Angela went on a guided walk led by one of the campsite staff this afternoon. The walk was about 7km through the countryside around the campsite and was very pleasant but unremarkable. As usual, all sleeping dogs were roused as the walkers passed by and continued to perform their noisy duty until they were a speck in the distance.
Some of the almond trees are in blossom. The guide, Pedro (yes, really) told us an old Portuguese legend. Once upon a time a Portuguese King married a Nordic princess and brought her to Portugal to be his queen. She missed the snow so much that she became very unhappy and the King decreed that everyone in the land must plant almond trees. When the queen looked out of her window in the winter she saw white blossom covering the land which looked like snow and this made her very happy. The end.
Angela was more impressed by the cork oaks that they passed. The bark of the cork oak tree is stripped by hand as you can see in the photos. Portugal produces over half of the world's cork and there are many cork shops in every town selling everything you can think of made in cork from handbags, purses and shoes to mobile phone cases and cycle panniers.
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| Partly stripped cork oak tree |
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| Partly stripped cork oak tree |
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