Day 8 (6th Sept) (14.94 km) - Castro do Laboreira Circular Walk: Today marked the start of our organised self-guided walk. We were picked up at 9 am by a driver who drove us the approximately 1.5 hrs' drive to a place called Castro do Laboreiro, a village in the north of Portugal. To get there we went through a patch of Spain. It feels sooo weird crossing country borders with no passport control but once you are in the EU you can go anywhere within the EU.
We dropped our big bags at the hotel then set out on our first walk, a circuit around Castro do Laboreiro. This national Park is a mix of wild and rural. Some parts are not unlike the granite country around Girraween / Bald Rock. Most of the tracks we followed have obviously been used for years by villagers to get from village to another or to get to pastures, many for pilgramages. Sometimes the signs are confusing, so we were grateful for the good maps we were given! (We were doing a circular walk from Castro do Laboreiro.)
We set off from the town/village past a horse and dog pair, past a Roman bridge, past a cemetery then into the wilds.
A bonus for the walk was being able to snack on the wild blackberries that are everywhere. I learned that Portugal has the most varieties of wild blackberries of anywhere in the world. They are not considered a weed here.
I was surprised by the numbers of flowers still blooming at this time of the year, montane heaths and legumes, one of which is a nasty spiky plant.
The views all day were wonderful. There were many interestingly-shaped granite boulders.
There were sweeping views. We were glad of this because the forecast had been for showers but they held off until the last couple of kms.
We had lunch beside a stream under the shelter of the little arch of another Roman bridge.
We walked through patches of mossy and lichen-filled forest.
We passed old and older structures being taken over by nature.
And we passed other structures still obviously in use.
We learned that there are villages (inverneiras) down in the valleys for wintering and villages higher in the mountains ( brandas) where people go for summer.
My nature finds for the day were a huge Black Slug and oak galls. We had seen quite a few acorns around but kept noticing these other things on the ground. I guessed galls.
All in all, a pretty wonderful welcome to the wilder side of Portugal.
Day 9 (7th Sept) (21.54 km) - Castro do Laboreira to Peneda, then exploration of Castro do Laboreira: On this walk there was quite a mix of trails, some open tracks, the occasional walk along a road, but many quite rocky tracks required a bit of careful footstep watching.
Again there were some magnificent views and the pinks and mauves of the heather were so pretty. The photos don’t do the views or colours justice.
It was such a beautiful day that insects, spiders and skinks were out in force. There were lots of butterflies around, different of course to those I’m used to at home.
In addition, I found beautiful colours in a spider, a skink, and a dragonfly!
The walk was quite varied going over granite hilltops and the through wet forest. Little hamlets appear out of nowhere as do old disused barns, fences and storehouses.
We reached our destination, Peneda, to find this beauty of a door.
Peneda was very busy for a little village, but we had arrived during festival time again, actually the last day of one. There is an important church here, where apparently one of the statues of Mary weeps tears, and it is an important pilgrimage destination for some. We will visit the church before our walk tomorrow.
We were driven back to our accommodation at Castro do Laboreiro and rested for a while before deciding to explore the village a little more. First we visited their church, apparently an historic monument. It was rather lovely inside - not as garish as many bigger churches are.
During our meandering we found the signs to a museum and the castle. We had seen the ruins of a castle on a hilltop from our first walk but didn’t know how to get there. I’m so glad we found the way, just a stone’s throw from the village. We would have liked to go to the museum, but all we had in our pockets was a £20 note - not very useful in Portugal! One tiny little part of the museum was open from the outside.
The castle ruins were very picturesque and the views splendid.
Day 10 (8th Sept) (21.52km) - Pendeda to Lindoso: We were driven back to Peneda to start today's walk. Our first stop was the church that we had not seen at the end of the walk yesterday. As it was a Sunday and a service was in progress, we only took a quick peek inside. Outside was pretty impressive though, both old and new. The church is old but there was a rather lovely modern sculpture outside.
The setting is spectacular under a rock face that is a favourite of rock climbers.
The entrance to the church is elaborate. We did it in the reverse order but there is an avenue lined on the right with little buildings housing the Stations of the Cross and lined on the left with larger, but still small, altars or chapels. Once through this section you cross a square then there is an elaborate staircase to climb before reaching the
After enjoying the church and surrounds we started on the real walk. The first part was quite moist and I came across a few more Black Slugs. They are huge.
We frequently had to share the path with the native ‘cachena’ cattle that wander the hills freely, though many with bells around their neck. These cattle were and are kept for work, milk, and meat. The meat is meant to be particularly delicious since the cows are free to wander in the forest and hills. They seem to be brought back to yards around calving time though. Later in the walk we saw a heavily pregnant cow being very slowly led up the path on a string by an old man.
