Once dominant…

Standing for ages passed and thriving for another day, this noble and ancient being is bathed by early sunlight. Portuguese northern forests were once dominated by oak trees… Some things should never change.

Common oak, penduculate oak; carvalho-alvarinho, carvalho-roble – Quercus robur

Terras de Bouro, Portugal
2017, April

Summer nights

A panoramic nightscape, taken from the trail that leads to the submerged village of Vilarinho das Furnas, in the heart of Peneda-Gerês National Park. Even in a clear summer night, the dam’s reservoir and the surrounding autochthonous forests fill the valley with moist air, creating clouds that quickly dissipate with the wind. While this region is fairly deep in Homem River’s valley, when facing West, light pollution from the nearby villages and the large city of Braga dominates the horizon.

Terras de Bouro, Portugal
2017, July

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

Standing tall among giants

A granny's nightcap - Aquilegia vulgaris stretches towards the scarce sunlight that penetrates the dense woods of Mata da Albergaria.

European columbine, granny's nightcap, aquilégia [PT]  - Aquilegia vulgaris

Terras de Bouro, Portugal
2017, April

Hello sunshine

The western mountains of Gerês shining with the rising Sun, while the deep valley of Cávado River still hanging in the twilight. Interestingly, while I was taking this photograph in a rather inhabited region of Gerês Mountain Range, I was also overlooking one of the most populated and well known touristic locations: the two bridges over Cávado River and the villages of Rio Caldo and Vilar da Veiga. This perspective also illustrates the balance between Nature and human population within the Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG).

Terras de Bouro, Portugal
2017, April