The plan was hatched on the banks of the Rio Minho – has there ever been a more beautiful setting to scheme and plan the bare bones of our route around Northern Portugal?! We had found a quiet setting under trees, just next door to a cute bar on a spur of land with a swing seat, on the fast flowing river separating Portugal from Spain. In fact, starting the day off with a swim is always good, so the first plan hatched was to swim across to Spain the following morning (with one of us on the SUP to keep us both safe!); however, even these intrepid adventurers had to concede that the current was too strong so we opted for the calm lagoon instead.

Any readers who are not up-to-date with who “we” are, will have to read this to discover more about my Intrepid Adventuring Soulmate – let’s just call him Mr Intrepid for now! As for our mode of transport? After selling Gloria and having a fabulous experience in Bruce, we had taken the big step to buy our very own motorhome and at last, after hunting high and low for the configuration and mileage we were after, we had found the perfect one. Smaller than Gloria, she is set up for just two happy campers (visitors be warned – you will be in tents!) and is perfect for our needs. But what to call her? Every motorhome needs a name and hers came to me in a moment of clarity on the beach whilst witnessing yet another glorious sunset; I love the sea, sand, sunset, sky……wait, sky – what about Skye?? With my family connections to the island in Scotland and my vocation in the sky, it just felt right; Mr Interpid, not being in the habit of naming vehicles, was just happy that I was happy, so Skye came into being and she was promptly christened with a bottle of bubbly 🍾🥂(drunk by us, not smashed over her bonnet!).

Our journey had started from Porto airport and, on our way up to the river we had enjoyed a couple of great beach nightstops (well, it’s Portugal, so unfailingly great goes without saying – I have yet to come across a bad one!) and a detour to the monastery of Santa Luzia; one of the joys of life on the road, is that you can detour whenever a sight takes your fancy. The views from here were magnificent…..

So, back to the plan, what did we hatch? We decided not to stay fairly local and spend the majority of our time getting to know Parque National Pineda-Gerês. We also stumbled upon a method for planning that worked so well that it will inevitably become the blueprint for our future adventures; mark all the viewpoints/waterfalls/castles/sights on google maps, find a central point in a cluster of them and stay there for a couple of nights – that was it, planning complete in under 30 minutes! First stop, via the huge fortress of Valenca, was Lindoso, where we found an ideal a camping spot just below the medieval castle.

Mr Intrepid had done the (almost!) impossible and brought our two bikes up from Loulé up by train, so it was time to make all his efforts worthwhile and put them to good use. Our big ride the following day took in the huge reservoir with almost no water (drought conditions of this area are upsettingly extreme), a couple of waterfalls, the granaries of Soajo (we had originally thought they were some sort of weird tombs, so were relieved to find out their true purpose) and complete off-road detour to a magical sliver of river with inviting pools divided by cascading water. No swimsuits…..no problem, as it had been a 45’ thorny, rocky, tree-strewn, bike-carrying path to get there, surely no one else would be mad enough to attempt it? Sometimes in life, things are worth fighting for and this swim, the best moment in our day, was certainly one of those!

The equally arduous uphill route back to the road resulted in Mr Intrepid suffering a slow puncture but,in his typical no-nonsense manner, he simply stopped to pump his tyre up every now and then, giving me the perfect excuse to grab a breather. We were definitely happy to get back to the castle (castles are generally built on high ground……it was a long uphill slog back to Skye and her very welcome onboard shower. Clean and recovered, it was time for some food – have barbecued sardines ever tasted so good?!

The next day involved plenty of hiking and two more swims in different waterfalls (swimsuits on this time!) before arriving at our next stop on the Cávado River just below Gêres. It is called a river, but for all intents and purposes, it looks like a lake with watersports and a marina – in fact, that is where we found we were able to park up for a couple of nights, with a perfect view to enjoy both by night and at first light……

What better way to explore this stunning piece of water than on our Stand-Up Paddleboard, taking it in turn to paddle (or “sky an oar”….how appropriate!). The silence, broken only by the splash of the paddle, the birdsong, the sun on our backs and the beauty of the surrounding pine forests and clear water made for a truly magical experience. Navigating up to the head of the small river that feeds this lake, we beached the board and made our way up a series of rocks to swim and bask in the sun like lazy seals. Having not brought much lunch with us, Mr Intrepid went off hunting; one of our goals of the trip was to find wild juicy oranges (and lemons 🍋 for the G&Ts later!) and he came back with an armful – the simple pleasures in life are sometimes the best 🍊 😊

Our drive to Guimarães encompassed yet another waterfall; we thought we had seen them all, but it seems as though we saved the best one for last! This was also one that I had hiked to the previous year, so it was very special to share it with my Fellow Adventurer. Guimarães was just a taster this time, as we need to spend a good couple of days here in “the birthplace of Portugal”sometime, with its well-preserved medieval castle, palace, monastery amidst a maze of cobbled streets.

Our destination that night was Amarante set on the banks of the Rio Tâmega. For the sake of brevity, I’ll let the pictures do the talking; the most memorable moments were swimming just downstream of the weir and experiencing the local pastry offering!

And so, finally, we were back in Porto where we spent a wonderful day biking around Portugal’s enchanting second city.

And so to the end of Skye’s maiden voyage and what a trip it has been, encompassing all manner of wild swim spots, fresh air and exercise, city and nature at is best. Above all, Skye has proved to be the perfect purchase for the pair of us; she is the ideal size, incredibly comfortable, carries all our various sports equipment without complaint, is more nimble than her predecessor (sorry Gloria!) and gives us the belief that our dream of so many more exciting roadtrips ahead will become a reality. Our gratitude for finding you, Skye, is immense 🙏