We passed by more mossy ruins.
I don’t know why I had never really thought about it, but in addition to cows, Portugal also has its own dogs. One of these is the Castro do Laboreiro dog, known for its ability to guard animals, its strength and its endurance. We encountered quite a few along the walk.
We have seen a few statues lauding these dogs, not on today’s walk, but in and around Castro do Laboreiro.
Where there was cultivation, little land was left unwasted. Grape trellises were strung across creeks and roads making for very pretty walking tracks. We barely saw a car on these types of roads even though it is obvious that people have sometimes converted old barns in garages.
We began to see more signs of ‘espigueiros’, old granaries, the oldest of which have stone roofs.
We passed a house with conical hydrangea flower heads.
The middle part of the walk was very isolated - more wild than rural, although there are always signs of cattle and horses.
There were some very old oak trees, the magnificence of is almost impossible to accurately portray in a photograph. Some churches we’ve seen have been lovely, but I would worship these trees instead every time.
Grasshoppers were out in great numbers with the warm weather obviously to their liking. There seem to be two main types around, a blue-winged one (first photo - you can’t see the colour of the wings) and a red-legged one.
For the last third of the walk we were hiking along a river that enters a huge reservoir shared by both Spain and Portugal, and then along that reservoir. The border between the two countries is exactly down the middle.
Unfortunately for Portugal, we learned later, Spain is the source for almost all their rivers. Therefore, there is always some insecurity when it comes to water. At Lindoso, there is a large hydroelectricity station, which had to be shutdown for a day because Spain decided to close off the water flow and there was not sufficient flow for the power station to operate properly. Locals were told it was contamination of water but apparently it was not. Portugal’s PM had to call Spain to demand that the water be released again. Sounds a bit like the Murray-Darling system and the states arguing over their relevant water rights. Universal problems …
It was a long walk, and we were very glad when we made the final steep climb up into Lindoso to find our accommodation. And what a position it was in! Situated right on the edge Lindoso’s famous granaries and castle area. This was the view from the front of the house.
Not only that but our host had made a cake, brought in freshly picked cucumbers and tomatoes, and had a supply of cheese and salami in the fridge for our lunches. We savoured her linseed and raisin cake with a cup of tea just staring at what before us.
Our host had also taken the liberty to book us in for dinner at a local restaurant and were we glad to take up the booking. My dinner, broad bean stew on mashed potato was absolutely delicious and Pete devoured his huge serving of vegetarian lasagne and then dessert! We had been craving more veggies and Lindoso delivered.
The owner/waiter was a font of information and because it was quiet he was able to spend quite some time chatting to us. It was a lovely relaxed end to a long day. We came back to this view.
Day 11 (9th Sept) (10.97 km) - Lindoso to Cidadelhe: Because I’d been struggling with blocked ears and sinus since the aeroplane descent into Seoul and the previous day had been long and hard, we decided to cut short today’s walk and do just the last bit from back to front. We had been told in our route notes that it would be possible to catch a taxi back to Lindoso, where we are staying another night) from Cidadelhe. We would then spend time just wandering around close to our accommodation.
This track was very much more rural than wild. The walk out of Lindoso was very scenic and we were able get a good view of the old part of town.
We met lots of cows on the way …
… and passed through some quaint villages. One had an historic gaol and courthouse (I knew there must be a reason that I had been learning such words so early in my battle with Portuguese!)
We walked through a eucalyptus forest, the smell of which was just what my sinuses wanted. I took a tiny branch of new leaves back with me to sniff away at! Unfortunately for Portugal, eucalypts, Eucalyptus globulus mainly, now occupy approximately 1/4 of Portugal’s forests. They have made summer fires more intense but also have contributed to economic growth here. Apparently there is a big pulp industry here and they can use the eucalypts after only 10 years’ growth.
When we finally reached Cidadelhe, the only shop was closed on Mondays, and it was Monday, and the only ‘taxis’ were Bolts (equivalent to Ubers) and none were available in the area. We sat down at the outdoor tables of the closed shop trying to work out what to do (neither of us wanted to walk) when a lady came up to us to tell us the shop was closed. In my very poor, broken Portuguese I told her that we knew that but that we had tried to get a taxi but couldn’t find any. She suggested we look up the Internet for buses, but I couldn’t find any information for Cidadelhe buses. Finally, we worked out that she said if we didn’t mind waiting for 30 minutes she’d come back and take us to Lindoso! How kind was she? She did come back and through some means or other, I found out that she’d lived in Cidadelhe all her life and that she owned 80 head of cattle and had two sons.
