Peneda-Gerês Avoidance Behavior

You might have been wondering about what happened to the story about our Mother’s Day trip to the Peneda-Gêres National Park that I’d promised, oh, a couple of weeks ago.  Well, I  thought that I made some decent images that day but . . . upon later examination, became extremely disappointed with my work.  That then led to avoidance behavior.  However, I’ve finally convinced myself to forget great photographs and just get on with the story.  And I should do it before Fathers Day comes around and I start to feel guilty.  So here it is.

You might think that the image below is me howling in frustration about the results from what should have been a very interesting day of photography.  But it’s not.  Instead, it’s one of several markers that appeared along this part of the Peneda-Gêres.  It greeted us near the top of a steep windy road coming out of a valley that was equally steep driving down.  It immediately caught the eye and given there was a pull-out there, we had to pull over and check it out.  

We were on the down-hill side of a small village (Fafião if you can’t read it) and had a lovely view of the valley.  That is what you could see through the low-lying clouds (or was it fog?) and the mist.  It was an off-and-on misty-rainy morning and we were hoping for some photo opportunities.

As we wandered around the area a bit we started hearing some of the neighborhood dogs barking, then another dog barking quite close by and then cow bells.  Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, a woman comes walking down the hill with her dog and her cows.  They obviously knew where they were going because she didn’t have to herd them at all and they took a short cut down the hill through the switchbacks.  The dog came our way at one point just to let us know to leave the cows alone, or at least that’s how I interpreted his barking.  He probably was just showing off to the woman, who returned our good morning (bom dia) with a big smile and a greeting of her own.

Driving through Fafião, we landed on a plateau and quickly entered farmland.  As we popped over a small hill we hit a field in full bloom and found a spot to pull off.  Again we wandered around a bit, me with my point and shoot, to take a few images.  The hills were lush with plants and colors in a way they had not been when we drove through the northern part of the park last summer.

Like so many of the farms in the area, the land had been terraced so folks can make a living.  There’s something really interesting about these small plots, just like the ones we often walk past on our walks.  Obviously they are worked on and who knows for how long?

After it started drizzling again, Ann and I decided to continue on our journey.  A few villages later, I had to change the destination of our GPS (it won’t let us plot our own back roads course, so I figure out one town then the next on a physical map, make a list, and then periodically updated our  car GPS’s destination to make sure we drive through the countryside).  And as I was typing in a new town, guess what happened by.

And no, they were not out on a walk on their own.  The farmer and 3 more cows are right around the bend, hidden from view.  But one got the sense that these cows knew where they were going and didn’t need to wait for the slow pokes.  

It was more of the same, village, valley, village, up the valley until after awhile we came across another of the markers.  We had to stop.

If we visit here enough, maybe we’ll be able to say we’ve seen these in the wild.  But for now the Markers will have to do.  

As we made our way down and back up yet another steep valley, we came across an area that looked perfect for pulling the car over.  Which we did.  It gave us good view of what much of Portugal is like in the northern areas - steep valleys with small villages nestled in the landscape. 

Neither the Quinta above nor the village below was really very far from us, and you can see how steep everything is.  It’s pretty amazing, as you drive through these villages, to see villagers who must be in their late 70’s or early 80’s walking on these steep, stony streets as if it’s no big deal.

As we moved out towards the edge of the pull out area, we saw an opportunity to pull out the cameras to photograph.  The rain and mist seemed to have stopped, so we grabbed our gear and put on our boots to hike out to a rock formation that wasn’t too far away. 

From this point-and-shoot image (which does not have a long telephoto on it), you can see just how close the other side of the valley is.  And you can see the waterfalls that speckled the steep hillsides.  

I eventually stopped to make a photograph of the rocks and the hillside in bloom - the reason Ann and I thought this would be a particularly interesting place to photograph. 

I know photography isn’t supposed to be easy, but when you’re in such an interesting place that is full of life and color, under interesting weather conditions, one feels like one should produce stupendous work.  Well that just didn’t happen.  Some of the images aren’t terrible, but I have to admit I am disappointed with the results.

One of the things I wanted to do, and did, was test out a new zoom lens I’d purchased just before we moved to Portugal.  It’s a wide angle to moderate telephoto lens and it sure made things easy to not have to change lenses just to have different focal lengths, particularly given the occasional waves of mist that would pass by.  But I certainly didn’t feel comfortable with the lens and maybe it’s just my old-school feelings about zoom lenses from the old days, but I’m not sure it’s as good as the primes.  For now, I’ll call my poor performance what it was and accept the fact that I need to work with the lens more before I make any judgments about it.  

Still, it was nice to zoom it out to the moderate telephoto range and make an image from across the valley.

By that point it was time to pack up and head back to the car.  As I turned around after the final image of the day I made (another very disappointing image) I saw Ann making one of her own and I pulled out my point-and-shoot.

Her general dissatisfaction with her day’s efforts is comparable to mine, so I didn’t even bother asking her for the image she was making just then to do a shooting the shooter post.  See!  Sometimes I do know when to keep my mouth shut.

Well, what can one say other than a bad day being out in nature photographing is better than a good day at home!  Plus, despite our photographic frustrations, we’ve found a location we can return to again (and again).  Plus, this gave us hope that as we keep going out, we’ll find more and more of these types of places.  Places where, once we get to know them, we will be able to produce some quality work.

Back on the road we came across yet another of the road markers.

And I’m sure you won’t mind that we did not stop to photograph the final road marker we came across that day.  It wasn’t of what I would call wildlife, it was . . . well, it looked like the Pope, though it could have been a bishop, or even a priest. Certainly not wildlife.

The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful.  Our vehicle GPS could not find either of the next two towns on my list and, due to driver error, we wound up heading back to Braga, having missed swinging by a location that might make for a good camping spot in the future (between the two towns).  Oh well, just another excuse to get out.

We now have a new GPS system (for the new rig that should be ready in . . . 10 months) that we can use to locate any town we want - on road or off road - in Europe and Northern Africa.  Thanks for the birthday present Ann.  Hopefully it will serve us better than the in-car GPS that seems to not be aware of half the towns on the map.

Anyway, although the photographs didn’t pan out, the trip was well worth it.