A Meander South

Well as predicted here I am at Faro on the aire not two hundred yards from the runway - with only a dozen or so flights a day it is not exactly hectic and I will walk round to Arrivals this evening assuming all plans go to....well plan.

The weather improved after Montsarraz in time to get a few piccies of the fortified village including the various nativity models that were being carted away gradually - it was an amusing site to see the three kings on their camels sticking out of a livestock trailer.

 

 

 

On the spur of the moment I was tempted by lunch in a bar with a sunny terrace overlooking the huge Alqueva reservoir and my fried whole squid was beyond delicious.

 

 

 

I only moved on a few miles to park up by the water's edge near Mourao which had a lovely lakeside beach, plenty of waterfowl and no people. I cycled back in to the village to visit the church adjacent to the castle and then sat on a small island to watch a good sunset. A good ride the following day exploring tracks and trails brought me to Luz which is the new village relocated from a couple of miles away when the valley was flooded. It has been built as an almost carbon copy of the old but with improved construction and utilities but being only 20 years old still feels quite characterless. The lovely lady in the bakery sold me some decent bread and the tiny supermarket provided for a few other items. I also discovered that there was an aire in the village with water and waste facilities and power available - payable by machine -as per the other aire the machine was broken but the barrier was up and others were in residence so I moved there the following day.

 

 

This gave me the opportunity for a 55 mile ride down to the impressive dam and hydro scheme and back across the bridge to Mourao on largely deserted roads. I also visited the museum dedicated to the abandoned village which had plenty of history and artefacts relating to the old ways of life.

 

 

Moving south and east I passed through the Aracena National Park, an area of woods, valleys and mountains before pulling in to Aracena itself where parking was allowed in a large empty patch of ground five minutes from the village centre. On a sunny weekend afternoon cafe culture was in full swing and I booked a tour in the Grutas de las Maravillas, a show cave largely located underneath the hilltop castle. The ticket had me booked on the 5 o'clock visit and included the castle itself which I walked up to passing a convent and another fine church. From the castle walls I could get an idea of the layout of the area which had much walking potential before I joined the underground trip.

This was an hour long walk through 2km of superbly decorated cave passages and well worth doing - no photography was permitted but there are some good videos on YouTube. I also visited the museuo de jamon which included all aspects of producing this local delicacy before turning in for the night with a few vans scattered around. Sunday saw me starting a walk out to Linares from a book written twenty odd years ago but apart from a bit of urban sprawl little had changed and I made good enough progress to include a second walk from the same book so finished the day after 15 really enjoyable miles although my knees were yet again causing some discomfort.

Monday was spent doing the walk of The Happy Pigs which lived up to its name as it passed through fields and the dehesa that provide these outdoor reared pigs with acorns to forage. It took me back to my days on the farm when my Oxford Sandy and Blacks would roam at will in similar terrain.A small bar tempted me to go in and I was soon enjoying jamon, egg and chips washed down with a beer and followed by a pud and coffee for a very reasonable £15 before the final walk back in to Aracena.

 

I left the following day but again only as far as Minas de Riotinto where a sloping aire by a busy road was adequate for a one night stay. Up at the mining museum I discovered that a multi buy ticket would give access to the Museum, English house 'Casa21' and a trip on the train down the Rio Tinto Valley the following day. En route I had already visited the other local attraction the Pena De La Hierro which was a smaller now abandoned open mining area with a deep water filled crater and remarkably colourful geology.

 

Thus I visited the mining museum housed in the old hospital built by the English owned RT mining company and enjoyed some excellent displays of geological samples, a surprisingly authentic re-creation of a Roman mine, associated artefacts from a Roman village uncovered by the mining operations and of course archive photos and documents of the mines development in recent years.

I then drove down to the station where the 13.00 (and only) departure of the old train was waiting in a valley surrounded by huge geometric shaped piles of the multi coloured waste from the current operations. The Rio Tinto lived up to its name and appears that colour due to the heavy concentrations of copper in the area - a natural colour rather than due to pollution and in fact the water is pretty clear, it just reflects the underlying strata. The 3 carriage train rocked, rattled and swayed behind an archaic diesel engine as a lady gave a presumably comprehensive commentary in Spanish. I was content to watch the scenery as we passed abandoned mines and quarries, loading bays, crushing plants and an array of old rusting railway relics. After an hour we stopped for time to walk down to the water's edge whilst the loco ran round and then enjoyed a return trip through the remarkable scenery.

There was then time to visit Casa 21, a house on an estate again built by the company to house their workers on postings from Britain and intended to recreate their previous lives being complete with tennis courts, an outdoor pool and a polo pitch - classic miners' pastimes.....the interior looked like some of those we saw last year at Beamish.

