Abandonment

We are getting into the more remote parts of Portugal and the Algarve. This is a marked improvement on the touristic crap on the coast, but as you get more remote you also step back in time, sometimes too far.

We had headed East and inland, the towns now few and far between, and the villages tiny. To get to the start of the next walk had been a long drive, down many narrow lanes. Now we were in the village of Roche. It wasn’t as much a village, just a cluster of half a dozen houses. We parked here the road ended, a barren scrap of land. The one and only cafe was closed for the season, perhaps the village was closed. The route looked encouraging, we could see the familiar red and yellow paint strips of a PR (small route). We would not have to rely too much on the description in the guide which is at times very confusing. We would take the book, just in case though.

We had chosen this route due to the geology, a limestone escarpment. An abrupt hill, maybe 200m in height. The start is obvious, heading north along track, big enough for 4×4 vehicles.

The steep cliffs rise above you, but you gain height quickly and they get closer and closer.

The track meanders, but climbs steadily. After about ten minutes the path turns back on itself, a switchback to the right. We are now heading east. The view opens up towards the south.

 

After fifteen minutes and we had reached a junction, clearly signed. The language is sometimes similar to Spanish, we wanted to see the Mirador, viewing point looking north.

Maybe EU money had funded  the newly positioned signage, including information boards describing the route and local flora and fauna. Money well spent, but then we would say that.

The view to the north were OK, but it was an overcast sky and we had seen better. We headed back to the clearing and the junction to find the planalto.

After 35 minutes we found this wall of stones, which apparently is of stone age origin. Although our book suggested walking along the top of it, we decided to follow the official route. I have never liked walking across scree like surfaces, not good for the ankles. I am also not a great historical fan, but certainly wouldn’t want to cause it any damage especially when it looks so precarious. Apparently there is another prehistoric construction hidden amongst the undergrowth.

We are now heading west across the flat part of the escarpment, towards the high point, we have left the wall behind us. There are good views towards the sea to the south. A nice change, small footpaths, what a change from the motorway like tracks we are used to here.

Apparently a forest fire in 2004 caused a lot of destruction. This devastated the environment, according to the signs. Difficult to comprehend when fire is a natural occurrence, often caused by lightening strike, and usually the natural environment recovers and re-establishes itself quite quickly. Unless it was caused maliciously though.

50 minutes on and we find the left turn up to the summit.

And another five minutes- 479m

An OK view, would have been nice had we had a clear sky. We look for a long distance view of Dora, but she is hidden behind the cafe.

We retrace our steps back to the main path, and turn left to head of the west of the escarpment. The stony path, goes first through shrubby landscape, then you start to see stone walls and some basic agriculture. After an hour and ten, we enter into the village of Penina past a large circular water tank. The ubiquitous barking dogs welcome us.

Quite cute, quiet but just alive.

We head out of the village tracking around the base of the escarpment along a road first, then a path.

A well marked route.

Then a wide, unpaved road.

One and a half hours later and we are back at Dora, rather than the two and a half within the guide. This is good news, we have time to do another walk today. Obviously, we have made no mistakes today, but we cannot understand how you could make this into 2 ½ hours.

The next walk is back west and further south. It starts at the village of Esteval Dos Mouros, but it is very difficult to find. Apparently the turning is in Paderne, but no indication of left or right. We drive through, nothing, maybe it is after the town, the description is the usual vagueness. Nothing, after a few kilometres we head back, we eventually find the turning, but it is through the narrow streets, Dora isn’t liking this one bit. We nervously back out before we get her stuck. We have provided a bit of entertainment for the locals!

We find an alternative route and eventually pull up at the start of the walk, next to the closed primary school, there are not enough young people having families around here to justify schools, so they all get closed.

The map in the guide shows this as a village, it is not, just a string of houses along a road. There are no PR marks showing the way. We will have to rely on the description in the guide. This is not looking promising at all. We have already wasted a lot of time trying to find the village. This is a three hour walk, if it doesn’t go to time we could be coming back in darkness. We will explore the area for an hour, and if we are not on the right track we will retrace our steps.

Why are the starts so difficult, why so vague?. We have already wasted 15 minutes traipsing up and down this road.

To be fair to Julie, maybe things have changed since the last edition of this guide. Has the old wall been re-rendered to look new? No to mention of the two concrete gate posts. But hopefully this is the right route. We persevere.

 

 

Through the gateposts, continue on past an orange plantation, then turn left along a track around the back of the orange grove. We  continue, roughly parallel to the village street until we hit a road, this she calls a track! Maybe they have been doing a lot of road building in the years since publishing. The landscape is OK. I wouldn’t say beautiful. We turn right, and just before the high voltage electricity wires and pylons, at the white agricultural building with a vaulted roof, we turn left up another paved road (track!). We pass another vaulted agricultural building, heading upwards, after 40 minutes we turn left.

It looks like we are on the right track, path, road…Help!. Further up, at the head of the valley and we reach another paved road after 55 minutes, we turn left.

Off to the right and there are good views to the north. On the horizon we can see the walk we did in the morning, the limestone escarpment. The Iron age wall is clearly visible, maybe it wouldn’t have been if we had clambered all over it, destroying it.

The road leads into a small village of Esteveira. We head through the village and off to the right at a pink building. The road ends, continues as a track, which deteriorates as we continue.

I don’t think this can be right. Maybe there was a right turn before the village. We strike off to the right, going off-piste, and find a different track clearer now. Is this derelict building what we are looking for…no. We turn left down a clear track. Surely not far now. The sun is getting low on the horizon.

Eventually we come to the abandoned village of Roche Amarela.

It is a really sad site. There are derelict building everywhere. There is something quite romantic about an abandoned village, but also depressing. It gives me a similar feeling of my first trip to Erbil in Kurdistan, when I visited the citadel (maybe for another post). All that wasted energy. It takes a lot to build buildings, and these are all hand made, stacked stone on stone, but people don’t want to live like this anymore, too much effort.

Nature is gradually taking over, just as it should.

It is amazing how quickly a building deteriorate once they are unloved. The weather gets in, roofs fall, plaster falls off, floors rot.

Time is getting on, and this is quite depressing.

There is no one around, and it looks like this place gets very few visitors.

But I am not sure what is worse, doing them up, this one a Starbucks, the next selling handmade all natural ice cream to coach loads of Brits and Germans on day trips from the coast.

Let it rot, decay, disappear. There are good reasons why the people left, don’t romanticise.

Are they the graves of people or pets. Either way, quite sad.

This is depressing. It is soon to get dark. Let’s leave.

The guide says we should head back, retrace our steps to the last village before walking back down the valley. But a track continues along the top. The start of the walk must be below us in the valley. We continue.

We soon get to see the tops of buildings. One looks like the schoolhouse. The track drops down. We are close to the buildings. We leave the track and cross some fields, before finding another track that heads back into the village. This has saved us loads of time.

We turn right and head back to Dora. If we had continued along the track it would have ended right next to the school house. It turns out that the abandoned village is only about twenty minutes from the start of walk. We finish the walk after 2 hours, not counting the false start.

More soon about the dying villages of the Algarve.

GDR