Tuesday 17th November- Monseraz to Moura – 45km

For the first time for weeks our accommodation included breakfast. Not a particularly early start and a nice leisurely breakfast.

We left town and stopped at the viewpoint, where we bumped into Ted and Elaine again who were just heading off to Lisbon. By now the wind had dropped and the view was much better. So, a quick photo opportunity a good bye to them and it was down hill; all the way to the long bridge over the reservoir and up the hill to Mourao.

We stopped to look at the castle, which was in a very bad state of repair and disappointing. We bought some lovely meat pies and bread and headed out again on the way south to Moura on the eastern side of the reservoir.

We were into olive growing country with miles of olive trees. They looked lovely with the new green grass which was sprouting following the recent rain. As we continued we noticed an intensification of the olive farming with irrigation producing much larger, heavier, crops which bent the branches of the trees down to the ground. The harvesting process however appeared to be the age old method of beating hell out of the tree with a stout stick and collecting the olives on sheets spread underneath.

We continued along the road by the side of the reservoir and stopped on the shore for our lunch. It was the hottest day we'd had in Portugal, with the temperature up to about 24C..

We continued to Moura and found a room in a hotel which was recommended in the Rough Guide. We also had a lovely traditional meal of sea bream and macaroni in a local restaurant, again mentioned in the guide.