Mertola, Rio Guadiana

Mertola

MONDAY 5 MAY 2008

There is a bus twice a week to Mertola, so we caught the bus at 10.00 a.m. with the Swedish couple we had met in Pomarao. The drive was spectacular, going through the Alentejo. 

Mertola is an historic town with beautiful white buildings and a fort overlooking the Rio Guadiana. When digging up one of the main streets, 5th century Christian graves were discovered, which are now being excavated. 

The fort and museum was closed, as it was a Monday, but we walked around the fort and visited a craft shop where wool is weaved into towels, blankets, bags etc. A white stork was nesting with it’s young in the clock tower by the river. We had a wonderful lunch of the lamb dish we had had in Pomarao– Cozida do Grao do Alentejo, and then caught the bus back to Alcoutim.

Alcoutim, Rio Guadiana

Sunday reunion with friends from Gelves

SUNDAY 4 MAY 208

There had been quite a lot of water in the bilges yesterday, which may have come from the engine or the fresh water system. We spent the morning emptying the cockpit locker and trying to expose pipes to see if there were any leaks. Roger found a leak on the engine, which he repaired. We couldn’t see any more, so will have to wait until we get to Isla Christina to sort out the fresh water problems. We had a well deserved lunch on the terrace of a café run by an English couple overlooking the river.

About 4 p.m. we canoed over to see Carol and John on Taio. Verna and Anna from Sailaway were there, and also Julian, Bea and Diana from Gelves! It was like the Sunday reunions we used to have by Diana’s boat in Gelves. Bea’s family has got a holiday home in Mazagon and they come down most weekends in the summer. Julian, Bea and Diana left about 7 p.m. and the rest of us went to the riverside bar for a beer, and then Carol and John came back to our boat for coffee.

We  often used the canoe instead of our dinghy

Pomarao, Rio Guadiana

Fiesta in Pomarao

Fiesta at Pomarao
Originally uploaded by Yacht Susannah

SATURDAY 3 MAY 2008

I had a shower in the village and Roger had to sort out a pipe on the engine that had got twisted when he was trying to sort out the water problem. We went to the village fiesta with Dennis and Wendy where we met the Dutch people in the campervans. We were made very welcome, and Manolo introduced us to his girlfriend. Yap was there with his girlfriend (who was about 75). We sat opposite a girl of 15 who spoke excellent English. The food was excellent with cheese and chorizo, followed by a sopash made of bread, lamb stock, and mint, which we then mixed with a stew of lamb, mint, and beans. There was also free wine and coffee – all for 6 euros! Speeches were made about trying to make sure the ‘Association’ continues, as the fear is that the company who looks after the old mine’s real estate could close it down. Manolo played his guitar and sang, and others joined him singing Portuguese folk songs.

A van appeared with two live sheep on it. Maria was Bar-B-Queuing chickens and I asked where the sheep had gone. She said they were in the shed and would be cooked later, along with the little pig that was in a drum nearby!

We were beginning to feel that we could stay here for a long time, so Roger said we had better set off in case we never left!

We got the afternoon tide at 4.30 p.m. and motored the 6 miles down to Alcoutim. John and Carol, and Verna and Anna are still at anchor there. We berthed on the pontoon and filled up with water, then wandered around the village. It seems like a metropolis after Pomarao, with cafes, a bank, a tourist information centre and a few of shops. We’re back in the land of the custard tart, so Roger had to continue his research into which are the best custard tarts in Portugal.

Alcoutim Pontoon costs: 7.50 euros per day for the first week, 12.50 euros per day after the first week. Water and electricity, toilets but there are only cold showers.

Pomarao, Rio Guadiana

Rio Guadiana

View up river of the Guadiana
Originally uploaded by Yacht Susannah

FRIDAY 2 MAY 2008

The tide was going upstream until about 4 p.m., so Roger and I canoed up to the next village, about 4 miles away. Near to the village, was a house and garden with an Emu and Lamas. We went up a small tributary where we saw more terrapins. We had a very good view of a Golden Oriole and saw Bee-eaters and a lot of Azure-Winged Magpies, which are a beautiful grey-blue colour. We stopped on the river bank and had a picnic and read. When the tide turned we canoed back to Pomarao. It was harder going back because the wind was against us.

There were about five Dutch campervans parked up. We had tea on the boat and then went on Dennis and Wendy’s boat for a drink.

WILDLIFE: Bee-eaters, Golden Oriole, Azure-Winged Magpie

Pomarao, Rio Guadiana

Making use of the local Wash House

THURSDAY 1 MAY 2008

It is a public holiday today in Portugal with Fiestas in most villages, but Pomarao is having their fiesta on Saturday. Roger and I did our washing in the village wash house.

There are no shops in Pomarao, but a bread van comes most days, a veg van comes Wednesday and Saturdays, and a cheese van on Saturdays. There is also a fish van. There is a bus every Tuesday to Mertola. A man of about 40 (who looks about 30) keeps chickens and sells his eggs.

