The recommended pedestrian route between Caldeirão Verde and Caldeirão do Inferno, in the municipality of Santana, is temporarily closed, as it “does not meet the minimum safety conditions”, as reported by the Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation (IFCN) yesterday.
The situation that had already been signed for a few days got worse, leading to the decision to close this section of the PR9 – Caldeirão Verde. The route between Queimadas and Caldeirão Verde remains open.
At the origin of this situation are several landslides upstream of the levada along which the entire route takes place. Such landslides led to the destruction of part of the protection that guarantee greater safety for walkers.
The now-affected section will remain closed until the IFCN, intervenes and restores the safety conditions deemed appropriate.
This is not the first time that natural phenomena of this kind have affected what is one of the most sought-after footpaths by Madeirans and tourists alike.
A little over three years ago, in October 2019, a landslide near the Caldeirão Verde lagoon left 11 people injured, some seriously.
Access to the iconic lagoon area remains conditioned, even so, there are many who ‘ignore’ the signs on a daily basis and risk getting close to the water line, where small seemingly recent landslides of materials from one of the slopes are visible.