After a nice, long afternoon nap, we explored around the espigueros (granaries) and the castle.
There was a good view of our accommodation from within the granaries area.
Our accommodation even had its own espigueiro which is now used as a place where guest can dry their laundry!
We had a very long chat with another lovely chap, a biologist, from the local information centre. He was the one who told us about the water problems. When I asked for information about local flora and fauna, it was the catalyst for a long chat on regeneration, government policies on the environment and the frustration of on-the-ground workers with bureaucracy. At the moment, Portugal seems to have a sympathetic environment minister who is providing the money for all sorts of projects, but politics could mean that source of money dries up at any time. Same old, same old. He spoke of the difficulties of balancing the needs of the environmental and the 10,000 odd subsistence farmers who live in the region. Some people want to reintroduce bears and lynx back into the forest in the Peneda-Geres National Park where we have been, but the 70 remaining wild wolves already provide enough threat for those people living on the edge. Wild horse (native) numbers have dropped to 40,000 and while not yet endangered, no one understands fully the reason for their decline from 70,000 some decades ago. Loss of habitat (read wildfires), poaching (for easy money as they become good workhorses) are a couple of suspected reasons.
On a brighter note, he and others had just completed a many thousand page report in which they had surveyed as much flora and fauna in his district as possible. That information is as yet available only in-house. At least they now have a very good understanding of what exists now, and this can inform practices into the future.
I spent time in the afternoon mooching around looking at insects etc. I came across this lovely granite picnic area under a wisteria vine.
Some of the creatures I found are shown below.
Day 12 (10th Sept) (Avelar to Soajo) (21.89 km): We were so glad we had had a relatively restful day in Lindoso because today was another long day. Firstly, we were picked up by a driver who drove us for an hour to a tiny hamlet called Avelar, one that most people, even northern Portuguese, we talked to had never heard of. The last kilometre of the drive was on village roads that did not look meant for cars. After being dropped off, we walked through this village saying our ‘bom dia’ to the few people who were outside (two old men), then started off on the usual old granite pathway.
The village ended at a gate made from an old mattress!
As with all other days, we seemed to be the only ones on the track. This was the most isolated part of the country we had been in. Thank goodness for good maps because it would be easy to choose a wrong path. We did twice, but our constant checking meant not for long.
We heard lots of birds, something we had been missing. While we had heard some, not in the numbers we did on this day. I guess there was more natural bush around and the type of shrub that little birds love. Most were SBBs (small brown birds). They were hard to capture on camera though as they were very shy. I had only one successful shot and I have been told that it is a European Pied Flycatcher.
The views were worth the initial steep climb that we had to do.
We had heard that this was where me might see ‘garrenos’, the wild horses, and we weren’t disappointed. In the end we saw quite a few, all female.
We found lots of these pretty flowers coming up in slightly bare patches in the middle of bracken or on the side of tracks. It seems to be called either Colchicum montanum or Merendera montana.
We passed by an ancient wolf trap but I’m not sure, other than by baiting with goat, how it would have worked. Maybe wolves are not good jumpers. There was just one gap in the main surrounding wall and quite a hill in the centre. No explanation. Nevertheless, it was a great spot for a break.
At the end of the middle part of the walk we came across a very appealing set of swimming holes, obviously popular as there was a board walk to reach them. I almost hopped in, but thank goodness I didn’t. The water was cold!! My feet relished the cold though, but only for a few minutes. Then they were frozen.
Not long after this, we came across the Meizo Swing. It was afew hundred metre off track, but who can resist a swing on top of a hill?
This walk was meant to be 18.6 km but by the time we got to the town of Doajo we’d walked over 21.5. Neither of us really appreciated the last 4 km into town although the scenery of little villages and brooks was pretty.
(Our destination was just in sight here ... that town right down the bottom)
An ice cream and a can of Coke never seemed so good as they did when we finally reached a shop in Soajo.
We only had a short wait for our driver who took us to a coastal town one hour away, called Viana do Castelo, or Viana for short. It is quite a large port town and our hotel was a bit of luxury to end the day. It even had a bath!
The actual hotel has been built/renovated within one of Viana's oldest manor houses, built in 1506.
All in all, the walks were varied and wonderful. We got to explore a part of Portugal that still not many do, and we saw almost no-one on the actual trails (3 people all up to be precise). We met some lovely people and saw a way of life so different to our’s. It was an experience we won’t forget.
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