Gerry Sluiter English March 9th, 2008

Madeira is a walking paradise for any “Nature- Lover”. To ensure that you enjoy your walk, we strongly recommend that you walk with Certified Mountain guide. Your safety is paramount and to ensure that you receive the best possible service available on Madeira, we only employ local guides who are in possession of a Madeira Mountain Guide Certificate.

For obvious reasons, safety starts before the walk and it is crucial that everyone is prepared for the challenge what is waiting for them. Walking the Levadas of Madeira or any other Nature walk brings its challenges and therefore we advice that every walker is wearing layered clothing (what is easy to remove) and has water proofs with them. Other requirements are: sun protection and water (if possible a torch).

The highly trained mountain guides studied for 1 year, coffering everything in relation to walking on Madeira. This combination of responsibilities from both parties and Madeira’s walking facilities will give you a pleasant and relaxed walking experience.

Unfortunately, over the years more and more people have entered the walking industry, pretending to be a guide. These illegal “guides” are putting walkers life’s at risk, and are unable to supply the service, information and safety.

This situation has caused great concerns on Madeira and due to this there is an increase of accidents. To ensure that your guide is qualified with what he/she is doing we advise you to ask your guide to show you their license. Certified guides are proud with their profession and with their commitment to follow the very intensive guiding course.

Over the last few years we have seen more and more walking groups visiting Madeira. As walking lovers, we are very excited showing everyone this beautiful island. However some of these groups are bringing their own leader. This is not only illegal according to the Portuguese law, it´s also very dangerous.

The situation is getting out of control, and some local guides have decided to face the problem by publishing an article in Madeira best selling newspaper: Diário de Notícias to make people aware of this problem.

Gerry Sluiter

Article of Diário de Notícias was published on 2nd of March 2008.

Tags: accidents, groups, guides, levadas, license, nature, newspaper, qualified mountain guide, safety, service, walking

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Gerry Sluiter English February 18th, 2008

Nature Meetings has introduced a weblog, as we see this as service between walkers across the world. Walkers can share their experience with stories and pictures.

Every walker should be aware of the safety, and it is crucial that every walker is fully prepared before they step in their boots to explore their chosen route.

Madeira has fantastic walking opportunities, with a net work of Levadas (small water channels) covering large parts of the island. The sub tropical climate makes Madeira a walking paradise the whole year around.

How can you beat exploring your holiday destination on foot? Walk through the nature with its exotic flora and the unique Laurisilva forest (Unesco World Heritage). The Levadas on Madeira are spread out over all main parts on the island, available for all ages. However, as Madeira is a volcanic island you might pass locations with vertigo and tunnels. Therefore we would recommend that you study your walking route before entering the beautiful nature of Madeira.

Every holiday maker has worked hard, saved and made all the necessarily arrangements to enjoy their break. To ensure that you make the most out of your visit to Madeira, we strongly recommend that you walk with a guide.

Transport on Madeira is satisfactory; however you will experience problems to find the hidden Levadas. Bus services to/from these locations are very difficult and it will take a lot of your pressures holiday time. A taxi service is an alternative, however you will pay more than a guided walk, secondly you won’t receive interesting information relating to the walk from our Qualified Mountain Guide. As your safety is paramount, all our guides are “First Aid” trained and are fully equipped during the walk.

The weblog is available for everyone, you can write in your own language, write about anything on Madeira, and if you have a picture you want to share with us please add them to your article.

On behalf of our team do I wish you an enjoyable reading time.

Gerry Sluiter

Tags: guides, laurisilva, levadas, madeira, nature, Nature Meetings, qualified mountain guide, walking

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