Blessed by the Sun

No wonder that, in the 6th century, a monk decided that this would be a great location for a monastery. St. Finbarr, however, that to expel a certain giant snake from the local grounds first... A closer perspective I took before the valley panorama I previously posted. At this moment sunrise had just emerged, yet the Irish winds were still asleep, leaving the lake undisturbed.

Gougane Barra, Ballingeary, County Cork, Ireland
2019, October

Fecha de Barjas – a new perspective

The first publications I did for this blog were photographs taken from this location. Recently, I repeated the short trail to Fecha de Barjas waterfalls. Yet, I had few hopes of witnessing the full glory of River Arado, as Portugal has had the driest April of the last 90 years. Nonetheless, the river was there, scarce, but still flowing. The bottom half of this sequence of waterfalls is so dominant over the landscape that visitors (as I did before) tend to focus on the closest perspectives. This time, I focused on framing perspectives more afar.
The shepherd’s shelter, built on top of the cliff, exhibits both the hardship of older times but also how close traditional rural life was with the beauty of Nature. When Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Fallingwater house, already some Portuguese inhabitant of Gerês Mountains had done some similar.

Ermida, Terras de Bouro, Serra do Gerês, Portugal
2017, April

Mountain Shelters - III

The shelter of Cabana de Bouças de Areias, in the higher altitudes of Cabreira Mountain Range, stands as a memory of ancient and far harder lives than those we can enjoy nowadays. It has served and still shelters shepherds, hunters and any mountaineer seeking a refuge from the mountain’s harsh weather conditions. It is also a good example of culture preservation, as the local municipality of Vieira do Minho has taken efforts to restore it while preserving its authenticity

Serra da Cabreira, Portugal
2017, Março

Mountain shelters - Curral da Lomba do Vidoeiro

Curral da Lomba do Vidoeiro Shelter, in proper winter dressing.

Serra do Gerês, Portugal
2017, February

Mountain shelters ( Abrigos de Montanha )

Shelters are reminiscent of harder times, when shepherds where kept away from their homes and forced to stay in mountains attending their herds. Mountain shelters have taken many forms, from rudimentary caves below piled up boulders to small houses built with the surrounding materials. Some are privately owned (or are in privately owned lands), others have simply become forsaken. While these could still serve mountaineers or anyone seeking a temporary shelter for a night over in the region, many of them can be found in an appalling state: some are nothing more than ruins; others are decayed, flooded or vandalised.
Yet, they were not forgotten. Recently, local municipalities, like Vieira do Minho Municipality, or even groups of individuals that simply aim at preserving the cultural heritage of these sites have taken efforts in rebuilding some of these shelters and restoring them to usability. Now, maintaining them in proper condition, e.g. clean, is far more dependent on civilized use than in weathering.
However, other attempts at restoring mountain shelters have bumped into bureaucratic and even legal bumps. National authorities like ICNF seem to disdain people’s voluntary efforts in restoring and maintaining these shelters and basically rule for abandonment and decay. Why? I speculate that some ICNF’s representatives carry an older (I was going to write obsolete) and very basic mentality. Other more plausible reason might be the lack of means, i.e. manpower, to supervise their correct usage. In either possibilities, there is an absurd lack of trust towards mountaineers and nature enthusiasts: those that would preserve and give shelters their proper use: sheltering.

Os abrigos de montanha são monumentos (não reconhecidos) remanescentes de outros tempos, próprios de vidas mais difíceis, de quando era necessário permanecer na montanha para o pastoreio. Os abrigos tomaram muitas formas, desde uma simples caverna debaixo de um penedo a casas rudimentares, construídas com os materiais locais. Uns são propriedade privada ou estão em propriedades privadas, outros foram simplesmente abandonados. Estes poderiam servir os montanheiros ou qualquer pessoa que procurasse um abrigo temporário ou passar uma noite em contexto de montanha. No entanto, muitos deles encontram-se num estado deplorável: uns nada mais são que ruínas; outros estão a decair, inundados ou simplesmente vandalizados.
Por um lado, os abrigos de montanha não foram esquecidos. Algumas autarquias locais, como o Município de Vieira do Minho, ou mesmo grupos de indivíduos que simplesmente ambicionam preservar a herança cultural destes sítios, tomaram esforços em recuperar alguns destes abrigos e restaurar-lhes a usabilidade. Agora, mantê-los em condições próprias é bem mais dependente do civismo que quem os visita do que da exposição ao clima.
No entanto, algumas tentativas de recuperar abrigos de montanha embateram em processos burocráticos e mesmo impedimentos legais. Autoridades nacionais como o ICNF preterem os esforços voluntários de cidadãos em restaurar e manter estes abrigos em prol do abandonamento e consequente ruína. Apenas posso especular que alguns representantes do ICNF simplesmente arrastam consigo uma mentalidade antiga e muito básica. Um outro motivo, plausível, é a falta de meios humanos para uma fiscalização própria do uso dos abrigos. No entanto, ambos os motivos partilham uma total falta de confiança nos montanheiros ou de qualquer verdeiro entusiasta da Natureza: aqueles que saberiam preservar e dariam o melhor uso aos abrigos de montanha: abrigo.

Serra da Cabreira, Portugal
2017, February