Things to do on the Levada do Caldeirão Verde

The Levada do Caldeirão Verde starts at the Queimadas park above Santana and runs roughly 13 kilometres there and back to a green pool fed by a thin waterfall. Allow five to six hours, including four unlit tunnels cut straight through the rock, the longest around 600 metres, where a head torch is not optional.

The path itself barely climbs, but that flatness is misleading: months of edging along a canal wall with a sheer drop on one side, then walking blind through dripping tunnels, wear people out more than the near-zero gradient suggests. pt at around 3 euros per person per day and checked at the start. Queimadas car park is about 25 minutes' drive from Santana and just over an hour from Funchal.