37:33.26N 007:31.68W Pomarao

7^th – 8^th September

Motored up the River Guadiana some 7 miles passed Alcoutim to reach the tiny village of Pomarao. We passed the old mining port at Puerto de la Laja see photograph of the old Quay as a separate email. The river is very quiet and there are few signs of current habitation although several ruined buildings and some evidence of reconstruction. On the Portuguese bank there are generally steep sides and rocky out crops while the Spanish bank has lower land with huge stands of bamboo protecting what look like almond and olive trees in profusion. A very quiet anchorage although there were two other British boats there already. We met the occupants in the only bar and found out the local set up. If you want to eat the owners wife will cook a meal for you but you have to ask the day before. We had a delicious lamb stew last night.

There are some showers and toilets next door to the bar which are free for visitors to use. No shops but there is a visiting bread van that arrives in the village around 0900 and hoots the horn when available for purchases!

We took the dinghy a further 5 miles upriver to explore and apart from a herd of goats, some heron ,fish jumping and a farm with a horse and some ostriches(!!) we saw no-one. There were pomegranate trees close to the water’s edge and what we think were giant quince too.  Numerous stands of bamboo and enormous eucalyptus trees with multiple trunks appear on both sides of the river.

We plan to return to Alcoutim on Tuesday for a few days to catch the start of their Music festival.

Jacky and Rob