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In a very arbitrary way we had chosen a small and obscure part of Portugal, it seemed far away from major conurbations and was seemingly in a vast forest. An idyll if you will, a haven of peace and tranquility. A long hot and dry summer had along with perhaps deliberate and criminal acts had transformed the landscape. The evidence of the wildfires was all around, however the lake behind the dam was evidence of the lack of rain.

The levels were at least 20 metres lower than normal, possibly more.

We parked up and investigated a local restaurant, we would return in a few days..

meanwhile we contented ourselves with a picnic lunch, bread cheese and chorizo. Its really all you need with a bit of fruit juice. I prefer fermented grape but orange will do at a pinch.....

We walked down the semi-lunar landscape to where locals kept a few boats and on the floating pontoons there was also a swimming pool, Situated below the dam, or should that be above the dam?

out of the wind it was very hot, even though we had been aware of the hot summer and the story of the wildfires we hadn't actually been confronted with the reality until we had driven down a road that had seen people  become fatalities.

It was quite sobering, the land was tinder dry...... we drove back into the small village and were intrigued by a small footpath sign to the bridge of Phillipa. we decided to walk down into the gorge that separates big and little Pedragao.

 It proved to be an education, there was a profusion of cork trees which to my surprise turned out to be a kind of Oak. There are one or two to Lynnes left in the above photo.

The small bridge at the bottom of the gorge was dwarfed by the modern road bridge above. I can imagine Richard Sharpe defending or attacking a similar bridge during the peninsular war, I am ploughing my way through Cornwell`s books at the moment, haven't even reached Portugal yet as I am sticking to chronological order. Sharpe series, Bernard cornwell

To be honest because of the growing heat and the steepness of the descent we never reached the bottom of the gorge, we turned around and explored the village a little more instead. One of the factors in this decision was the fact we needed to pay motorway tolls. These can be paid at any post office, theoretically.

However we discovered that you need to wait 48 hours before the plate recognition system passes your details onto the system and in actual fact because of All Saints Day ( National holiday ) it became 4 days for us to register as having passed through an electronic toll section of motorway. a little worrying as after 5 days apparently the fine is ten times the toll.

To be honest this is one of the more irritating aspects of Portugal, they seem to have a predisposition to make things overly complicated and then totally fail to make said system easy to access. There is also the subtle tourist tax implicit in most things. Hence the obfuscation....

It was easy to forget these irritations however in Pedrogau, it is very pretty and it is not difficult to understand why so many foreigners are buying properties in the area. I found a derelict "doer upper" with a few square metres of land on offer for as little as 6000 euros,

In Pedrogau pequeno you can still get a good coffee for 50 cents, it got us thinking I can tell you......

Later we walked up past the stations of the cross to the church on the hill

The hotel has a good restaurant, so we popped in to book a table for the evening.



The Mirador has superb views over the local country specifically the lake and dam. Also comes with a local legend which ends with "build a church here"

The views over the countryside, which are Gods responsibility and the Dam which is mans, are mutually magnificent.

The views from the balcony of the restaurant at the hotel are equally as good.

Of course as it was late in the year darkness fell early and on Halloween the Dam below was a beacon in a sea of darkness.......

Of course we were safe from any local ghouls and such......


We enjoyed our evening despite the lack of view, it was my 60th birthday and I was sharing it with my favourite person on earth. We elected to have the set Halloween menu and consequently the food although excellent was themed appropriately, hence black pasta and seafood was the first course followed by black pork....well you get the picture. we were charged a very reasonable amount for a lovely evening on the top of the mountain.

So now I was 60 years old.................We drove back to the farmhouse in the hills and as I drank a nightcap I reflected that I still felt I was 21......................so that was OK...