Sunday 6 January 2019

Sitting On The Border

Oil drum wall 
I'm linking up with The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm writing this post from a campsite  near the village of Odeleite - practically on the Portugal-Spain border, up on a plateau with gorgeous panoramic views for miles and miles. We can see the Guadiana river (the actual border) from our pitch and we're still just on the Portuguese side. Our current campsite is actually a motorhome aire owned by the local hunting association which, admittedly, isn't very Veganuary, but we've not heard anyone shooting at the wildlife yet! It's an amazing 8 euros a night including electricity and there's fantastic walking routes right from our doorstep. We've been out for great hikes on each of the past three days and are considering delaying our planned departure from Tuesday until Friday or beyond so we can do even more wandering.

Our motorhome is second from the right 

The oil drum wall pictured at the top of this post is part of a small ramshackle encampment nearby where a woman seems to live on her own and keeps an assortment of ducks, geese, chickens and guinea fowl. Most of the place looks as though it was built from recycled materials. It's brilliant!

Traditional farming is apparently still practiced around here (according to one of our Walk Route leaflets anyway). We've not yet seen anyone using a horse-drawn plough, but a wandering shepherd brought his flock of sheep and goats across the land just below our aire on Friday. He had about half a dozen dogs 'helping', only one of which looked like how I envisage a Collie sheepdog. The others were mostly guess-the-breed mutts, but they were certainly enthusiastic!



In bookish news, I've got two giveaway winners to announce today! Congratulations to Keith who won the My Dream Woman by C H Clepitt ebook and to author Marsha A Moore who is this month's Literary Flits Spotlight Post winner!
Also let's welcome chucklesthescot to WorldReads. She's blogged books set in the Arctic.


Giveaways closing soon
6th Jan: Derrick by Russell ebooks
(All current giveaways here)

On my blogs this week were:

Stephanie Jane
A Month In Books - December 2018
Books From The Backlog - UK2 by Terry Tyler
December Challenges Wrapup - Bookish Bingo
#WorldReads - Five Books From Argentina

Literary Flits
Crush by Richard Siken review
Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey review
Crazy As Chocolate by Elisabeth Hyde review
The Bead Collector by Sefi Atta review
Incident At Diamond Springs by Kendall Hanson review + #FreeBook
Farm Land: Sentience by Gemma Lawrence review
Black Holes by Ochi review + #FreeBook

Airing Out
No new campsites this week

One of the views from our pitch 

Guadiana River 

14 comments:

  1. Oh my word, those are some gorgeous views. I could just sit out there all day reading. It looks so peaceful.

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    1. It's absolute bliss and we're getting gorgeous sunsets too :-)

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  2. Beautiful pics as always! The hiking sounds fabulous as well.

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    1. Thanks Greg!
      We've been out hiking almost every day this year so far and I am feeling good for the exercise

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  3. 8 euros a night is a bargain!
    It looks so peaceful. :)

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    1. If we could cope without the electric hookup it would only be 5 euros!!

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  4. I hope your having a good time. I'm loving all the pictures.

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  5. It looks very peaceful (shooting aside). It sounds like incredible value for money too! x

    Sophie
    www.glowsteady.co.uk

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    1. It's amazing value! A similar sort of place in the UK would easily be three times the price and wouldn't be so laid back

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  6. You are having such a great experience. I would love to just sit and watch the dogs with the sheep. Thanks for sharing the photos.

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    1. We enjoyed watching them for about half an hour. There was a younger dog who was learning how to make sheep move in the right direction and she obviously thought it was all a brilliant game!

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  7. I always love your pictures. Anne - Books of My Heart

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