Lourdes and Macao

Travelling down the Zezere valley

we divert west to the pilgrimage town of Fatima which is Portugals answer to Lourdes in France, it is in fact pretty much the same, a huge basilica and a large outdoor square to hold the vast numbers of people that attend,

there is a new “contemporary worshipping space” as the guide book calls it which can hold up to 9000 people in one go, there are also the usual fountains from which you can collect your bottle of holy water

and just outside the complex a large array of hotels, restaurants and gift shops.

There was even a piece of the Berlin wall encased in a glass booth.

Heading back east we encounter the river Tejo where at Almourol there is a castle on an island (it was closed for three hours for lunch so we just took a photo instead of waiting for the boat trips to restart)

 Following the river east we notice a stork on a chimney

The next town of interest is Abantes which has some old Moorish type buildings and a castle.

And a grapefruit tree (never seen one before)

Leaving Abrantes the next stop is Belver which again has a castle,

It’s quite a haul up the steps to the gates

and we arrive just in time to catch the man with the keys sneaking off home early and he has to reopen the castle to let us in for a look round for which he charges us 2 euros 60.


But what a view once we get to the top of the keep

Leaving Belver we spot some more storks on telegraph poles.

We notice on the map a town called Macao, we wonder as to whether this has any similarity to the Chinese gambling resort which used to be a Portuguese colony.Here’s some photos of the one here in Portugal, sadly I don’t have any here of the one in China to compare it with.

We start to look for a suitable place to wildcamp for the night and head off down a road that has no signpost, we drive through eucalyptus and pine forests

down into a small village where we come to the end of the road and there’s a group of very small old people staring at us in disbelief as to what has just pulled up outside their house. One of the Portuguese pygmy people comes over he’s about 80 and he has a hunch back and looks very weathered, he starts off talking in his own language to which he gets blank looks from us, then he asks if we speak French, surprised we say we do, “where are you headed he asks” “Vila Velha” we explain, “how can we get there from here”, he points to a very narrow dirt track leading across an olive grove opposite the house, “through there, 200m then turn right, follow the road down to the next village 2km turn right at the factory then follow the road to the main road turn right and keep going” he says in a French that is obviously a second language to him. We thank him and bid him and his vertically challenged friends a good evening. By now the light is starting to fade so we pick our way through the olive trees trying to avoid the low branches and join the “road” which turns out to be another dirt track, a bit wider than the first,
 this leads to a wider smoother dirt track which then climbs uphill through what can only be described as a rocky riverbed, the motorhome slips and slides its way along before grinding to halt with its front wheels stuck in a muddy rut, luckily we manage to free it and we’re off again, by now I can see the village
 
 

 
so I pull over and walk ahead to make sure the van can actually fit down the road between the houses. It all looks ok so off we go again making it without any more dramas to the main road where we park up a few km down the road.