river | Chaos roaming the world

We had a lovely morning at the camp site and before we left we even got to chat to the owners one more time. Number 3 patted more dogs and then hung out on the swing for a while.

To make this trip east worthwhile, we decided to keep going for one more hour until Pinhão. It’s the second city in the region called Alto Duoro, the first one being super touristy. Now, we were in the wine region proper, even if we didn’t spot Graham’s vineyards. We did however see Sandemann and Taylor’s name pop up in the landscape.

I think granite formations are becoming my new favorite after …

Pinhão was “on the wrong side of Rüdesheim” to speak in Flo’s terms. Very touristy still, quite pricey and really just our point to say goodbye to the river Douro. It was lunch time though so we sat down to have an underwhelming, expensive meal somewhere at the riverfront (Flo: I know codfish is a national institution, but dry, overly salty grilled “cod-loin” is nothing to recommend).

From here on, we go north until, eventually, we leave Portugal and enter Spain again, in a couple of days. After lunch, we drove towards a camp ground on the other side of the Parque natural do Alvão. The park was super pretty again and we were glad to have come that way.

When we left again around 4pm, we found another cute café in Mondim de Basto to have pastel de nata. Again. We have to have them a couple more times before we leave. 🙂

Afterwards, we looked for the camp ground. It took us a while to find the signs leading us there as the navigation was no good in this case. The Quinta do Rio was probably the closest we have come to a DOC camp site on this trip. And we had it all to ourselves, no other guests had made their way here. Setting up our roof tent with a lovely view onto the river, we were wondering why. Is it because power is limited to solar energy and thus big camper vans are not allowed? Or simply the fact that you have to actively look for it to find it? Or is it too rustic for European tastes?

True hospitality for the whole family
Hmm, lemons fresh from the garden …
The road went up an down …
… allowing for some great vies of the valley
cool statue 😉
Almost gone …
the vinyards contiue far past the Douro valley, though
I think granite formations are becoming my new favorite after …
… so much limestone on our big trip
A little reservoir high up in the park
hmmm … I almost look human again after the Porto haircut (and some pastries)
he ate almost the whole thing …
Keeping wee one from stepping right in
I tried to force him to go barefoot again but stopped after stepping into thorns 10 seconds in …
just us – I mean even “full” this would be a great site
The pool was a spring fed old trough …
… just perfect for number 3 to explore

Sunday. Finally, I was doing better. Probably not as well as I’d like to be but well enough to be social again. Me doing better also decides our next step: This will be our last rest day; tomorrow, the road will have us back.

Cool countryside

Under that premise, I was very much inclined to spend another day in bed. BUT, it was Sunday. Sunday is the free day for the four backpackers helping out at Andy’s and Shinta’s place at the moment and Andy had plans for a ride out, showing them some of Jogja. We were invited, too. For quite a while we were about two minds…seeing some of Jogja would be great…doing the rest of our “homework” would also be great.

In the end, we decided to join the Scooby gang for half a day. We gathered at “AS coffee” were we are staying. Andy took Laura as a pillion, Victor and Camille shared a bike, then Flo and I on the tiny bike that Andy had given us for driving in town and Yanto with Cecil as a pillion were at the back.

The gang and the ladies from the orphanage

The first stop was at an orphanage in town. Andy and Shinta had sponsored a filter station for water so that the kids have clean water to drink and this was a check-up after a couple of months if everything still works as it is supposed to. As a side business, the orphanage also sells some of the water to generate a bit of income. All in all a great project. The kids weren’t around though so we “only” got to see the filter station and talk to some lovely ladies from the orphanage.

Leaving here, the plan was to head to the river for a swim. However, two things happened which made this part of the ride out more than remarkable. First, there was a police check point at the bridge were we wanted to cross the river. Andy stopped a bit before it to make sure everybody would be good to go through…and of course, we were not. Not even Flo had his driver’s licence with him…so we needed an alternative route to the place. Instead of heading straight across the river, we took a turn in midst of a large group of young people on their motorbikes. It kinda looked like a gang to begin with and they all also avoided the police check point. So when we checked that everyone made the turn and drifted off behind the big group, we saw a guy at the street side, waving a big gun in the air in a way that was not very confidence-inducing. He also looked quite angry. When he realized that the motorcycle gang had passed and just a bunch of tourists remained, he stuffed the gun in the pocket of his pants, again in a not much confidence-inducing manner. Andy just checked that all four bikes were there and we drove off, turning off this street as soon as we could. I was really quite shaken. Though we have seen a couple of firearms on this trip so far, none ever had been waved around like that.

crossing this bridge to get to the swimming place

The river spot was very secluded and quiet so we all spent some time sitting on the edge talking. Andy sprinted into the water for a swim but was only joined by Victor in the end. The day was overcast and not hot enough for me to get in. Flo put his feet in but not more.

Another short ride away, up in the hills, we had lunch at a local warung. Andy knows all the good places around here and ordered Nasi Campur for the whole group. Suddenly, while eating, I felt sick again but luckily not enough so to throw up. It was 2pm by now so Flo and I waved good bye to the gang and headed back to headquarters to get our stuff done.

Everybody else arrived back at “AS coffee” at around 4.30pm where Andy concluded the ride out with a scoop of chocolate ice cream and some cakey-fudgy-thingy for everyone. So yummy! Flo then went on to take apart our broken charger cable for the laptop. This time, he had a much better chance of fixing it as he was allowed to use Andy’s “man cave” work bench with tools and a soldering iron. We even got to polish our shoes because they really, really needed it by now.

Soldering the Surface cable …

In the evening, Andy introduced us to “Mondo Enduro”, a film which we know from hearsay as it is a classic but haven’t gotten around to watching yet. So we watched most of it but then take away dinner arrived and we were interrupted by it.

Dinner was shared by all of the Scooby gang again which was lovely as this way, we got to say good bye to everyone. The plan for tomorrow was to start quite early and we weren’t sure who would be up by this point.