July 19, 2007
A walk along the Douro
Three hours by train from Porto, the rolling vineclad hills of the valley are perfect territory for walking
Nick Haslam sits high and happily above the Douro
Douro Valley
Coming into Pinhão, Douro Valley
Nick Haslam
I was the only passenger to get off the slow country train at the tiny Vesuvio station after three hour journey along the Douro river from bustling Porto. This remote part of Portugal is rarely visited by tourists, and as I took the little ferry across the river it seemed I had entered a different world.
The rolling hills above lined with vines produce some of the best vintage port in the world and belong to the Symingtons, a wine making dynasty who first came here from England in the 19th century. The restaurant by the landing was busy with weather beaten workers from their vineyards and I needed little prompting to join them for a good lunch of steak and half litre of wine before beginning the walk.
The narrow road climbed along the side of the valley through vineyards and olive groves and two hours later, I came into the tiny village of Pinhal do Duoro high above the river, now coiling gold in the afternoon sun. Passing an open door I saw a stout woman in her sixties feeding a donkey in her backyard.
Auria Faustina, chattering volubly in rapid Portuguese offered me a glass of wine and a handful of almonds, told me of her six children, one living in Canada, that she would hate to live in a city, and by the way, where was I from?
Still talking, she guided me down out of the village and indicated the best path back down to the river, standing waving until I could see her plump silhouette no more. The steep hairpin track led down through cork oak trees and vineyards towards the Douro now silver in the setting sun and at 6.30 the ferryman took me across just in time for the last train.
I stayed that night in Casa de Loivos a beautifully converted manor house high above the wine town of Pinhão, 45 minutes by train downstream. The owner Manuel Sampaio’s family had lived here for three centuries and after an excellent supper of cod pie our host explained the elaborate protocol of drinking port – that the bottle of course passes to the left but must never, he said sternly, be allowed to touch the table.
Next morning, bells were ringing for Sunday mass as I walked high above the mist covered Douro, stopping for lunch in the village of Vilharinho de Cotas, where many of the houses were abandoned and roofless. Young people are leaving the countryside Manuel had told me, and with land prices rocketing even second home buyers could not afford to buy up old houses here.
I spent the night in a comfortable pousada at the centre of the market town of Alijó and at ten next day set off again in a light misty rain.
Drifting through the narrow streets of the village of Favaios the smell of baking bread drew me like a magnet to the bakery of Manuela Fernandez. Inside, it was warm and cosy, the ovens just open to reveal hot crusty loaves. “My bread…” said Manuela modestly as she proffered a roll “…is the best in the area. I bake the traditional way with wood and will never use electricity!”
The stone flagged track out of Favaios had been built said Manuela, by the Romans and it passed through orchards of apple and plum trees to a dilapidated large country house overlooking a stupendous view. An old woman standing beneath the high arched gate crested with an coat of arms told me she worked here all her life. “Only 50 years ago the house was busy at the centre of large estate,” she said wistfully. “Now the family lived in Lisbon and the house is never used.”
I walked another 14 kilometres that day, climbing and descending through small steep valleys lined with vineyards. In one small farm, the farmer was cleaning out the traditional granite trough or lagar where the grapes are still crushed by foot. “It’s hard work,” he said. “But it produces the best wine.”
That night I stayed at the Casa de Vilharinho de São Romão, a recently restored 15th century manor house, falling asleep to the sound of nightingales singing in the woods below.
Rain threatened in the morning and under heavy clouds I followed the track through woodland to the village of Provesende, where rebellious aristocrats were exiled from Lisbon in the 18th century. Recently designated a World Heritage site the large palaces and houses are being restored and I sheltered from a shower in a baroque church with lavish carved gilt screens dating back to Provesende’s golden age. Buying a big umbrella in the village shop selling everything from hurricane lamps to tinned sardines I walked for the afternoon though dripping pine forest climbing towards a high open heath.
As if on cue the clouds finally cleared revealing the slate grey Douro far below and then dusk fell rapidly as the path wound steeply down, through woods cut by fast flowing streams until the welcome lights of the Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros, my hotel for the night loomed in the dusk.
“The weather at this time of year – you never know what the next minute holds…” said the owner Cristina Van Zeller as she ushered me in. Her converted 18th century landowner’s house was exactly what a weary walker needs and after nearly falling asleep in a huge hot bath, I had a wonderful three course supper by a roaring fire.
Next day dawned warm and clear and in bright sun I walked the last five kilometres to the Quinta de la Rosa, a wine estate right on the Douro to buy a bottle of their 2004 reserve before rushing down to Pinhão for the midday train to Porto.
I had walked 70 kilometres in four days but it felt like a longer journey into a different time in this lost corner of Europe.
NEED TO KNOW
Inntravel (01653 617906) offers one week's independent walking in Portugal's Douro Valley from £658pp based on two sharing between September 8 and October 31, 2007.
The price includes five nights half board, two nights B&B, four picnics, Douro Valley rail travel, ferry boat across the river to Alojamento Senhora da Ribeira at Vesuvio, tours of Graham's port lodge in Oporto and Quinta de la Rosa, walking maps and notes, and luggage transfers when walking between hotels. The price excludes flights: Ryanair offers Stansted-Porto, or fly with TAP Air Portugal Heathrow-Porto. Airport bus direct to hotel costs £1.