#1 - Gerês - Green Paradise

junho 20, 2019

#1 - Gerês - Green Paradise

The "Peneda - Geres National Park", with its 70,000 hectares is full of hidden secrets and an unparalleled scenic beauty, is one of my favorite places to be in contact with nature and feel everything it has to offer. Countless trails allow us to appreciate a diversity of waterfalls and their translucent lakes of cold water that always invite you to take a dive. Here we can come across with some wild animals during our hikes. The well-known "Garranos" wild horses are one of the ex-libris of this Park and we can find and appreciate them in complete freedom. The visit to Gerês should always be done with time, leave the car parked in the village and venture ypurself on foot through the green expanse of the Park and its beautiful trails.
It was here that I decided to come for the 4th time, this time in March, with a cooler weather (ideal to refresh yourself during the hiking) and the possibility to see more water flow in the rivers and waterfalls

A large number of well-marked trails are found throughout the Park, so it is recommended to visit the tourist office right at the entrance of the village to obtain maps of the existing trails. Alternatively, there are many GPX tracks to download and use in applications on mobile phones. In one way or another you should never venture on a trail without having a map to follow because, although well marked, it sometimes becomes a little confusing which direction to take. In these days spent in Gerês, in addition to some unmarked ones (just because I love to explore), I've hiked the PR14 trail (Trail of the Sobreiral of the Ermida do Gerês) with approximately 14 km, this trail take us to such different landscapes, rocky areas of high height, forest areas with a breathtaking green mantle, waterfall areas like Arado's waterfall and its lagoons. It ends in the village of Ermida where we can appreciate the beautiful granaries ......

...... and PR11 (Preguiça trail), a smaller trail (5 km) that accompanies a water line affluent to the Gerês river. Here, green and brown color predominates the area because the trees and plants that surround us all the way. This trail passes through two beautiful waterfalls, the Leonte waterfall being the most well-known and masterful one.

The silence and peace that reigns in the air always invites you for a few minutes of meditation and a full bath of forest, also known as shinrin-yoku, even when there are crazy people on the loose :)