Climbing in the Serra da Estrela

 Leaving after breakfast at Memmo, we drove north out of Lisbon. We'd planned a scenic route through the Beira Literal but switched last moment as the news filled with the terrible loss of lives in forest fires around Pedrógão Grande. It was the beginning, as it turned out, of a devastating summer of wild fires across Portugal and Spain.

Sticking to national roads we drove instead via Castelo Branco, into the Serra da Estrela. Up and up, along hectically winding roads to Manteigas in the huge mountainous Parque Nacional nature reserve ...

and from there climbing even higher to Penhas Douradas, at one of the highest points of the Serra.

Next morning we took a long walk along a mountain trail, passing occasional homes. 

While wondering whether anyone really lives up here, we crossed paths with an elderly couple who actually do live in one of these homes with extraordinary views across the mountaintops and valley. 

As we stopped to chat and asked them the way to a Miradouro we wanted to climb to, the man and his wife bickered pleasantly about which path we should take, but ultimately reached consensus, and so we set off.

With these views over the county seat (Manteigas) and the Zêzere glacier valley, with its huge granite formations and wild pine forests, it felt to me like the roof of Portugal. 

Reaching the final ascent to the miradouro and the rock climbing it entailed, we agreed we'd probably been over-ambitious ... but conquer it we did.

 

It was back to lie under the trees next to the pool for the rest of the day, before an early start the next morning.

There was time for a last look across the beautiful Serra before a long drive across the border and northern Spain ...

Serra da Estrela, Portugal

Day 15, Iberian road trip, June 2017