PENEDA-GERÊS I - Jan-Eric Osterlund

*The reservoir of Vilarinho das Furnas was formed by the damming of the river Câvado. It is surrounded by the mountainous Serra de Gerês*

At the Spanish border in the north is the Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês, the only National Park that Portugal has. A mountainous beautiful landscape with rivers, lakes, waterfalls, mountain peaks up to more than 1,500 metres and a variety of flora and fauna. We entered the park through its southwest side at an attractive lake with lots of arms shooting into the mountains in many different directions. The lake turned out to be a manmade reservoir formed by damming up the river Câvado. Câvado emanates further up in Spain and empties into the Atlantic Ocean between Porto in the south and Viana do Castelo in the north (both cities described in earlier posts).

I have no less than four posts describing the Parque Nacional. The first two are about the landscape, in the third we ventured into Spain and visited an interesting village just on the other side of the border and finally we return to Portugal to see the very special tomb-like granaries that this part of both Spain and Portugal has. They are called Espigueiros or just granaries.

We crossed the lake twice at two different bridges that can be seen in the first photo before climbing up a narrow mountainous road to some stunning viewpoints.

*View of Vilarinho das Furnas near one of the bridges that could be seen in the previous image*

*On the road climbing up along the mountainside, it looked like big boulders were threatening to fall over and stop any further journey*

*From the lake or dam of Vilarinho das Furnas we climbed up through the village of Assureira and then took off on mountain roads to get us to some spectacular viewpoints and stunning forest scenery*

*Another viewpoint over Vilarinho das Furnas*

*View from the top of the mountains over the forests of the National Park*

*At our altitude the trees trunks were not that substantial*

At the confluence of two small rivers (I would have called them streams) we stopped for some further photography. At a little waterfall with a pool, an attractive girl was walking in the water dressed in only a skimpy bikini. Our guide asked me why I didn’t photograph the pool while the girl was still in it, and I explained to him that I couldn’t bring back to my wife photos of her, but had to wait until she stepped out of the water. But the truth is that I decided to turn the camera to capture the mountain goats at the other side and took my time to compose the rapids and the pool afterwards, when the goats had run away. You who read my post can judge if you are happy to see the goats, or if you would have preferred the girl with the bikini in the pool?

*The waterfall and the pool at river Conho. In October, after a dry summer, it wasn’t much water flowing*

*The goats were very happy on the rocks above me*

*An old bridge crossed the little river/stream*

In the evening we stopped at the little village of Ermida and stayed overnight at a farmstead. The wife cooked dinner for us that we had outdoor as the sun was setting. It turned quite in the evening although we were no higher than an altitude of around 500 metres. And the next morning we had breakfast as the sun rose from the opposite side of the sunset.