountain treks in Europe. From the magnificent and vertiginous volcanic landscape to the enchanted and primitive forest along the way, it was a walk of superlatives. One of the few to which I was always willing to return. And so I did many times.

Professor Raimundo Quintal, a respected Geographer of Madeira, the major driving force behind the Parque Ecológico do Funchal (Funchal Ecological Park) and the preservation of the primitive Laurissilva forest of Madeira (Unesco patrimony), said in a TV interview that, after a strong and immediate effort in reflorestation, it would take about fifty years for nature to regain its equilibrium.

It's so sad that most of us will no longer be living to see that happen.