Mata do Desterro - River Alva Walk

We have had three frosty nights in a row. But today it hasn't been the usual endless sunshine we have come to expect following a frost. It's rather overcast and cool, and the forecast suggests that there is a high chance of rain by 1600 hours.

It's now 1530 hours and we have not long lit the wood burning stove. The landlady came over today to sweep the chimney earlier, so hopefully the stove will burn more efficiently. When the stove gets stoked up it puffs smoke back into the room so you have to open all the windows and doors. Last night we just gave up on it as no matter what we did the fire just languished, there was no heat, and the radiators failed to warm up. Even Twig is cold. She tries to get on your lap to warm herself through and it's a bit difficult to type with a laptop and a cat on your lap!

Yesterday we were out walking again, and at the risk of being repetitive, we chose a walk that ran through the Mata do Desterro again (circular route from Senhora do Desterro), but this time the walk continued up into the valley and then ran back down above the River Alva.



It's hard to believe that the water in this river, unless it gets diverted in the meantime, will run past the cottage we are renting (about 20 miles away).

It was fantastic weather, the sunshine was wonderful. We had calibrated the map of the walk onto the gps and though there was a discrepancy of about 20 feet, it served us well. The only problem we had was near the end of the walk where we had to cross a water course that forms part of the hydroelectro works. The path across the water course was blocked by a locked gate. We have notified the site in the hope that they will rework the route so that it prevents others experiencing the same problem. This walk (12km) and other "Percurso Pedestre" are at the Turismo Guarda.pt site. The link also provides routes for cars. As our Portugese is still "muito pobre" we use Babel Fish to translate either words, sentences, paragraphs, or the entire Web page.

Olive Mill and River Beaches

Sunday we spent all day viewing 3 very different properties. The beauty of it was that we had to travel an hour or so north of where we are living, so it was all a bit of an adventure. The terrain was quite different, with boulder strewn hillsides and then valleys and hills affording agricultural land.

All 3 properties were in different states of renovation. The most amazing was the old olive mill, it was like stepping back a hundred years, all the equipment was still inside, the walls were 3 foot thick granite, and the floor was solid blocks of granite. Part of the outer walls looked like something from a Norman church as the precision of the stonework was superb. The views from this property were also magnificent. The estate agent wandered around the old mill with us, and he was as awestruck as we were. It felt like a real privilege to be there. Could we buy this place? Well, it was affordable but would need a lot of money spending on it, there would also be architect fees, planning permission, habitation licence to apply for, as well as the actual work itself. And I don't know if Jon and I would be able to gut the place as it would feel sacriligious.


Today we were out geocaching. We found two wonderful river beaches on the River Alva. They are clearly popular places for locals, but today there were just the two of us. It was so peaceful. The photo shows the sulphorous thermal well at Caldas de S. Paulo. We were keen on having a dip but the sides were sheer, and it looked very, very deep (scary).

The more we see of this region the more we love it. Even a drive to the nearest Lidl rewards us with magnificent views of the mountains that form the Serra da Estrela.