5th May TORRE DE MONCORVO - CASTELO BRANCO

We woke up to blue skies and warmth, it was so nice after all the miserable rain we’ve been having. We drove to Donkey Quinta; well as far as we have ever been in the van, each time we’ve visited before we’ve parked up and then travelled the track in the back of the estate agents car. This time we parked up and walked the track (about a mile) with a tape measure; the van is 85” wide, we wanted to see how far along the track we could drive the van without damage – we are now quite optimistic that with carefully manoeuvring (and the trimming of some low branches) we should be able to drive the van all the way to Donkey Quinta, we are so happy!

It was lovely walking along the track, the scenery is breathtaking. With mountains in the background and the scent of orange blossom in the air; orange and olive groves and vineyards line the track,

and growing in the verges are a mass of wildflowers including foxgloves, lavender, sweetpea, campion, rocket, cranesbill and a host of other flowers I’ve yet to learn the names of.

The birds were singing and the cicadas  were making their noise (rubbing their wing cases?) and we saw a rabbit run across the track, it was idyllic. We will be contacting the estate agents on Monday.

We’ve come back to the campsite we used when we were viewing properties in this area the first time around, two months ago; we’re hoping that tomorrow we’ll be able to do some washing, we haven’t been able to do any for about a month and we’re running out of clothes.