NATURTEJO GEOPARK- FOSSILS AND MORE AT PENHA GARCIA, PORTUGAL

A day trip to Idanha-a-nova region in Portugal, particularly Penha Garcia and the Geopark where there are wonderful fossil walls.

* see former post about Idanha-a-velha in the same area.
http://finca-al-manzil.blogspot.com.es/2010/05/little-village-of-idanha-velha-with-its.html

The fossils can be seen on a specially designed walk in the Ponsul canyon where you will find several outcrops of quartzite that contain beautiful specimens of trilobite ichnofossils: Cruziana. These examples are 300 million years old!

The patterns are extraordinarily intricate and very beautiful, one doesn't have to have any "fossil knowledge" to appreciate them on a purely visual level.

The river valley walk is wonderful in itself, a deep gorge which ends in a high dam wall with the original water mills clustered on the river. The mills are open to the public and have been sympathetically arranged with old milling equipment, the guide will set the milling device in action so one gets a real sense of the milling process using the power of water.

After climbing up from the valley over the dam wall the castle of Penha Garcia looms over the walk back into the village.

We found a traditional padaria, baker, still using a wood oven and producing delicious Portuguese rustic bread, traditional cakes, also selling local honey and herbs. The two jolly girls had recently started this enterprise and it seemed to be thriving. We bought two different types of bread and honey to take home and pao com choriço to eat immediately, it's irresistible, bread dough wrapped around spicy choriço and then baked, really yummy!

The tourist office in the village is very helpful and has some well produced books with great photos of the fossils.

GOOGLE MAP REF.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Penha+Garcia&hl=es&ll=40.036027,-6.981812&spn=2.132232,5.108643&sll=40.047066,-7.033138&sspn=0.066625,0.159645&hnear=Penha+Garcia,+Distrito+de+Castelo+Branco,+Portugal&t=m&z=8&layer=t

DISCOVERY - A NEW WALK!

Amazingly enough we found a new walk today, after 9 years in the area!  Occasionally we would take a short cut from Albala onto the old road to Caceres, a beautiful route through pristine bucolic scenery, there was always a lake shimmering in the near distance but we never really worked out how to get there, always came up against dead ends and impenetrable fences.  Today was the day to find the way, after 4 days of steady rain and rather gloomy weather, the last day of September has been gorgeous. I opened the shutters this morning to bright sparkling sunlight reflecting off all the puddles and the emerald green mossy rocks, the Summer dust has gone and tiny new shoots are emerging everywhere, simply magical. 
Manfred is still training Fatboy for the Guadalupe ride, a 2 hour ride this morning but the moment he was back we were off to the Aldea de Cano lake.
 To make it even more special it is a ZEPA area ;  Zonas de Especial Protección para las Aves,  a protected area for birdlife.
http://www.extremambiente.es/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1120&Itemid=461

A wonderful walk around the lake in bright sunshine, besides the beauty and peaceful solitude of the situation there were the ruins of a medieval hermita on the nearby Ruta de la Plata and an ancient fortified tower in the distance, both off limits but interesting to see.

Ice from the sky

The storm on the morning of September 17th was quite amazing. The finca was battered by huge hail stones for at least 15 minutes. Then a stupendous thunder storm with torrential rain. Soon there were rivers flowing down the mountain carrying earth and fallen leaves down to our bottom wall. The drainage holes had become blocked up over the last year so the mud accumulated rapidly, it gradually seeped away but the debris left covered half the wall. The hailstone stayed on the ground looking pristinely beautiful for several hours. Quite bizarre considering we were sweltering last week. The sierra now looks very washed, wonderful to see the dark earth and mossy rocks after months of parched dusty earth. Unfortunately the swimming pool was inundated with muddy water, swimming weather is nearly over now but we will have to drain the pool, clean out the mud and refill, this has never happened before, a bit of a bore but almost worth the trouble to have experienced all the drama of the storm and the refreshing of the earth, hopefully there will be grass shoots coming up very soon and we shall once again have a green glow over the finca.

