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on 25 Oct 2014
At HomePhotosProjectsTravel

Tejo, The Long Way Back Home

8 Minutes Read

Earlier this month me and Zé Paulo returned to the International Tagus Natural Park (Tejo Internacional, in Portuguese), the protected area where Tagus river enters Portuguese territory. This time our aim was to photograph some deer during rut on a short weekend trip, and this time we brought Ruben with us. It was successful in many ways, spending time with friends in one of my favorite spots in the country is always a win-win situation, but not photographically speaking, despite having a young stag jumping just ahead of us the opportunities to photograph them were few. That moderate success and aggravating weather conditions made us return home earlier than expected.

Early in the morning, after the guys left, my obvious choice would also be driving home through the modern highways to arrive at lunch time, and spend the rest of that rainy Sunday comfortably watching a movie or doing any other lazy Sunday activity. Rapidly another idea formed in my head: return slowly, using the old secondary roads, but not the traditional route to Lisbon used by people from that region for decades, that takes a big shortcut through the long, straight roads of Alentejo.

My plan for the rest of that day was slightly different, drive along what that region had in common with my hometown: the river, as seen from the road.

The Tagus splits Portugal in two, flowing for 300 Km in Portugal (its total length is 1000 Km) before its waters end their journey in the Atlantic ocean. Driving mostly the EN118, the road that follows it almost from the place where the it enters this little rectangle shaped country to the place where it abandons it. In that distance, and despite it’s a short distance, it passes through different perspectives of the country. The upper Tagus in the Beira Baixa region is made of rocky cliffs in narrow valleys, perfect for birds of prey to build their nests, one of the reasons the reasons, a relatively untamed area like many other of the border regions in the country. Then the lower Tagus region becomes a vast farming land, that also takes its name from the river: Ribatejo, often flooded by the same river that makes those lands the most fertile in the country before meeting the suburban cities of Greater Lisbon.

 

Zundapp
SONY DSC-RX100 (11.46mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO125)
A 35 year old two-stroke motorcycle parked at Rosmaninhal

 

International Tagus Natural Park
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/3.5, 1/1000 sec, ISO125)
Minor road that crosses the International Tagus Natural Park

 

Cegonhas
NIKON D800 (220mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, ISO400)
Small village of Cegonhas (Portuguese word for storks) in the International Tagus Natural Park.

 

To Sell
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/2.5, 1/640 sec, ISO125)
A house for sale in a small village still in the International Tagus region. If interested don’t forget Portugal’s dial code is +351.

 

Malpica to Tejo cemetery
SONY DSC-RX100 (16.99mm, f/4, 1/640 sec, ISO125)
Empty bench outside Malpica do Tejo’s cemetery, one of the villages that takes its name from the Tagus river.

 

VIla Velha de Rodão bridge
SONY DSC-RX100 (28.84mm, f/4.5, 1/800 sec, ISO1600)
Bridge over the Tagus river, close from where it definitively enters Portugal’s territory after the 50 Km where it forms the border with Spain.

 

Tejo 10Km
SONY DSC-RX100 (31.48mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO125)
Old distance signs on an abandoned maintenance storage house close to Vila Velha de Rodão.

 

EN118
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/2.5, 1/500 sec, ISO125)
Empty strech of road heading to Abrantes

 

Detour (Desvio)
SONY DSC-RX100 (37.1mm, f/4.9, 1/500 sec, ISO125)
Detour at Alvega

 

Alvega
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/11, 1/800 sec, ISO125)
Alvega

 

Match day
SONY DSC-RX100 (37.1mm, f/4.9, 1/500 sec, ISO160)
Home match of the local team close to Abrantes

 

Pego power plant chimney
SONY DSC-RX100 (15.28mm, f/4, 1/800 sec, ISO125)
A colorful chimey of the Pego power plant, built close to the Tagus outside Abrantes

 

EN118
SONY DSC-RX100 (16.01mm, f/4, 1/800 sec, ISO125)
Patches in the road with a corn field nearby Constância

 

Almourol castle
SONY DSC-RX100 (18.23mm, f/3.2, 1/500 sec, ISO800)
Almourol, one of the many castles along the Tagus (very important during the Reconquista) and the place that marks the change to plains and flooding lands, to a much more humanized landscape.

 

Bullfight posters
SONY DSC-RX100 (23.82mm, f/4, 1/500 sec, ISO250)
Posters in abandoned house at Ribatejo, the region that lives and breathes the bullfighting culture in Portugal.

 

Roadside restaurant
SONY DSC-RX100 (14.23mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO500)
Sunday afternoon TV show at a roadside restaurant close to Chamusca

 

Farming land close to Salvaterra de Magos
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/5, 1/320 sec, ISO125)
Getting closer to the Sorraia basin, one of Tagus’ affluents, the most fertile lands in the country start to change the landscape.

 

Corn field
SONY DSC-RX100 (17.6mm, f/3.2, 1/1250 sec, ISO400)
Farming land until the eyes can see.

 

Yawning dog
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/2.5, 1/1250 sec, ISO125)
Dog at empty bus stop by the road in RIbatejo

 

Gado Bravo
SONY DSC-RX100 (22.49mm, f/3.5, 1/40 sec, ISO400)
Once a highly reputable inn but abandoned for 20 years, in the middle of “Recta do Cabo”, the 10 Km straight road that crosses the plains around Porto Alto. The last stop before Greater Lisbon (or first, depending the direction).

 

Under the Marechal Carmona Bridge
SONY DSC-RX100 (10.4mm, f/2.2, 1/30 sec, ISO640)
Under the Marechal Carmona Bridge

 

Marechal Carmona Bridge
SONY DSC-RX100 (13.9mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO200)
The old bridge to Vila Franca de Xira, that also marks crossing from the rural “other Portugal” to the metropolitan Greater Lisbon.

 

 

Tags: Beira Baixa, documentary, Europe, Portugal, Ribatejo, road, roadtrip, Tagus, Tejo
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Recent Posts

  • …And so did we 6 Nov 2022
  • Young Men’s Festival of Grijó de Parada 28 Dec 2021
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My passion for photography is driven by my passion for travel, either in remote locations or discovering hidden places in my country or my hometown, to discover who lives there, and all photos reflect my perspective from those wanderings.

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