Traditional Alentejo Village - Part 1

Alentejo Village – Fernao Vaz

18 - 19 November 2007

Rural Portugal, including the Alentejo, apart from some towns and a few large cities, is made up of small to very small villages. Fernao Vaz falls in the latter category.

Camping Rosario recommended that we stop at another Dutch-run campsite enroute to the Algarve. Campismo Serro da Bica is located about 10 km south of Ourique, 55 km north of the Algarve.

The banks of the River Mira are a short walk away and provide interesting trails leading to an archaeological circuit.

Embracing the culture of the Alentejo includes rescuing artefacts and putting them to new uses. The black metal rods piercing the yoke harness are attached to reins to guide the horse or donkey.

A daily “attitude adjustment hour” seems to take place each day in the campsite’s bar; the day we were there we met Dutch and Belgians and adjusted our attitude.

An old farmhouse abuts the trail to the river.

The walls are made of stacked stones removed from the field in preparing it for agriculture.

The 1 km stroll to the village of Fernao Vaz follows this dirt and rock road.

Now that's a rocky road.

The center of village activity might well be or have been the communal washboards built in 1966. Water was drawn from a nearby fountain and the dirty laundry scrubbed back and forth on these “boards”.