Driving: Going off road in Alentejo, Portugal

FIRST DAY

Living in a city sometimes makes it difficult to go off road, because distance may be a factor to take into consideration.

This time me and my wife drove for 5 hours living my town, Porto, on a Friday afternoon just to get to the starting point. It was almost midnight when we arrived so just collected the roadbook, numbers for the car doors (got the number 4), some other stuff from the organization the Automovel Clube de Portugal (acp), and off to rest. A very nice and comfortable hotel in the middle of Alentejo area, south east of Portugal.

My 99 Honda CR-V

Next morning time to get up early, apply the stickers on the doors and check the other participants.

Only a few SUV like my Honda CR-V Gen1: 3 Dacia, 1 Suzuky, 1 Freelander and 1 Honda CR-V Gen2. The other were big ones like the Toyota I parked side by side.

Another Honda CR-V in the Hotel Car Park

By 8h45 we had a briefing about rules and how to behave when off road. We were going to cross some private properties and even a National Park by a special permission.

Also time to start talking with other participants in this trip, all car enthusiasts and nice people.

The road book was thick!

Road book

We started with 1 minute intervals so each team should follow the road book.

Lots of dust

Very dusty roads
The first part was just easy driving till a place called Monte do Vento where we had a nice break to recover from the dust.

Monte do Vento

After that and many km more we arrived at a special place called Pulo do Lobo (Wolf' Jump) because there's a water stream between rocks and we can cross it just by jumping from rock to rock.

Pulo do Lobo (Guadiana River)

The car park

Where is the CR-V

Then more km and the first real difficulty of the day, specially for my CR-V as it doesn't have short gear box - a water crossing followed by a hill climb

After that we arrived at a nice place, Pomarão, where we had lunch

Pomarão -- CR-V x Amaroq

Side by side with a BIG one, a VW Amarok

After lunch a passage with extra difficulty for my CR-V

Photo credit: acp

It was too deep so the CR-V touched ground, but it didn't stop!
Only a terrible noise came from under car, time to have a mechanic from the organization to check it and it was just a cover protecting a cardan in the middle of the transmission shaft. Nothing much. (A few days after this I went to a Honda dealer to have it inspected and it was ok - a very solid Honda).
Later I was told that some of the 4x4 didn't try that and went around.

S.Domingos mine

Next place was an abandoned mine, an interesting place.

S.Domingos mine

Just ruins

S.Domingos mine

From there we went by an old train rail way now without the metal tracks but allowed to drive thru odd places. No photos.

Then another nice town, Serpa. There we visited the 'Museu do Relogio' (Clock Museum) where we were told the history of clocks. It's private and also has a restoration shop where they fix very old watches from all over the world.

A few more km and we were back to the hotel for a good night rest.

SECOND DAY

Next day started in a very normal way

As usual we let the other before us go away so we follow the road book; but no success! The instructions were not what we could see and find, we came back to start over, we tried to find way points, nothing.
And we have some experience with road books, sometimes we are following others and are able to say 'Hey! They are going in the wrong direction!' so we go in the good direction, but not this time.
Very frustrated we went by road to a meeting point in another town, Aljustrel.

Alentejo

From there on the way crossed a few water ways, agricultural fields and as we approached the coast the ground became more and more sand type.

Photo credit: acp

A few up and down hills, some of them with noticeable difficulty because of the inclination and the sand but no big problem for the Honda CR-V.
We arrived at a dam and to our surprise an organization car was in a kind of hole! Time to relax and watch the works