I packed a picnic and we walked into the hills, passing through the beautiful village of Farao where we chatted to a very friendly old Portuguese lady over her garden wall. We found a lovely spot under a tree to have our picnic. On the way we had seen Bee-eaters, a Hoopoe and the rare Golden Oriole and a fox. We decide to try and do a circular route back to the village, but we ended up going through undergrowth with very spikey bushes. We had to clamber up a steep wall and ended up in someone’s vegetable patch! 

We had a drink in the bar in Pomarao and chatted to the Dutch couple again and a local, called Fernando, about birds that we’d seen and birds of the area. The villagers still talk about the flood of 1997 when the water level in the river rose by 30 feet!

We had dinner in the bar with Dennis and Wendy. We had pork, belly pork, salad, herby rice, chips a pudding of sweet pudding, coffees, brandies and 2 bottles of wine – all for 34 euros for the 4 of us!

WILDLIFE: Fox, Bee-eaters, Hoopoe, Golden Oriole

Pomarao , Rio Guadiana

Susannah in Pomarao

WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 2008

Roger spent the morning trying to find leaks, and then the water pump stopped working altogether. We motored the two miles to Pomarao and tied up next to a boat on the pontoon. We met a Dutchman, Jap, whose sailing boat was also on the pontoon, but he lives in the village. He said he’d set off four years ago, but arrived here, fell in love with a woman and has never left.

Roger worked on the water pump most of the afternoon. He managed to get it working, but it still would not pressurize up properly when put in place. We’re going to buy a new water pump when we get to Isla Christina and see if that solves the problem. In the meantime, we have no pressurized water, only the hand pump.

We chatted to Manolo, who was fishing from Yap’s boat. He spoke very good English as he had lived in Holland for 30 years and worked as a translator. He told us a new bridge is being built which will link Pomarao with Spain. He said some in the village had been for it and some against – someone had even called in Greenpeace! It will mean the villagers can get better medical care in Spain, better provisions and cheaper petrol, but will mean more people passing through the village and may spoil the peace and quiet of the place. A hill overlooking the river is already being scared up to make the road. We went to the bar for a drink and chatted to the Dutch couple from the campervan and a Swedish couple who are anchored in the river.

We went back to the boat for a BBQ and chatted to an English couple, Dennis and Wendy, whose boat Dingaling is moored behind us. They live in Lagos and knew some of the people we had met there.

Facilities: Free pontoon; no water or electricity. Some houses have no running water so there is a public toilet and shower block which visitors can use for free.

Rio Guadiana, Near Pomarao

MONDAY 28 APRIL 2008

Roger in the water!

It was a beautiful warm day, and I spent most of the time reading and relaxing in the hammock, listening to the exotic sound of the bee-eaters. A pair of bee-eaters seems to stay close to the bank near the boat. A family from a British yacht flying a Welsh flag passed us going up to Pomarao, and later in the afternoon they came to visit us. David is from Swansea, Sarah still works from the boat, and their two children, Bethany and Bryn, are being educated by their parents and learning history and geography as they sail to different places. David had been in Swansea Yacht Club until about 10 years ago, and knew a lot of the people we know.

We had another Bar-B-Que and listened to music in the cockpit.

WILDLIFE: Bee-eaters


TUESDAY 29 APRIL 2008

There was quite a cold wind yesterday, so we stayed on the boat all day. It was warmer and sunnier today, although the wind piped up later on. We had showers on the boat, and then the water pump wouldn’t turn itself off, which probably means there’s a leak somewhere. We pumped up the canoe and went up about 2 miles upriver to the quiet, remote Portuguese village of Pomarao. We had a coffee in the Association bar and walked to the Dam which borders Spain. After a picnic, we had a drink in the bar where we met a Dutch couple who spend their winters in Portugal in a camper van, and have been coming to Pomarao for about 4 years.

We canoed downstream, past Susannah, to the Rio Vascao tributary, passing terrapins who dived into the water as we passed. There is a beautiful area where there is a small dam which has formed lovely pools for swimming in. The water is clear and quite warm. We got back o the boat about 7 p.m. and found a message in a bottle! The Welsh family had drawn a detailed map of the river and how to get to Pomarao, avoiding the mud bank and the obstructions left since the last big flood, which included fridges and cars! Roger started searching for the leaks in our water system and found a pipe had blown off the watermaker. He fixed that, but there was still a problem. He found another small leak in the cockpit, but still the water pump didn’t pressure up properly. It got too late to see properly, so we left this problem until tomorrow.

Ayamonte to Near Pomarao, Rio Guadiana - 23 Miles

BBQ on the Rio Guadiano

SATURDAY 26 APRIL 2008    

We provisioned the boat in the nearby supermarket and had an excellent lunch at a restaurant near the Marina. We left Ayamonte about 2 p.m. and about a mile up the river we ran aground! (I was driving). We also had to go under the suspension bridge, which seemed very low. We motored up the Rio Guadiana with Portugal on the left and Spain on the right. The scenery was spectacular, with the occasional white house or small village on the river banks. 

