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Twin towns of Sanlucar & Alcutim
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| looking across to the Spanish side |
This seems to be a ‘mecca’ for cruisers and lots of boats
come here specifically to spend the winter months. The weather is fair, the
river is sheltered and most importantly, free to anchor. We know several people
who have arrived here in boats, fallen in love with the place and bought a
little plot of land along the shore, where they have built their own little
house, or ‘finca’. We were hoping to find several other families with children,
but although there were lots of Brits on boats, none had children on board.
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Wall art on the local school, depicting the town
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| Wall art on the local school, depicting the river |
There wasn’t a lot in each town, just a basic mini-market
and a few little shops and bars in each. However, all your needs were catered
for in various ways: the library on the Portuguese side provided free internet,
and an English bookswap. A bread van came through every morning for fresh
bread, and there was a market on Saturday morning for meat, fish and
vegetables. The café on the square barbequed chickens on a Sunday lunchtime,
where the whole family could dine out for £25, drinks included. And the local
bar had ‘music night’ every Tuesday, where anybody was welcome to play.
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| Sunday roast chickens |
One thing that has changed since our visit to Portugal ten
years ago is the welcome addition of recycling bins everywhere, even in a small
town such as Alcutim. They have a simple system - small bins on the top that
empty directly into large holding tanks below. These can then be emptied easily
and less frequently by a recycling company.
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| Clever recycling system |
From our anchorage, we could see both towns with their
castles, and the two picturesque old windmills atop the hill on the Spanish
side. Sheep and a few cows roamed on a little farm on the hillside, and we
could hear the continual tinkle of their cowbells as they moved around. We
could also hear the church bells throughout the day The two countries are in
different time zones, so the Portuguese church rang first - 8 bells at 8
o’clock; then three minutes later, the Spanish bells rang out – nine bells for
9 o’clock! The Portuguese church also rang out a tune on the bells, but instead
of them being rung by hand, there was a recording of the tune that blared out
from speakers every hour!
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| Church bells at Sanlucar |
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| Sanlucar castle |
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| exploring in the dinghy |
There was also a zipwire across the river, running right
above our mast. It was fun to watch people zipping across the sky over us. It
was apparently the second-longest zipwire in Europe, and since you start in
Spain, you land in Portugal 58 minutes earlier than you set off! We walked up
to the Spanish castle one afternoon and visited the hut at the start of the
zipwire. It was closed that day due to strong winds but certainly looked a long
and steep way down!
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looking down the zipwire, its landing is in the field across the river
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| Dave attempts the zipwire |
Just upstream was a little river off the main channel. The
children and I took the dinghies and kayak up there for an ‘expedition’. With
tall trees hanging over the banks, and kingfishers flitting about, it felt like
we were off up the Amazon. Reuben did really well on his own in the kayak,
until we came to a mass of bamboo blocking the river. Bamboo grows wild all
along the river banks, and after heavy rain, washes down the river in ‘rafts’,
getting caught around anchor chains and, in our case, river bends. It was
possible to force our way over the top, and we soon came to the end of the
navigable river – a weir, with ‘waterfalls’ gushing over the top. We moored on
the bank and got out to explore.
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| expedition up the river |
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| blocked by bamboo |
The road crossed above the weir and there was a very
unlikely-looking white sandy beach. The Spanish town had apparently started it
all by creating a sandy beach on their shore, so the Portuguese had followed
suit and imported a load of sand to make a ’praia fluvial’ or ‘river beach’ for
their town. A small bar sat at the top of the beach, with music and umbrellas ready
for the busy summer months!
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River beach and weir
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We heard from various sources that there would be a Bonfire
night celebration on this beach. We duly turned up at the bar at the appointed
hour, only to find … nothing! Not a bonfire or a stick of wood in sight. We got
ourselves a beer and waited with the rest of the crowd to see what might
materialise. The (Portuguese) man who lived opposite had suggested the idea,
but he was apparently ill with the flu. Oh well, the local bar at least would
profit, and we made the most of chatting to the other cruisers.
Suddenly a call came for all strong men to help – a van
loaded with wood had arrived! Within no time, a brazier had been placed on the
beach, and a small but cheery bonfire was soon blazing. Somebody handed out
miniature sparklers for the children. The grown-ups gathered around the fire
and chatted while the children were happy digging in the sand. We contrasted
the mild temperatures with the amount of layers we normally wear on Bonfire
Night in England!
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| Foggy mornings |
It is definitely getting autumnal even in Portugal.We had a
few wet and windy days to begin with, then a spell of settled weather. The
mornings started off misty up the river, but by 10 .30 it had burnt off, and by
lunchtime, temperatures reached 22 to 25 degrees. Our tomato plant was
suffering from the colder nights but still producing fruit! Dave decided to
take advantage of the weather (and the calm waters) and paint the hull. We had
anti-fouled the bottom of the boat before leaving but the topsides were
starting to look very shabby.