 

The final attraction of an excellent day was to follow a mines van through the security fencing to peer in to the huge hole in  the ground that is the still operational Corta Atalaya, the largest open pit mine in Europe at 1200m long, 900 wide and 350 deep. It has been flooded from the 16th ring for many years and is being constantly pumped out whilst existing faces are worked. For an idea of scale a steam locomotive sits at the lowest point and is almost invisible. It was an impressive sight and site and a good end to an interesting day leaving me a short drive south to Valverde de Campo where I planned to ride a local via verde. I had done this one before but from the south and was soon rolling along stopping at a bar on the way back for coffee and toast before loading up and heading for Pomarao on the Spanish Portuguese border.

This enchanting village strings out above the Guadiana river which rises 500 miles away near Madrid and often forms the border with its outlet a further 40 miles on in the Gulf of Cadiz.

A large gravel area provided plenty of space for a number of vans and I pulled in right by the river on a sunny evening. A couple of rides from the van included a crossing back over in to Spain to pick up a new (to me) Via Verde which started from some impressive old loading bays above the river and wound its way through the scenery to the old mine. From here it was a short ride passing an old 16th century windmill to El Granado for beer and a bag of crisps before the run home that finished with a long fast descent to the river.

At Pomarao a large bat had landed beneath the bike rack but didn't look to healthy so I persuaded him to hang off a tree so at least he was clear of predators. A cold night made me value the Eber yet again but Sunday morning sunshine soon had me outside in shorts for a restful day for a change. As on previous days a very elderly local had rowed erratically across to the other bank to tend his vegetable patch, returning at dusk in a what seemed given his antiquity a perilous journey. At lunchtime I went over to check out the Cafe do Cais and found it to be delightful - a covered terrace overlooking the slightly tidal river and the friendly Fatima who spoke a variety of languages and produced a delicious dish of Alentejo pork with clams and potatoes followed by a coconut desert washed down with a Bohemian Sagres. Deservedly she closes for a week from the 24th so unfortunately whilst we will return Mandy will miss this most pleasant experience.

So yesterday I packed up after four days by the river and headed towards Faro stopping at the first camp site in 7 weeks - the Ecopark at Sao Bras de Alportel as I had laundry to do and the van needed a service stop on the domestic front. things dried quickly in the sun although a huge Austrian truck camper with trailer mounted 4x4 was later positioned alongside which cast some shade on things. I cannot imagine hauling that huge combination around was anything less than constantly stressful and in many ways hugely limiting but still, each to their own....anyway 9 euros to park up (no EHU) and 5 for a large laundry load seemed OK and the owners were very friendly. Whilst they don't sell gas they have the local dealer to come in with various brands and sizes and within half an hour a nice guy turned up at my pitch with 2 CG 907s at £15 each : well under half the UK price.

Thus to return to the beginning - it was a cold night again but the days are gloriously sunny and I am now waiting for the arrival of a flight from Manchester - it's a very quiet airport less than two dozen arrivals and departures a day but very interesting to sit up on the bank watching aircraft as they do arrive or leave.

I'd not shopped for a fortnight so spent a fair bit at Lidl and we will head to Mertola tomorrow en route back to Pomarao before moving west to Seville, Cordoba, Granada, the Alpujarras and eventually Morocco at the end of February.

According to the EasyJet tracker the flight is currently on time and just passing over the Brecon Beacons, it's a funny old world.

More than enough pics sit here...

  

Marvao 2023

 So after a break of four years I was looking forward to another peaceful Christmas and New Year on the campsite with the company of Tiggy the cat, the two dogs occasionally and a few adventurous lambs that would hop over the neighbour's wall ; the ewes are hobbled so don't stray far.

On my return from the foray north I had visited the old village of Idanha a Velha with its Roman remains but it was a grey day and the place was deserted. A night at Vila Velha de Rodao saw the sun emerge as I enjoyed a cider on a terrace overlooking the much swollen Tejo river.

Back at Marvao Gary was ready for his return to the UK although a strike by TAP in Lisbon and Border Force at Manchester added a measure of uncertainty so I was content to settle down for a peaceful ten days or so. We had noticed that some of the camp site power was down so Joao arranged for the local electrician to inspect - he diagnosed that the fault lay in the mains supply and within a couple of hours the power company turned up with a cherry picker and repaired a damaged cable that ran through a cork oak.

 

I took off on the bike to explore local megalithic relics that are now part of a signed route and sat at various dolmens reflecting on how significant these memorials were to an ancient civilisation that spread right across Spain, Portugal, France and even in to the far reaches of west Wales - had there been a recorded history left it would I'm sure have revealed a surprisingly advanced society.

I cycled up to Marvao early one morning as Santo Antonio was in the fog and was rewarded with some excellent photographic opportunities as the mists swirled and lifted sporadically. At one point the conditions combined to create a brockenspectre and by the time I returned to the site the sun had burnt off the cloud and I relaxed in the hot sunshine.

