Gerês: a paradise in the North of Portugal

Gerês, a paradise in the North of Portugal

Hello everyone! Today I'm back here with a blog talking to you about a Natural Park in Portugal. It is called the Peneda-Gerês National Park and it is located in the North of Portugal, very close to the border with Galicia, specifically to the province of Ourense. I was lucky enough to visit this Portugese paradise three years ago, on a warm summer weekend. The truth is, I could say that it is one of my favourite places in Portugal, and also almost out of all of the places that I have ever visited. The fact that it is really close to where I live makes it even better. In today's post I am going to give you general information about the park: how to get around, accommodation, food, and the most interesting thing, I am going to talk to you about the spectacular places that I visited. Let's go!

General information

Lets start with the basic information about the Peneda-Gerês National Park. In this park there is a big scientific interest as much for its fauna and flora as for its landscape. Its nature which is formed by waterfalls, rivers and woods is incredible, and it is these three aspects that make the place so attractive to tourists.

This park is perfect for spending a few days amongst nature, disconnecting from the babble of the city, public transport, and stress. There are lots of hiking routes that extend for 50 kilometres squared of the public terrain of the park. All these routes pass by different points of interest: waterfalls, pools, rivers, woods, lakes, reservoirs, view-points and also some other villages. I will talk about these spots later, giving you their location and some tips. It is true that the best time to visit is in summer, as the cold water from their waterfalls will be more appealing as in this area, the temperatures are usually quite high. Saying that, I think that if you are big nature lovers, going in autumn could also be a good option, as because you will avoid the tourists that go there in high season.

The truth is that I was surprised, because despite having lived in Pontevedra, Galicia for my whole life, I had never heard anyone talk about this Natural Park. In fact, I heard about it by chance because a friend visited it and she told me that she really liked it. I started to ask my friends and family about it and strangely, nobody had ever heard of it. I found it really weird, because in my opinion it could be the best place in the Northern area. In fact, I remember that when I started to post some photos that I had taken on my social media, I received a total of 40 messages from different people asking me about this place. Imagine their surprise when I told them the location and they discovered that it was no more or less than one and a half hours away from where they live. It's incredible.

How to get to the Peneda-Gerês National Park and how to get around it

Angel and I went by car from Bueu and it took us two and a half hours to get there. There are different ways to get there. We decided to go along the border, crossing Ourense, going through As Neves, Arbo, until we finally got there. The other way to get there is to go towards Ponte de Lima and then go directly to the park, but we decided to take the first route, as we thought it was easier, although really there was not much time difference between the two. Both routes include tolls. We decided to use the electronic toll. The system is quite simple. All you have to do is register your car's number plate and associate it with a credit card. So, in the middle of going down the motorway, you pass through some kind of "arcs", where there are devices that recognise your numberplate and then charge your bank account directly. It is the most convenient way, honestly.

Something you should know is that just before you enter the park, in our case it was the part nearest to the North, you have to pay an entry fee. We paid four euros, a nominal price because everything that we saw there was priceless. They gave us a small ticket that we left on the dashboard of the car during our stay there. This was really the only thing that we had to pay for, as the parking was totally free.

Accommodation

You could say that Angel and I stayed in the biggest town in the whole park, which was also called Gerês. Just here is where you can find the majority of the hotels and apartments. There is a lot of choice so the price is lowered. I don't remember how much it cost us, the hotel had breakfast included and it was quite cheap. The atmosphere in the communal space was very international. While we ate breakfast, we could hear German and French. The truth is that on this trip, I was surprised by the amount of French people that there were in this park. The hotel had a really nice terrace, and honestly, it is the only photo that I have from here, so I'll leave it here for you.

In this area, there were supermarkets, and restaurants too. They are all in the same line and are the same price. Home-cooked, typical Portuguese food, at cheap prices. We went to a restaurant and ate on the terrace, when it had started to turn to the night. We ate melon with ham, Portuguese cod and a pork fillet with roast potatoes. So good.

The truth is, the atmosphere in the town was really cool. We noticed that everyone was there to explore, walk, and relax in the nature. They were all wearing walking boots, comfy clothes and I don't know, in general, I noticed that the atmosphere there was quite homogeneous. It reminded me of my trips to the mountains, where it was clear that everyone in the hotels were there to ski, and solely to ski. The truth is that this tiny town thrust between two hills has a lot of charm, and so do its people, who were very nice.

