Day 4 – Thursday 20 November 2025 – Cruise Day 2
Also unusual is that there is no cruising at night on the Douro, so when we woke the boat was still moored at Cais de Gaia, but by 07:00 we were cruising in land. The Douro is very rural and the cruise is not for those who want to moor by bustling cities. And people in past times didn’t construct their villages by the river for fear of pirates from the sea or bandits coming down river.
Until the EU funded the building of modern motorways and impressive bridges travel was difficult. Even the Douro had challenges with boulders in the water and vicious rapids. Cruising is possible only because the rapids have been replaced by dams and massive locks – the deepest in Europe, and boulders blocking the water were dynamited. But the river is navigable only to the Spanish border. The Spanish also dammed the river but neglected to build locks.
After two hours we reached the first lock. Cretuma-Lever and 2h45m later the Carrapatelo Lock.
At 14:30 there was an included excursion to Mateus Palace and Gardens. As we had visited Mateus twice before, most recently June 2024, and because it was cold we gave this a miss and stayed on the boat as it cast off and shortly afterward we were in the third lock, Bagauste.
We moored in Pinhao about 17:30 and the Mateus party re-joined the boat.
Mooring location - https://what3words.com/herbals.cuter.plunge
No comments:
Post a Comment