9 BAD BACKS AND WALL LIZARDS
Now I’m trying to put together last week’s news. Somewhat abbreviated …. “Hurrah!” I hear.
The reason why I’d been able to catch up was that I hurt my back really badly and ended up horizontal for nearly three days. We drove into Chave Grande camp site at Casfreires, plugged in the electrics – all 50 metres of our cable and dashed off to join the pizza evening.
Later, in the gathering gloom of nightfall we returned to pitch the caravan properly. We found the English family we had parked next to had been on our first site out of Santander three weeks or so earlier. That was James, Zoe and Elliot. I promised them a mention. So, there you have it. Mentioned!
Anyway, having got the van level and sorted I found I could hardly move. For two days I just laid flat out being fed tablets by nurse Glenda. I think she was just off-loading her excess sea-sickness medications on me! We considered changing our route home to leave from Santander a mere two days drive away compared to maybe six days to Roscoff.
We shared our place with lots of jays and occasional hoopoes. Cuckoos were calling in the woods on the opposite side of the valley by day and owls by night. There were great big lizardy jobs running along the walls. Iberian Ocellated Wall Lizards – up to half a metre in length. I think they lived in holes in the ground – but they were very timid.
By the Friday, we were up and running again. Well, up and walking, anyway! Glenda was released from “water duties” and we were able to go exploring. We found a delightful little village – Segões – a few miles to the north. It was like stepping back in time maybe 100 years (in the nicest possible way).
Long gone are the terraces of white-painted joined-up bungalows with their tall wedge-shaped chimneys, typical of South and central Portugal. Here, in more northerly Portugal, the houses are built of massive granite blocks – some more than two metres long. They must have weighed tons. Heaven knows how they were lifted into place. The ground floor of each house was (presumably) where the animals were kept. These dark, dank spaces had old doors hanging off in all directions. It really was an old looking place. But there were lots of people living in the village and tending their small plots of onions or lettuce or potatoes or cannabis – whatever. Some of the places were marked “Se vende” – but we weren’t tempted.
The new part of town was a total contrast with a number of mansion-like dwellings. Probably there’s city money involved here.
On Saturday (I think) there was a market in Vila Nova de Paiva. Largely full of kitchen utensils and Italian clothing which had probably been made in Vietnam and “re-badged” in Italy. There was great excitement when one of the chicken BBQ stalls caught fire. Smoke everywhere. Luckily the fire station was a mere 20 metres away so things were brought under control very speedily. The shoppers continued unperturbed about their business which largely involved inspecting the latest Italio-Vietnamese fashions. And NOT buying them! Roast chickens remained on sale for €5 – or €2 for overcooked ones!
We saw two snakes that day. One harmless, flat one (harmless BECAUSE it was flat) in the centre of old town Vila Nova (which itself sounds like a contradiction of terminology). I think it was a Ladder Snake – it certainly had two lines down it’s back joined at intervals by a series of diamond shapes. Looked just like a ladder! The second one was very much alive and viper-looking. This one was on a gravel track across the high moorland. Fortunately it was more frightened of us than we were of him (apart from Glenda, that is!). Loud noises in the undergrowth very nearby and talk of wolves and wild boar and snakes in the area caused us to hoof it back to the car and on home! So that’s up to date for last Saturday (16th June).
On Sunday, we went to the pilgrim village of Lapa. The main building is the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lapa. This was established as the HQ of the Society of Jesus and has apparently got sister establishments in India and Brazil. It’s a church, but like no other we have ever seen. To start with it’s built on a granite outcrop. It also CONTAINS three enormous granite boulders. And by enormous I mean REALLY big. One of them almost fills one of the rooms leading off the rear of the alter area. I suppose if you are building a room around a 1000 ton rock you are going to make it snug to keep the cost down. It’s not going to be used for much apart from storing granite! Other buildings around the church were built to give overnight accommodation to the pilgrims. At it’s peak it could house 100 travellers. It really was quite something.
Four views of Lapa Church
As it was Sunday, bus loads of tourists were in town. Maybe for a religious service or two. But they seemed more intent on having their pre-packed picnic lunches in the adjacent park while street sellers were doing their very best to off-load plastic hats (very tasteful in green or yellow!), woven baskets, cheeses, meats and ice-creams. They were largely unsuccessful – apart, possibly, from the ice-cream man!
We took the scenic route home but, to be fair, most routes around here are magnificently scenic. Anyway, we found a couple of nice walks alongside a lake (with the snappy and memorable name of Albufeira Barragem do Vilar).
The second walk ended up with us barging into the backyard of an olive-cherry-cannabis (?) farm which was being seriously re-vamped. Fortunately only the cherries and olives had been planted so there were no armed guards. We just slunk (spookily, auto-correct gave me “skunk” at that point!) away quietly the way we had come.
On to the Hotel Rural Convento Na. Sra. do Carmo in Freixinho. They have such great names for their hotels. Not like the Nag’s Head or the King’s Arms back home! They do a fabulous Sunday buffet for €12.50 – we really must book next time we are in the area! You have to understand that the Portuguese go out en masse (well, by the coach-load) for Sunday lunch. Places are hard to get into on a casual basis.
But our failure to crash the Lapa picnic scene and there being no space in Freixinho was OK. We had our evening meal and music evening booked in Lamas just down the road from the campsite. We had an interesting meal of local fare accompanied by the compulsory chips AND rice. The other accompaniment was provided by three lads on guitars and a number of quite respectable singers. One lady seemed almost to be in Fado mode.
As predicted, we didn’t understand a word of what was going on but quickly found the wine bottle refill service. We also formed a British clique – six of us campers on one table and there were a couple of Dutch tables behind us. They seemed about as adrift as we were. But we all had a good evening.
On the Monday we set off for Penalva do Castelo but got distracted by another Hotel Rural. Stopped for a coffee and possibly a Pastel de Nata at the Quinta do Reival. The dining room looked like it could be busy later – so we booked a table for lunch. Who wants to go to Penalva in 30+ degrees anyway?
A bit further down the road we came to a collection of three villages by the name of Casal. There was C. de Fundo, C. de Meio and C. de Cima. We walked from the bottom (Fundo) via the middle (Meio) almost ending up in the cemetery (Cima?) because walking up hill in these temperatures is silly – and potentially dangerous! “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” come to mind!
Anyway, we decided this was, collectively, a one-dog, one-cat, one-postman, one-frog and one-old-lady sort of place. Lunch after was delightful in air-conditioned surroundings. We stayed for hours!
The sole resident of the Casal villages!
We did get to Penalva eventually but never found the castle. It was just too hot for anything outdoors so we visited the church and then beat a hasty retreat.
Penalva Main square and church
…and that fills in the gap.