It’s 4.00pm. The tent is up 100m away. Its hot. I’m in the bar knocking the froth off a chilled Sagres cerveja. What more could you want?

The end of today’s walk is really the middle of nowhere. The guide notes recommend you arrange a taxi out and then a return one back the next day. Today is one if the few times carrying the tent on this hike has paid off.

Thought I’d show you where I am on Google maps. So here is the map of the local area around Vale Seco. Spot the bar…

It’s not like England though – 4G works fine here.

Today’s hike was hot. Fairly low level, and no shade so have been simmering gently all day. First couple of hours on the edge of forest, but mainly fields for the rest of the day.

Today’s highlights were mostly manmade. The first was rather unexpected…

It’s obvious they must have reservoirs, but for some reason it was still a surprise.

There was a cafe at lunch time (emergency cheese sandwich and fanta). They had examples inside of how corks are made. The corks are cut along the grain of the bark.

Thinking about it, the size of the opening on a wine bottle is probably dictated by the thickness of cork bark?

A further manmade highlight was provided by a windmill.

Today’s one bit of nature was another butterfly, although not quite as obliging as yesterday’s, so he/she wasn’t framed as well.

Even today’s flower was manmade – I think it’s a sweet pea escaped from someone’s garden.