Dolly on the frontier of Portugal & Spain

As our visit to the west of Portugal was successful, discovering places of interest we decided to do the same in the east. We drove along the coast of the Algarve and then journeyed up the east side of Portugal along the Guadiana River. A stunning area. The river rises in the Spanish province of Albacete, the total length is 830km. It's basin covers an area of 65,000 km. 10,000km are in Portugal. The river becomes navigable for the final 48km stretch between Pomerao and Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where its width varies between 100m and 500m and has an average depth of 5m. The landscape is beautiful.

Our first stop was in the Portuguese hamlet of Alcoutim. In October 2013 the first international zip wire to cross boarders was opened. It takes people over the river Guadiana from San Lucar on the Spanish side to Alcoutim on the Portuguese side of the river. If travelling from Portugal you first ride the ferry over and then zip wire back. It looks to be great fun but unfortunately the wire wasn't open whilst we were there. Apparently it's  over 720 meters in length,and travels at...or I should say you would travel at between 70 and 80 kilometers per hour. I will return to gain a zip wire experience. Despite the disappointment with the zip wire, we still had a lovely two days visiting the local castles, parks and of course taking the ferry over to Spain for lunch and back in time for an evening meal.

Back in history these sites were more about protecting and defending boarders rather than fun. Castles stand proudly on either side as reminders of past battles and no doubt blood shed. It was quite surreal at times, the old with the new. We became a little fascinated with the goat who lived at the property, which backed onto the area where we parked. Campers and tourists one side of the fence and a very elderly woman and her goat happily planting and grazing the other side. They clearly had a harmonious routine, the goat with his bell who seemed to spend the whole day eating and the elderly woman who put the goat out first thing, did her planting, disappeared into her house, no doubt doing all her other chores. She'd come back in the evening in a fresh change of clothes, perhaps dressed for dinner, and take to goat in for the night. The writer in me just wanted to know more about her life. 

Our second stop was an old mining town, Mina De Sao Domingos. Seem to have a thing for those mines. It area was however well developed for the use of motor homes, the Aires site was surrounded by a barragem, which had been developed as a park for locals, as well as tourists. The local canoeing club appeared to make great use of the area. The town had local shops, cafe's, hotel and restaurants and of course a museum, generally very pleasant. With it's150 years of history the museum is well worth a visit.

From there we went onto the town of Mertola, situated in the Alentejo, on the river Guadiana and within the national park area. This is a thriving town quite large, The Castle stands as a monument to the past. Looking down into the town and river one can imagine how it would have been possible to see invaders coming from miles away. I was more fascinated with the way in which the castle has been modified to accommodate tourists and visitors. Marble paths, steps and walkways have been constructed, they look very well crafted but all I could think of was the health and safety. If they are damp, or wet they could be very slippery. Few hand rails in place but mostly not, lovely to look at. But be careful if it' raining. Apart rom Mertola having a castle with worrying steps it also has a lovely indoor market and some amazing street art and shops. I really liked the town.

I really enjoyed this trip. Much more history along this route than I imagined, Roman ruins, Castles and beautiful landscape.

Our first stop Alcoutim  really enjoyed this place will be going back for the zip wire.

The view from Alcoutim to San Lucar

The view from San Lucar to Alcoutim

This is our view of the barragem. Our second stop at Mina de Sao Domingos

This is the view from the castle at Mertola

And the steps that I became very concerned about

Told you I was obsessed with the marble.

      See you for our next trip out in Dolly. I've a feeling it could be the east again for a fishing trip 

Dolly loves cork... She tempting me to buy a new bag.

During our drive from Porto Covo on the west coast, the country side just opened up. Portugal is more than just beaches and beautiful coast line. Wondering what I could share with you, it dawned on me as we drove through an area with pockets of cork oak trees, here and there. It had to be the cork industry. Portugal are the world leaders in cork. It always amuses me the way the tree stands there with the bottom part of the bark removed, as if someone has taken off its trousers. Its branches and upper half left with the jacket on... my imaginations running wild again.

True to form and because of my limited knowledge I had a look at good old Wikipedia and was pleasantly surprised. Realising that I actually knew quite a lot already, see how we can doubt ourselves, at times and without cause. However they did help me out with facts and figure, for instance I didn't know that there are about 2,200,000 hectares of cork forest worldwide; 34% in Portugal and 27% in Spain. Annual production is about 200,000 tons; 49.6% from Portugal, 30.5% from Spain, 5.8% from Morocco 4.9% from Algeria, 3.5% from Tunisia, 3.1% Italy, and 2.6% from France.

The trees have 25 years of growth before they are harvested, this is carried out by the cutting and stripping of the bark/cork from the trunk. This occurs every nine years and you will often see trees marked with a number, painted on the trunk. I was told this indicates the years since the previous harvest. It makes sense, if you have a forest of trees, how else would you remember which was which. Apparently the first two harvests generally produce a lower quality cork. So it's quite a long time before you can boast of a good quality, I guess. The trees live for about 300 years, so defiantly a business to be past down the family line. Can you imagine planting a tree and never seeing the fruits of you labour, I'm not that patient.

The good thing about the cork industry is that its considered environmentally friendly and sustainable, the tree isn't cut down to obtain cork it's only the bark thats removed. The tree continues to live and grow and we all know the benefits of forests on the environment. Way to go Portugal... you have something right.

 Apparently the wine stopper made from cork is the most environmentally friendly in comparison to the alternatives. So when people try to convince you otherwise, you have the facts .
Wikipedia explained that ("Analysis of the life cycle of Cork, Aluminum and Plastic Wine Closures"), was developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to ISO 14040.Results concluded that, concerning the emission of greenhouse gases, each plastic stopper released 10 times more CO₂, whilst an aluminium stopper releases 26 times more CO₂ than does a cork stopper.

Myself I'm not that interested in bottle stoppers but I do love some of the cork products that we find here in Portugal. I've seen some amazing craft work using cork.  I'm now on the look for a handbag that catches my eye and ticks all the boxes with regards to its practicality, I even seen stylish shoes but not sure about that.

Once the cork is harvested it is stacked  to dry in readiness for the next process and ultimately the end result.

These products were seen in a local shop. I must say I've seen an awful lot better.

 I shall continue my search for my idea handbag.