Our first Walk in the Madeiran Mountains - We loved this walk, it was varied, we got to experience a levada walk as well as a challenging descent into the Lagoa do Vento. This waterfall was amazing, the water was being blown by the wind around the rockface to the pool below. The rockface behind the waterfall is a slice through a volcano. Very interesting if you like a bit of geology on a walk! Our guide, Nestor, was very good, he gave clear options for those in the group not wishing to do the descent and was very knowledgeable about the plant life on the mountains. The weather was not brilliant, it was more like a day in the Scottish hills, but this didn't really matter as long as you were dressed for it. Perhaps the information in the brochure could include a little about each walk; the ascent and descent, what the level of difficulty describes and the overall distance of the walk. Also weather advice and what to wear for a day in these hills.

So much effort for so little reward! - This walk was classed as "Moderate", but I think it was very difficult! I am of reasonable fitness but I really struggled with some of the high rocky steps we had to negotiate on this trek. At one point I was shaking with the effort of it all and thought I would have to be stretchered back down! I am not the only one, and even some of the young ones found it much more challenging than expected. I have returned home with an injured knee because of it. On most of the trek there wasn't even anything nice to see to make it worthwhile - just forest. Altogether we saw 2 rocky pools with waterfalls, one only accessible via the steep rocky steps. The second one was reached via a flat path going along the actual levada - I would much rather have just visited that one and not bothered with the first one!