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THE CRANES ARE BACK!

 1 hour from Finca al-manzil

Each winter, starting at the beginning of November and continuing until late February thousands of Common Crane (grus grus) decend upon Extremadura from their breeding grounds in Northern Europe. At the peak of their migration there are up to 20,000 between 15 December – 15 January. There are two specific areas where they arrive. One is South of Badajoz and the other is Dehesa Moheda Alta South of Gudalupe within the irrigation system of the Guadiana river near Obando. There are hundreds of hectares of rice fields nearby as well as arable land and huge areas of dehesa covered with cork oak and holm oak both laden with ripe acorns that start to fall at this time of the year. These are ideal conditions for the cranes, they gorge on acorns, insects and herbs in the dehesa and grains of rice and corn left after harvest in the fields. It’s a wonderful sight to see these huge birds crowned with a startling red crest grazing amongst the trees together with the chubby iberic black pigs who have free range of the dehesa for fattening purposes. They form large separate groups of several hundred birds, however, family groups of adults and the current year’s chicks, one to three, can be seen grazing by themselves. All very fascinating, the cranes are quite content to graze within a short distance of passing walkers. There are two observation towers in the area which give an even better viewpoint.

Our faithful friends, the Bubo Bubos

I have just received some photos from a client who stayed in the barn last April. He had some good photographic equipment and was able to take this shot of one of the Eagle Owls. They have made at least 2 nests up on the crags above the finca and seem to be in residence most of the year, the place wouldn't be the same without their deep hooting at dusk and dawn. Very difficult to photograph in the wild as the light is dim when they are evident and also they are a long way up on top of the sierra.  I was happy to have this record even though it is not very clear I think it shows how impressive the owls are and the "horns" show up well.

The same client also took some lovely shots of the azure winged magpies and bee eaters. By the way the bee eaters are still around and gave us a spectacular show of acrobatics while we were eating dinner outside last night, really amazing with perpendicular filights up and down.

SIERRA NEVADA...IN EXTREMADURA

Quite a drama yesterday afternoon when snow began to fall gently, it rapidly developed into a snowstorm with driving flurries of snow being blown about by a strong wind. This continued for 4 hours and by dusk the whole sierra was covered in about 20cms of packed snow. This is the most we have experienced in Montanchez since we came to live here 6 years ago. Quite beautiful and didn't create any difficulties as it was almost all melted this morning except for deep pockets higher up in the sierra. The roads to Montanchez were cut off for a few hours but all back to normal today with kids enjoying the unusual white slippery stuff.

 

Autumn at Finca al-manzil

Our view of the sierra peaks just before a recent storm, the photo doesn't really convey the gorgeous light filtering through the storm blue sky. In fact this storm was a rarity this autumn which has been unusually mild with golden days ideal for hikes which were impossible during the heat of the summer. Still discovering new walking paths in the sierra even after 4 years, the most delightful ones at this time of year are through the chestnut woods. Have started lighting our fires but more from habit and to convince ourselves that it is autumn, really not necessary but a good atmosphere for our evenings ......no television at the finca so lighting the fire, clicking on a c.d, cooking a good meal, opening the wine, eating by candlelight (we have electricity! but....) and then feet up for a good read.......mmmm autumn.



New path........
This is one of the recently discovered paths taken just after the storm when everything was fresh and green again, amazing how the grass shoots up with a proper drenching after the long dry summer months. This is a typical sierra path, paved with granite slabs between the winding stone walls of small fincas and olive groves only accessible by foot or 4 hooves. Some of the main routes are from Roman times but mainly from the Moorish era which in this area lasted from the 8th century until the reconquest of Montanchez castle by the Christians in 1230. The paths have been in constant use for at least 1000 years, many of the oldest olive trees have been dated as 1000 years old. Less use in the last century and even less now as the last generation of donkey riders are dying out. One can walk all day and never meet a soul, quite blissful.