A bit more like it

Following a night as windy as if we were on the Galway coast of Ireland, we awake to a beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine ready to tackle the mountains of the Serra Da Estrella and they don’t disappoint. First town on the tour is Manteigas at the head of Zezere glacial valley.

 Then continuing in an anticlockwise direction we arrive in Sabugueiro said to be the highest village in the country

 complete with its plethora of gift shops and restaurants even “Toboggans R us” seems to be here,

 climbing higher we find a fresh skittering of snow which steadily increases with altitude,

 the roads are clear and we able to proceed to the summit of Torre at 2000m the highest peak in Portugal

 passing some strange rock formations enhanced by the snow.

 A drive up the glacial valley.

We leave the Park behind and drive through Covilha

and southwest down the Zezere valley

and wildcamp on a hill outside the town of Oleiros.



Struggling a bit to get to grips with the Portuguese language, I guess as it has no relation to any of the other European languages you can’t really get the gist of anything that you’re listening to, the language is very sloshing and sounds almost Ukraine-like. Take the word “Obrigado” for example which means thank you, it sounds more like a Japanese word than anything else, especially when you hear it spoken by the locals.


The weather seems to be warming up again, last time I said this we had three days of rain so I won’t even mention the word S-H-O-R-T-S again.