Caminhada Vale da Serra D'Água

The pick-up was punctual at 08:20 from Caniço, unfortunately the trip that followed wasn't the best I've had in Madeira. The minivan was driven hard, at speed, with hatd braking which resulted in it's passengers in the back having quite an unpleasant journey. As per usual, we stopped at a cafe for coffee which was pretty good and to use the facilities. At was at this point where we joined another minivan of clients, much to my surprise as this made our total group around 20, which is way too large in my opinion. After quite a long stay at the cafe we eventually made our way to the start of the walk, for me this was around two hours after my original pick-up time. The walk itself isn't anything special, there are far, far more impressive levada walks on the island. The levada itself is made of concrete, not an old stone or natural one and the surrounding forest has been cutback and isn't particularly pretty. The walk as described is short, around 6km and only takes a couple of hours however due to the size of the group this ended up being painfully slow. At the end of the walk we waited for quite sometime before boarding the minivan, again as per usual we stopped at a cafe for a coffee and to use the facilities. These stops take way too long. Two hours after finishing the walk I was finally dropped off at my location in Caniço, again another uncomfortable journey due to excessive speed and braking. In my opinion, if you're staying in Funchal you might consider this walk, however if staying further away I'd look for another walk as 4 hours of faff isn't worth two hours of an at best average walk.