The mountains of Serra do Açor and the Douro vineyards

Leaving Tomar we headed across the Serra do Açor, the mountain range that borders the Serra da Estrella (the highest mountains in Portugal).  It was beautiful scenery and pretty villages all the way as we cut across the mountains with a mix of rivers, bridges and forests.  Once again, we stayed off major roads, opting for our ‘roads less travelled’ route.  It meant we saw less traffic but the roads in parts left a lot to be desired!

Where’s the road gone!

Sadly, Portugal’s countryside is ravaged each year by forest fires.  Last year was particularly bad and a lot of people lost their lives, including a lot of firefighters who are nearly all volunteers.  The reasons for the fires vary, though it is said most are caused by carelessness or arson rather than it being down to the dry weather.   As we travelled along the N342 and around the mountains it became apparent how much damage the fires have caused.  Some field were completely bare with just burnt out house/barns left in them.

After travelling 82kms (51 miles) we arrived at Barril de Alva, a hamlet in the middle of nowhere but it had a pretty Aire by the side of a lake with all the usual facilities for free, plus electric (N40.28616 W7.96150).

There is a restaurant just behind the Aire where we had a 3-course meal, bottle of wine, coffee and glass of port all for €15.  It was basic but filling and we struggled to eat it all but for the price who’s complaining!

The thing with motorhome parking, you can’t choose who comes and parks beside you.  So, when we arrived there was just us and a French motorhome.  When we came out of the restaurant an old Brit camper van (30+ years old) chose to park really close to us, despite the Aire being quite big. The oldness of the camper part didn’t bother us it was the grotty inside and the smell coming from it when he opened the door that did!

The thing is do you move and make it obvious or just sit tight?  He didn’t come out of his camper and so no conversations were had but we felt it rude if we moved – typically English!  When we woke the next morning he had left and we went for a walk, so all was good!

Looking back at Barril de Alva

It’s so sad to see so many burnt out trees close up but the positive is the Portuguese have chopped a lot of them down and planted new ones.  Unfortunately, more pines and Eucalyptus that tend to be highly flammable!  

Risk of fires warning sign, luckily this day it was showing low.

The walk was about 14kms through forests and to the little village of Coja.

We got back to the motorhome and it was just us on the Aire, and we decided to have a barbeque.   However, who should turn up again but our drippy hippy, the old Brit campervan, who once again decided to park as close as possible to us.  Needless to say we moved to the other side of the Aire, this time not bothering if we thought we were being rude!  The funny thing was in the space of an hour more hippies joined him, obviously a popular Aire for them.  We decided to just roll with it, let the wine flow and had a great barbeque.  In their defence they were all friendly, and very quiet, just a bit shabby around the edges!

The next morning we were up early and moved on further around the mountains to an Aire at Celorico Da Beira (N40.63906 W7.38885).  It’s an old town with the ruins of a castle on a hill, and a couple of 11^th century churches, but other than that not a lot to see here.  However, we read it was a nice Aire, again with free facilities including electric and a good place to break our journey.  The 'shat-nav', sorry Sat-Nav was playing up again and  approaching the village decided this was a road we should go up... really? It was a steep, cobbled, narrow street - he and I have really fallen out!

Old castle on the hill

Village square

Found this ‘fireman with his hose’ water feature quite amusing

Leaving Celorico Da Beira, we took a slow drive towards the Douro region.  Mel loved this – his own little village that we passed through!

Just after this village, we passed another one covered in rose petals.  Not sure what was going on here but figured it had something to do with a religious festival that the Portuguese are so fond of.  It must have taken the people ages to lay all these petals out, they looked so pretty.

Cutting through the Douro region

We found Friar Tuck hanging around on the hills!

After a couple of hours, 510 metres high up on a vineyard we find our home for a couple of nights - Quinta Da Padrela (N41.12829 W7.58334).

We had a free 2-hour tour of the vineyard, and an in depth insight into how the wine and port is made, followed by olive oil, wine and port tasting.  The family bought the farm in 1985 and up until 1990 over half of the property was redeveloped. It currently has 12 hectares of vineyards, olive groves and walnut trees.  The farm is split in two, with the Aire sitting in the middle.  To one side are 70 year old vineyards, to the other 32 year old vineyards, started when the family bought the farm.

It is now run by the second generation, José and his sister and husband. José’s English is fantastic and nothing was too much trouble to explain to us, we were the only ones on the tour and we learnt a lot about the production of red, white and rose wines and the production of port.  The tour was free with no obligation to buy, but the wines were lovely and for the price of between €8 – €10 we couldn’t resist, along with a vintage port – saved for a special occasion!

The nearest village/small town is Tabuaço, about a 3km walk from the vineyard.

Tabuaço on the right-hand side

The path takes you past some massive cherry trees - it was so tempting to pick some!

Tabuaço is a small village of old and new and it was nice wandering around and having some lunch.  Mel found a little barbers shop where he got a great hair cut – don’t worry he didn’t come out looking like the picture of Elvis on the door!

We move on tomorrow to drive the N222, named 'the best drive' in Portugal – I will let you know!

Sally x