Walking in Spain

We had a couple of days of scorchio weather but then it turned decidedly 'British summer'. There have been warm, sunny spells, a day of rain and thunder and a couple of April showers type days. In the afternoons the wind tends to pick up a bit and send all the boats dancing around their anchors.

We've been joined up river by a couple more ex-Lagos-ees, John and Gilly on Riverdancer and Pat and Duncan on Red Snapper. It's been very sociable.


Looking upriver from the Spanish side

The countryside here is good for walking with tracks on both sides of the river. In Spain the long distance path GR114 runs for 800km; we only managed about 9km of that. The tracks are marked with horizontal stripes painted on rocks, posts or walls, although it can sometimes be hard to spot them. If you turn the wrong way there will usually be a painted X.


Spanish wildflowers

After spending Sunday stuck on the boat due to rainy weather, by Monday I was itching to get to land for a walk. The weather was still mixed with some dark clouds looming to the north, but 11 of us set off on the Spainish side along on old Roman road that petered out into a dirt track that wound around the small hills, surrounded by grassy fields and olive trees. It turned out later that we took a wrong turn and left the GR route, but it didn't matter as the way we went was lovely - rolling green hills and wildflower meadows. The rain unfortunately didn't stay away and threw down a shower at us, the olive tree we sheltered under to ended up being not that dry as the raindrops quickly found a way through the small leaves.


Soggy socks under the table whilst we have a beer at the end of the walk

The next day's walk was on the Portuguese side along the 'Via Algarvaria', only 300km to Cape St. Vincent! We haven't yet found any tracks that allows us to make circular routes so it's been out and back along the same path. The Portuguese side is more scrubby with shrubs and trees and less grass. We passed a grove of cork trees that had been harvested. The wide track followed the river for a while and then headed up into the hills giving a good view further up river. On our way back we met an 81 year old man who'd been at his allotment, he have us a satsuma each and we attempted some conversation. Angeliquewas better than me and I struggled to make out what he was saying until he mentioned Margaret Thatcher , the ferro senhora! Very random.


Portuguese walk