Most yachts were anchored between Sanlucar de Guadiana (Spain) and Alcoutim (Portugal), where we saw John and Carol (Taio) and Pauline and Andy (Odile) about to anchor, and we hooted Verna and Anna (Sailaway) as we passed. We dropped anchor about 6 p.m. 2 miles south of Pomarao in a beautiful and peaceful spot, with only the sounds of birds. We saw a pair of brightly coloured bee-eaters on the Spanish side of the river. Bee-eaters have bright red and pale yellow upper parts with greenish wings, and are blue underneath.

It was a lovely warm evening so we had a BBQ – the first one since before we left the U.K!

WILDLIFE: Bee-eaters

Mazagon to Ayamonte

Ayamonte

A square in Ayamonte
Originally uploaded by Yacht Susann

THURSDAY 24 APRIL 2008

It was a lovely, warm day and we had breakfast in the marina café. We left Mazagon about 11 a.m. and sailed for a bit, and then Roger put the Cruising Shute up. He had the usual tangles and it was over an hour before he managed to sort it out. We were only doing about 2 knots, so after lunch we motor sailed. 

We were going to go to Rompido, but the entrance is rather tricky as there isn’t much water, the sands shift, and the buoys are not always kept up to date. As it was calm, we thought we would try to get in, but because it was only at half tide, we run aground, so we decided to go straight to Ayamonte, just up the Rio Guadiana and on the border with Portugal.

Carol and John on Taio were there when we arrived, having just done a night sail from Tangiers and we had a drink with them later on.

Marina: 26.59 euros - 2 nights

Chipona to Mazagon - 32 Miles

Santa Maria

TUESDAY 22 APRIL 2008

We had a leisurely start and left about 11 a.m. What wind there was was on the nose, so we motor-sailed. A sea breeze got going later in the afternoon and we sailed for the last couple of hours, arriving at Mazagon about 5 p.m. Pauline and Andy (Odile), were on the Welcome pontoon as we arrived.

Marina: 26.59 euros - 2 nights; Lovely Marina, free Internet in the café which does excellent breakfasts and Menu del Dias.

WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL 2008

MAZAGON

Roger and I got a taxi to La Rabida, about 6 kilometres from Mazagon. La Rabida was where Christopher Columbus left on his voyages to the Caribbean, and there is a very interesting exhibition about the voyages and sailing in the 15th Century. There are also replicas of Christopher Columbus’s fleet, The Nina, The Pinta and The Santa Maria which you can board, and a replica of a 15th Century Spanish village. La Rabida is on marshland, which is also a nature reserve, and we heard hundreds of frogs singing.

In the evening, we had a drink with Pauline and Andy on their boat and went for an excellent meal in an Italian Restaurant in Mazagon.

WILDLIFE: Coots, frogs

Gelves to Chipona - 49 Miles

MONDAY 21 APRIL 2008

Flamingoes flying past Susannah

The last two or three weeks’ discussion amongst the visiting yachts in Gelves has been about when everyone is leaving. April is here and the yachties are keen to migrate, some to the north, some to the south. A couple of boats left a week or so ago; one for the Baltic and the other for the Rio Guadiana. Carol and John on Taio left last week bound for Tangiers, Pauline and Andy on Odile and Duncan and Rachel were due to leave today with us. Linda and John will have to stay another week or two as Linda needs dental work.

The weather has been unsettled with rain and strong winds on and off for the past two weeks, but is set to improve from today. In fact, yesterday was so windy, our pants and socks which were drying on a whirly gig, disappeared and must have blown off into the river. It could be called an exposed anchorage!

We left just after high tide (having slept through the alarm!) at 8.15 with a cool wind blowing. We were worried about getting under the Electricity Pylon, particularly as the river is about a meter higher than Mean High Water Springs because of all the recent rain. Another worrying factor was that another boat had caught it’s mast in the pylon a couple of weeks ago!

We made good progress, going about 8.5 with the tide, slowing to about 3.5 for the last hour or so when the tide was against us. There was a cool Force 5 wind most of the way. We saw some wonderful birdlife. The Rio Guadalquivir borders the enormous Parque Nacional de Donana, and has some of the most important natural ecosystems in Europe. Having visited the Parque with Chris and Jane in a 4 x 4 trip, we were able to identify more birds this time. The highlight was a flock of flamingos that passed very close to the boat. We also saw Bee-eaters, Spoonbills, Purple Herons, Egrets, Black Kite and White Storks.

We arrived in Chipiona about 3.30 p.m. and checked in with the Marina. They asked us to go back to the office later as they didn’t think we had paid all of our marina fees from last November when we had stayed for four nights. When we went back, it turns out that they knew we had paid for the four nights, but the Marinero had said we had also stayed on 23 November. I had the bill which proved we were in Gelves on that night, so the matter was resolved!

We wanted to go to Pacos, the Restaurant by the Marina for a meal, because it was closed the whole of November when we were here last. We now found out it also closes on Mondays! Chipiona seems half deserted, but we used the GPS map on my phone and eventually found a bar/restaurant that was open.

Marina: 13.29 euros, no WiFi. Andalucia has a chain of government run Marinas which all charge the same price and are extremely reasonable.

Wildlife: Flamingos, Bee-eaters, Spoonbills, Purple Herons, Egrets, Black Kite and White Storks.