Ancient engravings in a beautiful valley

Trip Start Nov 27, 2009

146

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Portugal Castelo Melhor, Guarda, Portugal
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Paleolithic engravings were found fairly recently in a valley in the north of Portugal and they've been taking visitors in by jeep for 12 years. There's no other way to see the rare engravings, and so we rang them up on the spur of the moment to see if we could hitch a lift in one of their jeeps for a guided tour. We were in luck, and an hour later we were descending a very bumpy track down into a beautiful almond-blossom filled valley. The clans gathered in the summer months in this valley. It is not known where they went during the winter, but the hills would have been covered in ice. It was much colder, about 35 degrees colder.

Viewing the engravings

On the way to the village to meet the jeep, we spotted some village women gathered gossiping and shelling almonds by hand, so Laura used one of her few Portuguese phrases "Posso?" (May I?) and managed to get them to pose for a picture!

Shelling almonds the old fashioned way!

After the rock art, we stayed for a couple of days at a really nice aire nearby with a free, clean shower (such luxury!). We met a lovely couple, Jenny and George.

Meeting Jenny and George

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Chasing the almond blossom across Portugal	Castelo Melhor in almond country	16 engravings made regularly over 10000 years	Can you tell what it is yet????
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