#4: [02-Mar-19]

#3: [03-Nov-07]

#1: [12-Jun-01]

13-Jun-2001 -- 40ºN 7ºW - Near Penha Garcia, in the Beira Baixa district of Portugal.

With good, warm weather we decided to use our very long weekend (Catholic country!) to do a little confluence hunting in the region where we were staying.

We left the car under a tree off the road between Penha Garcia and Termas de Monfortinho, a recently renovated spa out here in the middle of Portugal's most de-populated area.

The GPS told us we had 2.2km's as the crow flies, so we put it away and set off with army map and compass, as usual. This was an easy confluence to find, with only a relatively short part of the walk being completely "cross-country" (off trails and paths) in gently rolling land. This was lucky: a few thousand metres further north and we would have been climbing the escarpments of the Serra de Penha Garcia. The map told us the confluence should, rather aptly, be located very close to the confluence of two streams which we duly found. Actually, we found their beds as, although we had a wet winter, this is still not called the dry season for nothing.

And so we found it, at the bottom of a small depression, between a pine wood and some low bushes. There was only one small moment of worry when we came across a tiny unmarked dam - to water cattle - as we were suficiently close to our target to be concerned that we might have to do one of those "excalibur-in-the-hand-of-the-lady-of-the-lake" numbers with the GPS...

The walk back to the car was a little more tiring as we decided to play orienteers and look for another route back: the original planned route in had been a good one so we ended up doing a bit more "cross-country walking though the vegetation"...