Lombinho Waterfall

The water comes down onto the tarmac itself. Cars roll through the fall and out the other side with the wipers going, and the road carries on to meet a bigger one at either end. It is a modest fall in a green cleft above Ribeira da Janela, and the setting does the rest: wet rock, ferns, the sound of water in a place where nothing else is making any noise. Most drivers photograph the car under the water and move on. Walking down is the better call if you want to stand beside the fall, because the road is single-track in places and traffic uses it in both directions.

• No toilets at the falls. The nearest public toilets are about 330 m away and free to use.
• The road is single-track in places and carries traffic in both directions; there are spots to pull in and let an oncoming car through.
• Water lands on the tarmac under the falls, so the surface there is wet — drive through slowly.
• Drinking water can be found about 390 m from the falls; there is nothing else at the stop itself.

Everyone arrives by car. The falls sit on a narrow road that links two larger ones, so you can come at them from either end and drive straight through, then turn round if you want to go back the way you came; one of the two approaches includes a short steep stretch, no worse than the usual hill roads on the island. The nearest parking is 354 m from the water, and the last part is on foot along the road itself.

Better: winter — in January the fall comes down full and the cleft is at its greenest.

Avoid: no particular hour. The road here stays quiet and the falls are rarely crowded, so there is no rush to dodge.

Flow matters more than light at this stop: the fall is hemmed in by the slope, and what changes between visits is how much water is coming over the edge.