What to see in the Peneda-Gerês National Park

After having given you the basic and important information about the park, let's get down to the nitty gritty stuff. Next, I am going to tell you about all of the places that I visited. Some of them are the most famous ones there, where we could barely find a spare rock to sit down on; whereas in others, we were immersed in the middle of the woods, which were quite hard for us to get to after having done long hikes. I hope that you like them.

Portela do Homem Waterfall

This waterfall, which has a small but pretty pool, is one of the most well-known sites in the Peneda-Gerês National Park. We had to leave the car in a car park a bit further away and walk, but it wasn't tiring at all. It is one of the easiest waterfalls to access, and you have to go down there by going across big rocks and trees. The payoff is this: a small waterfall which ends as a crystal water pool. The water was really clean and was so clear that we decided to get our water-proof camera to take some photos. It is incredible just how well you can see, and our camera is one of the normal ones, if not one of the bad quality ones. Saying that, the temperature.... is very refreshing!

The only negative thing about this site is that it was full of people, mostly locals it seemed, although it didn't become overwhelming. We left our towels on a rock and sunbathed; sometimes we'd take a dip, go towards the waterfall and then get out. We ate some tupperwares of food there that we had brought from home and we were there for a long time. The truth is that we were really happy, because the days before we had seen the weather forecast and had seen that it was going to rain; which couldn't have been further from the truth. I will leave the photos for you here.

Although, without a doubt, one of the best views of this place are from above. We had to climb and go up some rocks to get here, but these views are unbeatable. This is one of my favourite photos from the trip.

When we went back for the car, we decided to continue along the course of the river and we came across this bridge, which really rounds off the beauty of this place. Without a doubt, Portela do Homem is one of the marvels of Geres.

Arado Waterfall

We gathered our stuff together at Portela do Homem and went to Arado Waterfall, which was about 40 minutes away by car. The truth is that it doesn't get boring because the scenery along the whole journey is incredible. I wanted to stop at every place and explore it. When we arrived at this waterfall, which was difficult to access, we realised that it wasn't as well known as the other place, it was wilder. The drop of this waterfall is a lot bigger than the last one, as you can see in the photo.

The first view that we had of this waterfall was this one, as you can see in the last photo. As you can see, usually people stay in the lower part, where there is not any more of a drop and the river continues on its course. We decided to go and explore and go through the mountain to get to some kind of natural pool, which is formed inbetween the waterfalls. We couldn't have had a better idea because the views were spectacular.

We managed to get to, after crossing a stony mountain, this natural pool that was surprisingly super deep. The best thing about being here is getting close to the edge, which lets you see the big fall of water immediately. The truth is that this is quite dangerous, as you can imagine, so you have to be careful and take precautions when you are here. In addition, the stones are a bit slippery when they are wet. If you look, at this photo, in front, there are a group of people at a viewpoint, and it was exactly from there that I took the first photo that I showed you from the waterfall.

Thus, we had to walk quite a lot to get here, but it was definitely worthwhile. As for the temperature of the water, well it was quite cold, but this place was so pretty that honestly, I didn't think twice about getting in the water. We spent the whole afternoon here, sunbathing, snacking and enjoying this incredible landscape. The truth is that the pictures of this place speak for themselves, they don't need much other explanation, right?

Pedra Bela viewpoint

This was the last place that we visited on this day. It is a viewpoint which is only 10 minutes from the Arado Waterfall, so we didn't think about going there twice. The view point is easy to access and the views, as you can see in the next photo, are spectacular.

What you can see is the entire Peneda-Gerês National Park valley, along with its most famous reservoir called the Canicada Reservoir. There were quite a few people there when we went, taking photos or just passing by there, as some came by foot, doing the famous "trilhos de Gerês. " I remember that the road that took us to the viewpoint was quite windy and in some sections it was even a bit dangerous, since it was narrow and the maneuvers that we had to do when we came across a car in front were a bit strange. This viewpoint is quite high up, I think it's like 800 metres above eye-height. Without a doubt, the Pedra Bela viewpoint is a really recommended visit, as from here, you can understand how wonderful this park is; as you have all the elements in front of you which make it so characteristic. Finally, we went back to our hotel as we had to have dinner, put out the swimsuits to dry and recuperate during the night in preparation for the next day. The route continued.

