In spite of getting up late without a plan, we actually ended up with a pretty full slate of activities by the time day was done.  The early part of the day (and by early we mean after 10:00) was filled with various chores like paying bills and setting up a golf time for this week.  We settled on Wednesday at Clube de Golfe Santo da Serra, the other golf course here on Madeira.  This decision, based on weather forecasts for which there is no rationale basis for reliance, informed our main quest, what to do today.  Since we are playing on Wednesday we did not want to do too strenuous an activity on Tuesday, which meant that today (Monday) we should do something at least somewhat active.  There was one stretch of the coastal route around the island that we had not yet traveled, the area between Sao Vicente and Santana on the north coast.  Thus the plan evolved into going there and finding a hike.  It could not be a major hike as it was already late, but a hike nonetheless.

With at least the outline of a plan, we packed up the car and drove west, back to Ribeira Brava.  There we took the north-south road as we did a few days ago, with the difference this time that we went through the three-kilometer tunnel that goes under the mountainous spine.  This was probably a good day to go low as even the valley on the south side had fog and clouds while the mountains were visually nonexistent.  Emerging from the tunnel near Sao Vicente, it was not all sunshine and rainbows but we could see ahead and there were glimpses of blue sky.  We had decided to try a portion of a levada hike called Levada do Rei which starts in the hills near Sao Jorge, so we turned east from Sao Vicente along the coast road for a bit more scenery first.  We came upon a local surfing beach called Baia dos Juncos, where a number of folks were in or getting into the water amid what looked to be nice surfing swells.  Ultimately we only saw a few surfers catch a wave, as they mostly did what surfers often seem to do, just hang out floating on the swells and no doubt talking trash.  We saw one older fellow pick his way barefoot across the black pebbly beach, paddle out, catch one wave for a nice ride in, and come out and leave.  Perhaps it was on his bucket list?  Another fellow chose the more direct larger rock entrance point which necessitated some ballet on his part to hop down to the lowest rocks and then jump in with his board between crashing waves.  All very entertaining.  Then it was on towards the trailhead still an hour's drive away.

Called "Small Trail of the Levada do Rei" on AllTrails, this hike does about half of the full trail and then loops back to the parking lot.  Loop trails always seem more appealing to us than out-and-back, and the time required for this one suited us well.  The first half of the walk was along a very scenic old levada (called the King's Levada because built on order of the king of Portugal in the late 1800s).  We passed a fair number of hikers on the first half of our trek, and stopped for lunch just past our half-way point.  We then took the "upper trail" loop back, which was really an unnecessary uphill that proceeded along a dirt access road.  We had expected different scenery, but this was a route we wouldn't choose again but would just go further along the levada level either to its end or turning back as time dictated.  More learning and discovery.  However, the levada trail itself was verdant and lovely and well worth doing.

As we completed the trail, we looked longingly at the little cafe at the trailhead and considered stopping for a glass of vinho verde.  However, we had planned to cook dinner in tonight for a change, so we headed home the quick way, on the VE1 expressway around the east end, mostly through a myriad of tunnels.