Lesson Learned - Eastern Peneda-Gerês

I’d spent some time pouring over maps, figuring out where we could get to in a nice day’s drive, where we’ve been and, more importantly, where we haven’t been, to decide on our next day adventure.  I settled on the eastern-most part of the Peneda-Gerês, ultimately hoping to wind up at Pitôes das Junias.  Once again it was supposed to be a scouting trip to look for photography sites but, because Ann and I fancy ourselves photographers, we had our cameras with us just in case.  

The drive eastward was, as usual, beautiful.  The Portuguese landscape may be difficult to photograph (one might dare say it’s not overly photogenic), but it is sure nice to look at.  We soon turned left and headed northward, and, with that, started climbing.  The distances between villages grew longer and we eventually found ourselves on a ridge that called out for me me to stop at a pull-out.  

As you could see, the hillside was in bloom, and the ridge offered a spectacular view of the mountains.

We of course also had our point-and-shoot cameras.  They’re great for scouting and getting an idea of an area’s potential (and the occasional decent image), but their biggest advantage are speed and mobility.  I don’t use a tripod with that camera and on that day it was a good idea.  Why?  Because someone didn’t think through that, with a dip in temperatures (and the wonderful clouds that came with it), things would be much, much colder once you’ve gone up a couple of thousand feet, as well as a lot windier.  So it didn’t take very long for Ann and I to realize that, it sure was cold and we were unprepared!

Ann and I agreed that we need to pack “travel bags” that always come with us, so we don’t get caught out again without warm layers, gloves or even wet weather gear.  

That lesson became abundantly clear when, as I was getting back into the car, I looked in the opposite direction and realized that the light coming through the clouds was lovely and there was a photograph to be had.  A real photograph.  Which meant pulling out the good camera and tripod (as well as the long telephoto zoom that, after the incident with the goats, has become a “must load too” item), and walking down the road a bit to better frame the image I had in my mind.  

It’s strange what you will subject yourself to when making an image.  I was not about to let a bit of poor planning (read: stupidity) stop me from carefully working the image, trying a variety of framing and compositions for these images.

And I carried that line of thinking later when I started developing the images.  Which meant working the image in black and white. 

Back to the ridge, of course there was also the time spent waiting for the light to come back when a cloud decided to turn everything dark.  So I spent much longer out in the cold than I’d hoped (again, read: stupid).  But it was worth it.  Next time, we’re bringing our clothing bags (which we did a couple of weeks later, but of course we didn’t need them on that trip!).  

And Portugal being Portugal, with us driving around in the countryside on a Saturday morning, what more can you expect than the obligatory cow-stop photograph.

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This was actually the third cow-stop of the day, and the farmer herding the cattle was very apologetic as she passed by.  

We eventually made it to Pitôes das Junias.  In addition to being a lovely little village, the area is known for its near-bynboardwalk access to a river down at the valley’s bottom and an old monastic ruin near that.  Given the temperatures (even colder now at higher elevations) and the steady wind, we knew a trip to the river was out of the question.  We did rush over to try and see if we could locate the ruin to determine if it would be worth returning to photograph.

Indeed it is.  Next time we will be prepared for whatever the whether decides to toss our way and we’ll take our time there.  And check out the river too.

As we were leaving Pitôes das Junias, we pulled over yet again near some farm fields just outside of the village.  The reason?  Good sunlight of course!

And since this was both a scouting trip and an excuse to practice our photography skills (much like a pianist needing to do scales to maintain a feeling for the piano keys) I developed one of these images in black and white as well.

The drive back was . . . well, interesting.  We scouted a side road a bit farther ldown the road; a dirt road heading off into a hilly area, taking it long enough to know we want to explore it when we have our 4x4 vehicle.  And we took a different way home, this time following the southern edge of the Peneda-Gerês mountainside in the first photograph above to come out just south of Gerês.  

I had scouted a couple of different sets of waterfalls that I wanted to check out.  We didn’t stop at either of them because by the time we drove by, the crowds of people wanting to spend the day by the falls had begun to show up as the skies cleared and the temperature warmed quickly (one location was as packed as any place we’ve seen, to include the cities . . . and the cars kept coming our way as we drove onward).  I noted that, yes, the falls looked interesting, and that was enough for scouting purposes.

So the day was a win, despite heading out unprepared clothing-wise.  We didn’t get the images we could have if we’d been able to stay warm, but we definitely found several places worth spending time at with our cameras.  Next time we’ll head out during a time of the year (or day) when the Portuguese don’t fancy these locations.  

Even better, once we get the bimobil we’ll be able to camp out closer to these locations and not have to drive all the way from Braga!