Strapped right into a harness, arms clamped to a metallic bar, I flew – at terrifying velocity alongside 720 metres of zipwire suspended over the Rio Guadiana – from Spain into Portugal.
I’d taken a ship from Alcoutim (on the Algarve facet of the river) to Sanlúcar de Guadiana (in Andalucía). From there I used to be pushed as much as a launch platform on a rocky summit with jaw-dropping views of each nations. Did I scream? As I hurtled in direction of Portugal, I attempted to deal with these views: two dazzling white villages, the extensive inexperienced river beneath, a castelo on one facet, a castillo on the opposite. It was throughout in lower than a minute, however because of the worldwide time distinction I gained an hour.
The LimiteZero expertise (the world’s solely cross-border zipline) was simply one of many excessive factors of a meandering street journey alongside the Rio Guadiana – the lengthy river that rises within the Spanish province of Albacete, slips over the Portuguese border close to Elvas in Alentejo and heads south to the Bay of Cádiz, on the Algarve’s jap edge.
Driving a employed Fiat 500, my husband Dave and I caught largely to the Portuguese facet of the river, taking six days to do what quantities to a three-and-a-half-hour drive. For a lot of the route, the river types a pure boundary between Spain and Portugal; a path of castles and fortresses glare at one another from reverse riverbanks. Too many castles for one journey, maybe, however there are many different issues to see: salt marshes, walled cities and historic river ports, lakes, river seashores, heavenly night time skies and the wild landscapes of Alentejo’s Guadiana Valley nationwide park, the place the river squeezes into craggy ravines and kestrels and golden eagles circle over the waterfall at Pulo do Lobo (or Wolf’s Leap).
A detour took us to the eerie ruins of the Sao Domingos pyrite mines, and later we pressed on to Elvas – a little-known border city with world heritage standing – simply to see the exceptional seven-kilometre Amoreira Aqueduct, which took greater than 100 years to construct (from 1537).
At the beginning of our journey we rolled into Vila Actual de Santo António, a nice border city on the Guadiana estuary with extensive marina promenades and pine-forest walks that result in the dunes of Praia Santo António – one of many fabulously sandy and often-uncrowded seashores of the jap Algarve.
The Spanish can nip throughout on a ferry from close by Ayamonte – to buy (for towels, I'm instructed), eat contemporary tuna, garlic prawns and codfish stew at seafood cafes or sit underneath orange timber on Praça Marquês de Pombal. The city’s market sq. is on the coronary heart of a masterplan dreamed up by the Marquês de Pombal, who oversaw the reconstruction of Lisbon – after which Vila Actual – after devastating earthquakes within the 18th century.
The city’s later prosperity was constructed on tinned fish, an trade that roughly died within the Nineteen Sixties, leaving it to look unloved. Redundant canning factories on the Spanish finish of city nonetheless lie derelict, however the centre’s “Pombaline” structure has been spruced up in recent times.
On the sq., the Pousada de Vila Actual de Santo António, open since July 2021, is a pleasant base, a group of restored 18th-century buildings: a former kindergarten, the headquarters of the native Communist celebration and a part of the financial institution subsequent door, with swimming pools and roof-terrace views of the Guadiana estuary (doubles from €130).
Subsequent cease was Castro Marim. Just some minutes’ drive upriver, this historic river port sits between the Guadiana Worldwide Bridge (a towering, cable-stayed quantity seen for miles) and a marshy nature reserve wealthy with birdlife (flamingos come and go). There’s a medieval fortress with views throughout the marshes to Spain, however the city is finest recognized for salt – a pure wetland useful resource which has been mined within the area for aeons. Artisan salt panner Jorge Raiado presents excursions and tastings at his household’s Salmarimsalinas (salt pans) – white with sun-dried crystals that are harvested with out equipment or chemical compounds.
Our telephones made erratic switches between Spanish and Portuguese time as we adopted the river on a again street to Alcoutim. The house of the LimiteZero zipline sits amongst banks of orange, olive and almond groves and gardens of figs and apricots on one of many loveliest stretches of the Guadiana. The Praia Fluvial do Pego Fundo river seaside is an oasis of cool inexperienced water and mushy white sand imported from the coast. There’s additionally a fortress (first constructed by the Moors, reconstructed within the 14th century and once more 100 years later) and an archaeological museum displaying Roman pottery and a group of medieval stone board video games. Sanlúcar, the city’s Spanish twin, is 5 minutes away by boat.
The place is well-liked with walkers, who come right here to start out (or end) the By way of Algarviana path, a 300km footpath that runs from Cape St Vincent to Alcoutim. The 165km Grande Rota do Guadiana (or GR15) from Vila Actual to Mértola additionally passes via.
As we drive north, the river swings away from the Spanish border into Alentejo countryside, assembly Mértola on the perimeter of the nationwide park. A labyrinth of cobbled streets, cats and crumbling buildings, the little city tumbles right down to river wharfs and jetties from the rugged partitions of yet one more fortress. Since pre-Roman instances, it has served as a Gaudiana buying and selling put up, notably necessary to the Moorish rulers, who shipped grains and minerals downriver to the Atlantic ports. Beneath the fortress partitions, the gorgeous whitewashed church of Nossa Senhora da Anunciação dates from the twelfth century and was initially a mosque – one of many few relics of Portugal’s 500-year Islamic rule. For five-star views of Mertola from the other facet of the river, funds resort Quinta do Vau has doubles from €40 room-only.
One other hour’s drive took us north to Monsaraz, a beguiling city on a hump of schist that rises from the plains of Alentejo’s montada – an unlimited space of holm oaks and cork forests, vineyards, farms and megaliths. Its walled, pedestrian streets and whitewashed homes are constructed of flinty metamorphic rock (put on smart footwear) and provide dreamy views of the most important synthetic lake in Portugal, shaped by the Alqueva Dam.
Later we turned our gaze to the night time sky. The Alqueva area is the primary on the planet to be recognised as a Starlight Tourism Vacation spot, because of clear skies, a sparse inhabitants and a collective drive to maintain the lights low at night time. Set in forest on the sting of the Alqueva lake, Montimerso Skyscape Nation Home has roomy suites and beneficiant terraces with views of the montada and deck chairs for stargazing (from €200 B&B).
We had been fortunate to decide on a moonless, cloudless night for a late-night stargazing session on the “official” Darkish Sky observatory, in a former main faculty in tiny Cumeada.
In a courtyard we stood and stared into house whereas our information picked out Pegasus, Taurus, Auriga and the Milky Manner. Andromeda, a mere 2.5 million gentle years away, is, he instructed us, the farthest we people can see with the bare eye. We might see it right here.
Then it’s right down to earth, again the way in which we got here. I’d love to do all of it once more – perhaps on the Spanish facet of the river – although I'm in no hurry to repeat the zipline expertise.
The journey was offered by Go to Algarve. For extra info see visitalgarve.pt or visitportugal.com
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