walking Archives - The Green Door

May 292017 Tagged with gardens, hiking, Potes, Spain, walking — 0 Responses

North to Potes, Cantabria

From Montesinho, northern Portugal we moved through the rain to the mountains of Potes. We couldn’t complain as this was the first rain we had experienced in over a month.

From the sparse mountains of Montesinho, over the border just ten minutes away, we travelled through countryside that looked very much like Waiouru! Bare with only a few settlements and lots of gorse. This soon gave way to rivers and green hillsides.

After a hot meal en route we came across fields and fields of wild daffodils just below Riano. Not just little miniature alpine Daffs like we had seen on our hikes, but quite large ones similar to what we would grow in our gardens at home in New Zealand. How amazing. The rain didn’t keep us in the car long! I’m sure the locals thought we were completely mad – but then that wouldn’t be the first time.

Potes turned out to be all it said in the guide books. The perfect base for exploring the east side of the Picos. We were here four nights and could easily have stayed seven if the weather had been better. Luckily the next morning dawned fine, sunny and slightly warmer. We drove to the Fuente De chair lift just before 9am – it’s only 20mins drive from Potes – and found ourselves the only ones there apart from the staff. What a huge bonus. We were the first on the mountain and had it all to ourselves! Gentians greeted us the minute we left the buildings and by the time we had completed the short climb to the top the day was perfect and not a breath of wind. So, so, so lucky.

The next five hours were spent drifting down the mountainside tripping from one patch of alpine flowers to the next, occasionally taking a breath to enjoy the splendour of the soaring peaks around us.

Apr 232017 Tagged with Algarve, Cistus, hiking, lavender, Monchique, Portugal, walking — 0 Responses

Monchique to the Algarve

Monchique proved to be a great choice for walking both in the mountains and out at the coast. Either side of our rural Casa aptly named Casa Vale dos Sobreiros – house in the valley of the Holm Oak trees there were mountains. Foia on one side and Picota on the other. We were spoilt for choice. To the south and west we had the coastline of the Algarve to poke around. We had four days and a lot of walking planned.

One thing about walking in Spain and Portugal – you practically never have to worry about the weather. It maybe a little cool in the morning but by noon it seems to be always around 22 and by 4-5pm 26-27 unless you are very high up.

The mountains of Foia and Picota are covered with Spanish lavender, Green Lavender, white rock rose and spots of blue – Lithodora and spots of white – Arenaria. If you imagine a walk in NZ and how many manuka bushes there are – multiply that by 10,000 and that’s around how many white rock roses you’ll find on a walk in this area of the world. VERY pretty.

Apr 222017 Tagged with birds, eagles, harriers, lavender, Mertola, Montagu, walking — 0 Responses

Mertola – beautiful historical town

We chose Mertola as a base for walking and because of it’s historic interest – the Phoenicians were it’s first inhabitants followed by a succession of invaders.

The castle is set high on a hill guarding the last inland port on the Guadiana River. It was from here valuable products such as gold and silver plus agricultural products were sent South to the Mediterranean

We loved our 3 night stay here at Hotel Museu which is a relatively new hotel built into the side of the hill and over the top of ruins from centuries ago. Down our passageway there was even panels of glass where you could see the old foundations of ancient homes and these were lit up at night. Very cool!

Our latest interest is dabbling in a bit of bird watching. This works in very well with hiking and searching for rare plants as you are never guaranteed to find the plants or the birds – but usually find at least one of these as well as getting good exercise and usually fabulous views of the countryside – because if there is one thing we’ve learnt. Spain and Portugal are NOT FLAT. Whilst here we had great sights of Bonelli’s Eagles and Montagu’s Harriers, plus after seeing at least 1 billion purple Lavender stoechas – we saw a pure white one!