Tahiti Waterfall

It could be the one of the most famous waterfalls in the whole park. We came here first thing in the morning and there were honestly already people there. This area is really cool because there are quite a few places to lay down. The river has a long stretch, so there are different jumps, waterfalls, and thus, different places to lay down. Angel and I decided to stay in this one, which we thought was really nice.

In this area, most people are at the end of the river, at the last waterfall, because this is where the river widens out and there is more space for swimming. It is a more popular area, but as always, we avoid the mass of people and here we were. Even so, as you can see in the photos that I'll leave below, we also had quite a large area to swim in at our leisure. As for the water, it was one of the coldest ones, so it was really difficult for me to get in; although the fact that it was first thing in the morning probably had an influence, as it was still not hot enough.

Along the way we could see that there were various camping areas. It must be amazing to wake up in the middle of the woods with the sound of nature, and for the first thing that you do to be going for a dip in this place. Travelling camping or in a caravan is something I always think about doing, but I've never ended up doing it. Maybe in the future on a second trip to Geres.

Something to keep in mind is that the descent of this waterfall is really dangerous. Some good boots would not go amiss because it is extremely slippery. . We saw more than one person fall on their backside and take a good hit, which would 100 per cent turn into a bruise the next day. Saying that, Tahiti Waterfall is a must-see place in this Natural Park.

Mizarela Bridge.

We decided to come and see here because it was different to everything that we had seen before then. This is the Mizarela Bridge which crosses the Rabagao River. The beauty of this bridge is the environment around it: a waterfall (which has a crazy flow in summer) and also big rocks which are in surprising shapes.

I liked this bridge because it has a story behind it, a legend. It partly reminds me of my home, Galicia, because lots of places in nature have famous Galician "legends" behind them. So, behind this bridge lies the following legend: it is said that a priest wanted to play a trick on the devil so he decided to disguise himself as a criminal that was fleeing from justice. When I got to the river and he saw that he couldn't pass, he decided to call upon "aid of the enemy. " It was then that the devil appeared and the priest told him that if he let him pass, he would give him his soul. The devil accepted the deal and suddenly, the bridge appeared from the shadows. While the priest crossed the bridge, he took a cauldron of boiling water from under his cape and threw it directly at the devil, performing an exorcism. Then the devil disappeared between the rocks, from where there were tongues of fire and volcanic rumblings.

And this is the legend of the Mizarela Bridge. You only have to take a look at the pictures that I've left you, it's not strange that this place corresponds to this legend, as the shape of its rocks are very unique.

On the way back to the car (which took about 30 minutes), we came across some wild plants and decided to snack on their delicious forest fruits: blackberries. A free snack!

Fafião Cascata

Finally, this little waterfall. It was in a leaflet that we found when we were there, I can't remember exactly where. We thought that this waterfall would have similar access to the other ones that we visited, so not too complicated, at least for us. But the truth is that we parked the car as close as we possibly could, and started walking. We were in the middle of a town where there were old houses and only one or two people.

We met a lady, so old that she could barely walk, and she told us that she used to go to that waterfall when she was younger and that she would get there in like 10 minutes. Of course, as she explained to us, she now needed a lot more time to get there due to her fitness. We listened to the lady and started to walk, but when we realised, we were already well inside the woods and we had been walking for at least half an hour. The walk was quite beautiful as we were surrounded by trees and green nature. It's true that in a lot of sections the access was complicated and we had to go over tree trunks, and move branches and plants, etc. Finally, we arrived at the waterfall, which was one of the wildest ones in our whole tour through the Natural Park.

As you can see, the fall of water is not very powerful, but the height of it isn't bad. In addition, you can swim perfectly at the end of the water, which left this kind of lake that you can see in the photo. We were here completely by ourselves, which wasn't surprising, because this waterfall is so out of the way that most people probably give up as it is so hard to access it.

After spending about an hour here, we left and made our way back to the village again. We were quite hungry and we were quite lucky because we came across a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how it was open or how it stayed that way, what customers it had, etc, but they served us a good steak fillet with chips and salad; which we definitely fancied after like three hours of intense exercise. I definitely recommend it.

And here is the post today, quite an extensive one, as I've been very specific about all the places, telling you all the details about entry, how to access them, and my advice. I hope that you have liked this blog, that you've discovered this Natural Park that we have practically next-door and that you adventure out to visit it and investigate more of what I did there. To this day, I always think about going back there as I loved it so much, and I could go there a thousand and one times. And here we are. Thank you for reading this post, and I'll see you for the next one with a lot more content.

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