Vereda da Penha d'Águia

The climb is the point. The path goes up and keeps going up, through forest, on earth and rock rather than on a made surface. At the top there are two viewpoints, one to the left and one to the right. The right-hand one is easy to walk straight past, and it is the one that looks along the coast.

The effort divides people. This is a steep forest climb, not a graded levada walk, and how it feels depends on what your legs are used to — some finish fresh enough to drive on to a second hike the same day, others come down exhausted and unconvinced. The vegetation along the way is strongly scented.

• Rain: the ground turns slippery when wet, and almost the whole route is uphill.
• Fallen trees: trees lie across the path. Climb over them — the route continues on the far side.
• Finding the way in: the entrance to the trail is not easy to find.
• Bring: hiking shoes and water.

The trail meets the ER108 in the Machico area, and the entrance to it is not easy to find. One way up starts at Cruz, opposite the café by the levada, and it climbs steeply from the start. From there it is uphill almost the whole way to the viewpoints at the top, on a forest path rather than a surfaced trail.

Better: dry weather, with enough of the day left to climb and come back down.

Avoid: rain, and the hours after it while the ground is still wet.

Almost the entire route is uphill, and the surface is slippery when wet. In rain the climbing becomes work rather than walking, the fallen trees across the path are greasy to get over, and low cloud leaves the viewpoints with nothing to show.