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| tomato plant |
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| tomato harvest |
It was hard to paint the waterline from the dinghy with a
constant stream of dinghies passing by, so we motored further up the river to a
quiet anchorage off another tributary, the Vascau river. While Dave sanded in
the mornings, the children and I did ‘school’. We all had a break for lunch,
then the children amused themselves while I helped Dave do a little painting in
the afternoon, and we all went exploring in the late afternoon when it was a
little cooler.
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looking down over the anchorage at Ros
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| A 'school' play about wartime, with home-made gasmasks |
We took the dinghies up the Vascau river, over the remains
of a Roman watermill, and further upstream to a lovely pebble beach where the
river bubbles over a sort of ‘rapids’. The water was shallow enough at the edge
to paddle but deep enough in the middle to swim, if you could ignore the big
splashes of unknown fish nearby. We had collected wood along the way and made a
little bonfire on the beach to cook our tea. The children loved this, although
we had to abandon the bonfire when the sun went down as we had forgotten a
torch and had to find our way down the river and over the weir again in the pitch
dark.
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Bonfire on the banks of the Vascau
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| reflections on the Vascau river |
This was a wonderful anchorage, far from civilisation, and
with clear starry skies every night. We all sat out at night, wrapped in
blankets, marvelling at the number of stars above and trying to spot
satellites. Dave and I saw five shooting stars one evening after the children
were in bed. Katie had spotted one earlier, but Reuben is very disappointed not
to have seen any yet.
Being in the middle of nowhere also forced us to bake our
own bread. I have been trying to bake bread for many years with limited success.
No matter what recipe I use, it turns out hard as rock and burnt on top. I had
all but given up in recent years, relying on half-baked baguettes at sea. We
had been unable to find these in Portugal, so it was back to old-fashioned
kneading.
Our first attempt was disappointing. The children were delighted
and declared the bread ‘delicious’, until they had two or three bites, then
Reuben suggested that perhaps we shouldn’t eat any more! The second attempt was
made with a fresh packet of yeast and optimism, and when we peeked at the
proving loaves, and saw they had risen enormously, there was huge excitement.
Once baked, the bread was not only edible, but so delicious that we ate most of
it in one sitting!
Now that we have cracked the secret (fresh yeast and a
tealight in the oven while proving), the children look forward to baking days
and like to make fancy design for their loaves!
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Kneading bread
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| Edible bread!! |
We took the dinghy further up the river to a place called
Pomarao. This was a tiny village, with just a couple of cafes and a church to
its name. It had originally been a mining town, digging out iron ore and other
metals a little way inland, and transporting them by train to Pomarao to be
loaded onto ships. The workers cottages remained, ranged up the hillsides in
neat rows, most still inhabited judging by the washing fluttering outside. It
is hard to imagine how people make a living here nowadays, but they certainly
had a fine view down the river.
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view from Pomarao houses
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| Pomarao dam |
There was a huge dam built right next to the town of
Pomarao. We climbed to the church on the hilltop and could look down over the
dam to the water it contained, then we motored to the bottom of the dam in the
dinghy and looked up at the front wall. It looked immense from that that
perspective! Motoring back down the river, we saw lots of bamboo ‘islands’,
some of which had an egret or a heron standing on them as they floated
downstream, quite a comical sight.
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| Egret island |
There was a lovely winding path along the hills on the
Spanish side, and I was keen to go for a walk, so we arranged for Dave to drop
us ashore one morning. We hadn’t thought about the tide though, and found it
was too low to land at the tree he had earmarked. We followed the river up a little
way but the vegetation along the banks was too thick to get through without a
machete. We returned to the original spot, and Dave gallantly waded through the
mud with each of us on his shoulders – anything to get a couple of hours peace!
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| Katie gets carried ashore |
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| Team leaders |
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| bamboo along river banks |
We followed a well-marked path all the way along the river
to la Laja, another old mining village. It was lovely to get off the boat and see
the river from a different perspective. , from where you realise just how
enormous the bamboo and bramble thickets along the banks really are.
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| Freshly painted |
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| Hazel & Katie at La Laja |
After a week of sanding and painting, Ros Ailither was
looking much more like her smart self, and it was time to get on the move
again. We returned to Alcutim for the weekly market, and to say goodbye to our
friends on ‘Spirit of Mystery’. We then met a recently-returned British family
on a boat who are going to spend the winter there, and have enrolled their
children in the local school. There are apparently six children in each class.
We had a lovely afternoon on the river beach with them all,
and an evening listening to live music on the Spanish side, then we waved
farewell and headed off down the river. We stopped at the sizeable Spanish town
of Ayamonte at the base of the river, and were overwhelmed at the selection in
the supermarket there. Back in the land of choice!
The tide was right first thing in the morning to leave to
get over the sand bar, and it was lovely to get back into clear blue water
again. We have had three lovely days cruising towards Gibraltar, with picnic
lunches and ‘school’ out on deck. Dave rigged up ‘swings’ for the children from
the top of the mast and they are getting braver and braver on them!
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Reuben on the swing
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| Katie's new trick!! |
