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