 Another ride took me down to Beira station once more and then on to an old chafurdao which would have originally served as a shepherds' hut and then a livestock shelter with a circular water trough carved in to the granite.

A friendly pig with a litter of 3 seemed to enjoy the attention as I pedalled back to base and had the two dogs over the days that Joao was working. He'd also called round with his Mum who I've known for a few years now and she enjoyed an insight in to my previous life in Wales as we devoured a Bola Rei - the traditional Portuguese Christmas cake in the cosy kitchen.

Before long Gary was safely back and I took advantage of extra hands on deck to remove the potentially brittle tailgate shower trim from the van. This enabled me to diagnose the fault with the tailgate lock that had not been engaging - the latch was slightly out of alignment and easily rectified by the application of Localised Uniform Momentary Pressure - a lump hammer to the uninitiated.

All was soon back in place and later that night I was outside in my super warm down jacket well before dawn to watch the Quarantids meteor shower in the northern skies.

I decided to relocate for a couple of nights up to the aire at Marvao for some night photographs so loaded up the van and set off initially planning to spend the day round at the Povoa barragem in the sun. However the high water levels meant that the network of shore side tracks were underwater and after almost getting bogged down I headed round to the main access point alongside the newly refurbished, and empty, aire.

I'd seen 6 Spanish vans parked up on a patch of land near Beira and saw that the new payment and access system with an app generated Q code to raise the barrier was out of order.

Anyway after a lovely couple of hours I went round to Castelo de Vide where some new sculptures adorned the square in front of the large church. Up at the castle the keep has, I think, been spoilt by adding glazing to the four huge windows, similarly at Marvao a large CCTV camera has detracted from the simple lines of that lofty keep. So often improvements such as information boards, safety notices and interactive panels detract from the very features they represent, and more often than not seem to be out of order.

I watched as a tractor with a back box full of rubble reversed up ramps on to a waiting lorry - the potential for disaster seemed  high but at the fourth attempt all was well.

The aire at Marvao has a wonderful view across to Santo Antonio and away to Spain and is located alongside the convent so it's a short walk up through one of the gates in the castle walls in to the village. As the sun set the castle illuminations began to work their magic but few people lingered long enough to get the full effect and I walked back to the van through deserted streets for a cosy night with a couple of other vans nearby. I spent the last day visiting the newly expanded museum, shared lunch with two French girls on the only part of the O Castelo terrace that was in full sun and returned for a final sunset in a place that I enjoy returning to every time.

 

On Friday Gary, Joao and I were joined by John a sprightly local expat to undertake the annual burn of brash, prunings and scrap wood as required under local regs to reduce the impact of summer wildfires.

We made good progress but moving the huge slimy mound of California poke weed, an invasive species akin to knotweed and Himalayan balsam combined, left my clothes filthy so Gary was kind enough to offer me use of his washing machine as I showered and spruced up for a final meal at the excellent Chinese buffet in Portalegre.

I called at the DIY shop for some Hammerite, a brush and masking tape as my wheel arches are just showing signs of rust on the lower leading edges - I did this on the old van and it lasted years. Incidentally after passing it on 5 years ago it is still running and passing MOT's but has only clocked up 11,000 miles. I put 220k on in a decade! I also did a quick shop and then went to the bike shop for new disc pads front and rear - the owner recognised me as the English guy who came in for a brake lever and walked out with a whole bike - paid for of course.

I had planned to stay on a riverside aire at Arranches but it had been severely damaged by the pre Christmas floods and was closed. Thus I moved on to Terrugem where a cluster of vans including 4/5 Brits were parked up and had a quiet night.

Yesterday I arrived here at Monsaraz a cliff top village rather like Marvao but with a view across the huge reservoir to the east.  I'd hoped to stay at Terena which had a small aire at £4/ night including hook up and wifi but the access was via a Q code from the Outdoor-Routes.pt website which was beyond frustrating to use - to enter your DOB required scrolling back through every month for in my case almost 63 years ie 750 times.... Then the registration email contained a broken link and starting from scratch with an alternative email required my DOB again. Eventually an email with a usable link arrived so I reserved my spot, clicked on card payment and was duly informed 'service not available' so gave up and headed here.

On a cool blustery afternoon I walked in to the village but it wasn't conducive to good photographs and today is similar so I've taken advantage of a quiet aire, the heater and a good mobile signal to update the blog. Whilst still using a Lyca SIM I've decided to pay the £2 a day charge levied by 3 which gives me a chance to use some of my 12Gb a month EU roaming allowance in one big data hungry day.

Mandy arrives a little earlier than planned in a fortnight at Faro giving us the chance to enjoy Seville together so I will head slowly south with more settled weather arriving tomorrow so my next post will probably be from the aire conveniently located right next to the runway......

Piccies here as always