Vila de Rei is a great place to wake up. Having had a very peaceful night’s sleep, our spirits are good as we head to our most easterly base camp, the beautiful city of Castelo Branco. Kimberley and I feel we know a little bit about it already, as so many of the YouTube channels we watch on life in Portugal go into Castelo Branco for essential supplies.
What we don’t know is just how beautiful it is. The vibe is so laid back. Nicely cobbled streets and charm and space seem to abound. It does not seem cramped at all. It is Sunday which is the day of essential maintenance in the world of TUT and that means shopping and laundry. It is fair to say that the laundromats here are of a high standard and are set up to help you with little things like change machines, high baskets on wheels to move stuff from the washers to the dryers and detergent is included in the wash already.
Better than that is the fact that at the two laundromats we have been to so far, there has been a lovely little café a few doors away, which means coffee and cake whilst waiting. Oh, go on then, if I must.
Well, chores done, we decide to head off to Albufeira da Barragem de Santa Agueda which is a lake just outside Lardosa. The scenery is truly stunning and if we are honest with ourselves, it is on this drive that we lose our hearts to this area. The most amazing Serra de Estrela mountain range dominates the skyline. Instead of following the directions to the Barragem, we decide to just follow a track until we are next to the lake.
We picture finding an unknown, off the beaten track location where we can walk by the lake and swim. It is not our best idea as we find ourselves pretty much wedged into a very small, deeply rutted and crumbling dirt track about two miles long, having heard the sound of the sides of TUT being scraped fairly mercilessly with overhanging branches.
There’s nothing for it. I am going to have to reverse TUT back up this very narrow and winding track and we are going to try something different. Hot, tired and showing just a hint of impatience, we look for a café on Google and find one in the village opposite called Monsanto. We start climbing (in TUT) up a big hill and then it happens. The view at the top where Monsanto is situated just blows us away. This is THE VIEW.
We sit down and have a bite to eat and work out what to do next when Kimberley comes across another fluvial or river beach. This one is in Penha Garcia. After lunch, we drive up to the fluvial. It is stunning and has the most wonderful waterfall that you can swim under. Kimberley does so whilst filming on the GoPro and, after a huge amount of persuasion, I do the same. Unbelievably refreshing is all I can say. We are absolutely going to have to come back here.
Refreshed, happy and calm we settle down in the designated camper area when we realise it is getting busier and busier with youths from Portugal and France who are shouting and playing football and just being ‘youffs’. I am tired and want to go to sleep, but I have promised Kimberley to be more accepting of others, so I toss and turn until 2am – when really all I want to do puncture the ball with a sharp knife.
One final bout of shouting amongst themselves and they are gone. I am left to reflect on what a strange day it has been. First our major plan for the day of finding a quiet spot by the lake was blown out of the water, but because of that, we went on to discover THE VIEW.
Gotta just love the universe!