Guardia to Arginal

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The weather was still cold and showery in the morning, but we braved the conditions and walked around the historic centre of Guardia to look at its very prominent cathedral. A visit to the post office meant we could ring O2 in England and finally get our mobile working again was it had been out of action for a few days. We rang David our son in England who was walking along Balham High Street in London in shirt and shorts while we were shivering in Portugal!

From Guardia we drove south and then west through the the Parque Natural da Serra da Elstrela, at 2,000m, the highest mountains in Portugal. The hillsides were a glorious yellow and purple being covered in flowering gorse and heather. As we dropped out of the hills, we followed the lovely valley of the Rio Alva and stayed the night at Arginal after having driven along a very rough 12k road twice due to the site at Gois, our intended stop, being closed.

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