Ribeira do Vascão

37:31.603N

007:30.790W

 

Happy Mothering Sunday! We had a very special trip to the beautiful pottery shop in Alcoutim yesterday and bought a hand made jug and bowl for the occasion.

 

As the weather may break on Tuesday we made a snap decision last night to leave Alcoutim early this morning and head to the entrance of the River Vascao and should have at least two hot sunny days here. We came here in December and all fell in love with it; untouched, wild, utterly beautiful and peaceful. And when we left in December we still hadn't found the wild terrapins so we needed to return.

 

So...we have had two expeditions up into the River today. The first on foot which was hot, prickly from the gorse on bare legs, steep and dramatic but Harry and Isabelle did very well without a murmur of complaint, but despite sitting on the river bank there was no sign of the elusive terrapins.

 

The second expedition was paddling quietly in the dinghy and wonderfully we had six sightings. Much excitement and delight as you might imagine, and amusingly the photographing began 100yards away, clicking away as we drifted nearer and nearer until we were about six feet away! They were bigger than we had envisaged, all hauled out on rocks, grassy banks or logs warming themselves in the sunshine. Beautiful in a prehistoric wrinkly sort of way. One group of about 8 all slipped into the water as we approached, but the others were singles and seemed pretty unpeturbed by our presence, watching us with beady eyes and not really moving. Very rewarding to find them finally. Photos will be sent once back on wifi as this is being sent via satellite phone as totally cut off here.