Vindima

Cachopo

Adventure day continues. This week we headed to the mountain village of Cachopo about 30 km north of Tavira, tucked high up in the Serra do Caldeirão range. It’s tiny and remote, with fewer than 1,000 residents, and we are told that it has the feel of an older Algarve before the coast turned touristy.

Here’s our adventure map:

Arriving to Cachopo we spot our first fonte, and throughout the day found dozens more. We will have a fonte finding day in the future.

At the center of Cachopo stands the Igreja Matriz de Santo Estêvão, the village’s parish church and gathering place. We couldn’t step in that day because there was a funeral in progres. So, we continued past and found an old road, as one does. We imagined this being the village’s original road and we walked along toward the circular stone ruins we saw on the nearby hillside. As far as we could determine, these are palheiros, prehistoric round barns that served as storage or temporary shelter.

The village was small with one restaurant, and a couple places to stop for coffee. The museum’s door didn’t push open but the keys were in the door. In retrospect, perhaps this meant for visitors to do a self-tour. The village was quiet, and we think everyone was at the funeral.

Next, we drove on to Fonte Férrea which literally means Iron Fountain. It is a Parque de Lazer (remember: not a laser park, a leisure park), that includes a snackbar and a pool.

Not ready for a swim quite yet, we continued on toward Mealha, looking for Megalithic Antas. Umm, what is an anta?

• An anta is the Portuguese word for a type of dolmen.
• And a dolmen is basically a prehistoric stone tomb: a few big upright stones with another stone laid across the top, a kind of stone table.

We went searching for two in particular:

• Anta da Masmorra: A circular-chamber megalithic tomb from the Late Neolithic or Chalcolithic period, located near Alcaria de Pedro Guerreiro
• Anta das Pedras Altas (or Anta de Mealha): A trapezoidal-chamber dolmen on a hillside near Mealha, excavated in the 1970s and associated with Neolithic or Chalcolithic burial customs

Near Mealha, we found more palheiros and stopped to walk over to them.

A sign identified as PR8, indicated that Masmorra was 6 km away. PR8 stands for Percurso Pedestre and is a walking route. Likewise, PR9 indicated that Pedras Altas was 9 km away. Could we drive? Sure there were some narrow gravel tracks, that locals use them with tractors and sturdy vehicles, but they didn’t look like something we should be driving on.

We didn’t try driving the dry dirt roads to try to find these treasures. Front of mind was being in a rural area with an increased fire risk (plus the emergency evacuation maps posted along the side of the road at regular intervals did little to spark our sense of adventure).

Onward! We stopped for lunch at the Parque de Merendas in Ameixial — a rustic picnic park with a small restaurant overlooking a spring-fed pool edged with lily pads called Fonte da Seiceira.

We ended our adventures by stopping at a swing. Yes, another swing! I’ll need to add it the Everything Bagel blog post. Nearby was a tower reminiscent of Dali Theater Museum, ok maybe that’s just me.

Some signs stand out more than others. Cabeça Gorda literally means Fat Head. Another sign, not pictured announced Vale João Farto. The elementary school child couldn’t help but stifle a giggle. The word farto actually means to be tired off such as being tired of waiting for example. Lastly, take a look at this cute old bus stop sign.