And a half a kilometer away there is an RV "service station" as they are sometimes called here. It has a fresh water supply, a toilet cassette dump, and an electrical outlet if you should need it. It's all automated for a charge of €2.
But because all of this is essentially free, (and there's even an unsecured wifi signal) it's a little busier than we'd normally like.
Louis, in his spot here at Minas Sao Domingos.
GPS 37.672352, -7.504242
We have a pretty good spot, but some are a little close together.
We went out for a hike. As is usually the case, we didn't have a plan and for us that could mean a 3 km hike, or it could mean a 15 km hike! We had heard you could hike around the lake, so we set off trying to find that trail. Glen and Steve joined us for the first part, but they headed back after a couple of kms.
Looking back at the parking area.
It's a pretty reservoir, and I'm sure it's really busy on a hot summer day.
Glen, Steve, and Ruth.
A view of the town, with the parking area just behind the beach.
Zoomed in. The poles on the beach are for shade umbrellas.
Ruth and I continued on around the lake. There is an actual marked trail, but we took a short cut through one section and ended up doing 11.75 kms (7.3 miles) in two hours and fifteen minutes. Not a bad walk!
Moooo!
The fields were full of these little white daisy type flowers.
Nobody around but us and the cows.
Another type of flower.
Nice day for a walk.
Made it back to town and got our things together to go for a shower. They have a municipal bathroom building in town, with free showers! A little bit rundown, but obviously cleaned daily so not too bad. This town certainly does welcome RV'ers.
Had Glen and Steve over for a roast pork loin that we did on the Weber grille with roast potatoes. And then a few games of euchre, and a round of bugger your neighbor. Good fun.
A bit of rain overnight, but the sun is shining so far this morning. Better get out for another walk since they are calling for more rain later.
Sunset.
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From what I can tell from your two pictures, those "cows" all look like bulls. I grew up visiting my Grandparents' farm and never saw that many bulls together in one pasture! The owner must be raising them for stud or for bull fights.
ReplyDeleteNot really sure how you can tell from the pictures because they really aren't close enough but the first picture was a field full of cows and their babies and the second picture was a different field and we did comment on the one HUGE bull that we saw but others again were mostly female although it might have been possible that there was another bull in there but we didn't notice another one.
DeleteOh what a pretty place for sure. You have a little of everything....the water, the countryside and a beautiful sunset. Doesn't get much better than that.
ReplyDeleteYep, it really has just about everything that we want in an area, we could easily stay longer but the weather isn't as nice today and it is time to move on anyway. I am sure we will find another wonderful spot to enjoy just down the road a ways. :-)
DeleteAnother lovely day in Portugal enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYes, it was perfect day!
DeleteAnother lovely hike and a great dinner. I think I'll leave the buggering your neighbour thing alone...
ReplyDeleteIt was a beautiful hike. The scenery was so pretty and we were the only ones out there, just the way we like it!
DeleteIf you love card games then you would know the game but maybe just under a different name.
Perhaps Canada should consider more these free RV sites with services...especially small towns to attract more tourism. That looks pretty decent for free!
ReplyDeleteWe totally agree with you! Sometimes we think Canada and the USA are a bit backwards in their thinking. Having said that, we have camped in a number of towns in the USA that offer free camping in town in hopes that you will spend some of your tourist dollars in their town.
DeleteWhere we are parked really isn't the official "aire/campground" but because it is winter time they let us stay here rather than tell you to move to the correct spot up the hill and further from the water.
Love your writing and photos. Thank you for the Co Ord. Much appreciated. Will be travelling on March 8th from Ireland and going straight down to Biarritz and then to Servila slowly.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nora!
DeleteSounds like you are going to have a wonderful trip ahead of you as well. We hope that the co-ordinates will help you and others to finding some of these great spots.
They will as I have checked them out on Google Earth. x
DeleteThat's great. You will have to get back to us and let us know what your thoughts on them are.
DeleteThose country road hikes really make me think of my growing up on the farm. You can almost smell the quietness!
ReplyDeleteYou sure could on this hike, it was wonderful!
DeleteIt's amazing the beautiful Earth we live on yet some do not appreciate what paradise was given us. It's so beautiful with flowers, trees, greenery and sunshine. Hard to believe some of the most beautiful countries (I believe) are being torn up by war, mining, oil and deforestation. No easy solution unless they put humpty dumpty together again.
ReplyDeleteYes, our Earth is an amazing place and there is so much beauty everywhere you look and not all just in one country and that is why we love to get out and explore as much of the world as we can.
DeleteMaybe one day we as citizens of this world we will finally figure this out and we will all collectively work at making it even better until then it doesn't seem like there is much we can do except to try and continue ourselves to do our little part.
Could almost be anywhere in Australia looking at that road you are walking on. The colour of the dirt the scenery. What season is it and temperature please? The flower looks like a callistamon maybe..
ReplyDeletePerhaps one day we will be able to walk along a nice dirt road in Australia and get to see the beauty there. :-)
DeleteIt is considered winter here but for us it is more like spring or fall weather but then we come from Canada! The temperature is more or less around 10-20 Celsius during the day although it can get colder and at night it is down around 5 Celsius or lower. This is in southern Spain though, it is normally colder in northern Spain.
I looked up callistamon and all it brought up was pictures of a bottle brush flower and this was definitely not a bottle brush flower.
Makes me want to get an RV and tour Spain, it's now on the list, the mental one :)
ReplyDeleteWe highly recommend it! We are really enjoying this trip and already talking about being able to do it again sometime.
DeleteNice spot, but does look a bit crowded. Must make for meeting new friends at happy hour:)
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, we don't really see "happy hours" happening much here.
DeleteThe flower is a White Cistus (or Rock Rose). Pretty little fellers, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteThank you Nickie, I just looked it up and it is a rock rose and to be more precise it is a Brown-eyed Rock Rose. When I first saw it, I thought it looked similar to a wild rose so I guess I wasn't too far off.
Delete