That Wasn't There Last Time We Looked!
⬅ previous ⬆intro next ➡Day 4 ~ 18 May ~ Alqueva Lake
After yesterday's sunshine, the morning starts very misty. It's Amanda's birthday today, so we do hope it clears and gives us a nice day.
The birds are watching!
And look, the sun seems to be making a bit of an effort to break through.
The boat controls are much the same as we've had in France, but the big difference is the two boxes above the console: one is a GPS unit and the other (not switched on at this point) is sonar. Unlike rivers and canals where the navigational options are basically A to B or B to A, we have a large expanse of open water with few distinctive landmarks and substantially varying depths. There are buoys marking the recommended routes, but they are sometimes quite hard to see.
Off we go, then. Our first voyage will be quite a short hop down to the dam that created the entire lake.
There it is, and look at the sky now!
There are some pontoons for mooring here, but that's all. No facilities like power or water, and we've been told that this is the norm everywhere except Amieira. Our boat is fully supplied for the week though, and we shouldn't miss them.
It's a little walk from the mooring to the dam, through a pretty wildflower meadow.
What's this?
Oh, it's art of course. A monument to the "Alqueva Multi-Purpose Development" as Google Translate puts it.
And, "The Monument also symbolizes the ingenuity and work put into this Work and is a tribute to all who made it possible as well as to those who worked on it and desired it."
The concrete structures and cables were used in the construction of the dam before being re-purposed for the monument.
First art, now philosophy. Or something.
It is indeed a clear day, so I must be seeing forever.
Having walked the length of the dam, we're now looking down from the control station.
The control station is a simple white box except for its ground-floor 'plinth' clad in cork tiles.
Various bits of equipment are displayed as sculptures in the grounds.
Amanda, being terribly deep, like, is pondering how the artistic statement which is the STF Screen illuminates the human condition.
Ah, it's actually a water filter. A posh one too! "STF Filters screen filters act as an intelligent barrier, trapping impurities without compromising flow. Designed to last, optimize resources, and simplify maintenance in any environment." Learn more about STF Filters at their website.
This looks like a solar panel array. Quite why a hydroelectric power station needs solar panels is mildly confusing to me.
But it's not just an accessory, it's a significant additional source of power, the largest of its kind in Europe. Floating solar panels on a hydroelectric reservoir avoids taking large amounts of land out of agricultural or other use, and of course the infrastructure for connection to the power grid is already there. Read more here from EDP.
Those panels may be doing all the work today, because there's no obvious sign that the hydro plant is in operation. We can't see any outflows and even if the outlets were below the lower water level there ought to be visible turbulence.
After this, it's back in the boat and a spot of lunch before setting out again, heading northeast to the village of Estrela.
Without the GPS we'd be pretty unsure where to go.
We thought the mooring by the dam was quiet! There's this guy doing a bit of fishing and there's our boat, and that's it!
Not much happening in town either.
We're slightly surprised to find a multilingual information panel. It has to be said that the church itself is not very exciting.
Stork nests are everywhere. We see far more storks than people.
They're much more active too.
Snails on a cactus spine. We don't know why they congregate like this, but it's definitely a snail thing to do here.
White flowers, each with a tiny spot of dark reddish purple. Image search suggests that it's a wild carrot, Daucus carotaI, but there are a number of subspecies and to my surprise I can't find anything exactly like this one.
Amanda's birthday dinner is described in the diary as "mussels with noodles and mushrooms", which is a bit vague, and I have forgotten exactly what it was I did. So I'm half guessing, but I think I made a stock with wine and herbs, used that to cook the mussels and then poured it into bowls with the noodles and lightly sautéed mushrooms.
She blows out her candles. The cake was bought from a shop and sadly it's a touch boring. We will have to try harder.
And it's goodnight from Gu-vu who's in the party spirit with some colourful stars.
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