37:31.589N

007:30.782W

 

River Vascão

 

We made it ashore whilst still cool for a truly stunning walk along the river towards Spanish La Laja via the "Camino Natural  del Guadiana".  The flowers are so colourful that the entire hillside has a rainbow haze and there is a constant background buzzing of bees. There were curious spider webs shaped like a funnel, lots of geckos and finally our first live snake.

 

La Laja, like Pomarão, used to be part of the mining industry and has a tumbledown quayside from where trains deposited their iron ore into ships. Another ghost town with 3 permanent residents, the 31 other residents are weekenders or ex-pats, unsurprisingly not remaining there all year with temperatures reaching 45 degrees in the summer.

 

Another afternoon swimming off the weir. We are all thoroughly loving the spot and wondering how we can return here in the future. We feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled upon this place and are now saying 'thank goodness for seasickness otherwise we'd never have found it' !

 

Harry and I went ashore at dusk, he whittled an olive stick whilst I sat looking through binos and could see the Vascão terrapins all swimming and coming up to the surface for air. 

 

Hot Cross Bun recipe ready for the morning.

 

No photos again tonight as this being sent via satellite phone.

 

xx