What can possibly go wrong? Portugal Road Trip Part 2

New shoes, no cash and no snacks…what can possibly go wrong?

Waking up in this gorgeous place I had sneaked a look out of Daisy’s window and saw the sun coming up over the mountain and the river below; at this point in my travel journals of old I would wax lyrical about the view and being part of nature. It is interesting to see how trying to put thoughts in to a blog feels like it cannot be as personal as a travel journal, I guess no-one will ever read my thoughts in my old books! Suffice to say waking up here next to the Rio Lima in Peneda-Geres National Park made me giddy with happiness. I REALLY DO NOT TEACH anymore, the penny has finally dropped. 

We walked around the site finding plants we had never seen before and everything felt new and exciting. We decided today was a good walking day but we needed to get going early as it was already quite hot. Buying a small leaflet from the campsite gave us an idea of the route but the detail was missing, so we set off and hoped for the best.

American Pokeweed

 Climbing first to the village of Entre Ambos-os-Rios then stopping to look around the chapel, which is the starting point of the walk, made us realise this was not going to be the 'flat' walk the leaflet suggested. Walking in Portugal was as brilliant as it is in France, the way markers are clear and they tell exactly where to go and where not to go...only one minor hiccup during the walk, had us pondering for 20 minutes trying different directions, but this not our fault. The wild fires from the summer had decimated the trees and some of the markers had burnt off.

 The forest was quite eerie and seeing the devastation and blackened tree bark made you realise just how scary it must have been for the people living close by.   Trees and scrub were burnt as far as you could see, however, signs of new life from bright green bracken really stood out and made us appreciate the cycle of nature no matter what we humans do to it.

They way to go!

It was incredibly hot and my feet were starting to tell me that new shoes on a hot long climb were not my brightest idea, by the time we reached Lourido village, even with some emergency first aid 'plastering' they were pretty sore! The views however, more than made up for it...at this point.

Seeing smoke as we came around the corner made us a little anxious but then we realised we were close to the village and getting to the little cafe I found, was a welcome relief…until, having ordered two Super bocks, the beer of choice in Portugal, we were just about to put in the sandwich order and when we asked about paying. High up in the mountains, of course it would be cash only, how could we not have considered that? The lovely man looked at the measly coins I tipped out, took two euros for the beers and a few other coins and said he could make us one sandwich for the rest, a little over a euro. 

The kindness of strangers visits us yet again, we must have collected lots of good karma along our way.  The delicious sandwich was enough to get us back to the site.

The sun now seemed to be at its most intense, se we opted for a slightly shorter route back down, some of the route passes one of the Portuguese Camino routes, so we can claim we have done a little of one of those routes too.

In total the walk was only around 7 kms, but took over four hours. It was part of a longer walk but given the poor decisions on feet and no cash, it was plenty for one day. Rewarding ourselves with a beer and an ice cream back on site, we vowed to never go without cash again.

Angel’s trumpet 

There are two things that I never thought I would buy on this trip, one was a tens machine and the other was a raclette grill, I am so pleased we did. We finished today’s walk using our mini raclette, which is super cute and we grilled with an amazing view of the Rio Lima. A perfect day despite the blisters!