The Alentejo

THE ALENTEJO

The Alentejo is an open field of an infinite dream and the contact of an exhausted soil. In a vertigo of contemplation, we get drunk on the shallow heath, in a monotony of nature sounds, rich in secrets. It is the ululation of the wind, which “in a cry refreshes the heat”, the whimper of the woods, the whisper of cork oaks, holm oaks and olive trees, the screams of cranes, owls and eagle owls, the singing of foxes and the grunts of wild boars. . The immense plain of Alentejo is a genuine, severe and masculine vastness of land. As you walk along its unmeasured horses, you can feel Portugal, the land still in its original state, virginal, exposed and open, where your soul is filled and your feet sink.

What remains of the Lusitanians, Romans, Arabs and Christians is registered within the walls of Alentejo. Here, Endovelico, Jupiter, Allah and Jehovah, always understood each other.

The curves, the stonework, the domes, the chimneys and the minarets of the houses; the coriander açorda and the garlic and vinegar gazpacho for the meals; the skirts and cante from Alentejo, intangible heritage of Humanity; the armies of rockroses and rosemary that perfume the air; the impatient mule teams with their party rattles; the tinkling of the rattles of the flocks of sheep that offer a minimalist, alienating, beautiful music that is part of the visual, gustatory and auditory daily life.

The Campismo Rural Lapa dos Gaivões is located on the border that delimits the mountain range to the north and the peneplain to the south.

To the north is a small property with a varied mosaic of olive groves, vineyards, pine forests, orchards, oak groves, candlesticks, oak groves, vegetable gardens, woods and thickets, woods with water courses that rip through the mountain, where the magnificent Serra de S. Mamede, with its superb and powerful quartzite ridges, reaching an altitude of 1025 meters, extending for 40 km and 10 km in width. Granitic on one side, schist, greywacke, limestone and quartzite on the other.

To the south, “it will be necessary to first break our telescope with small horizons, and then widen the compass with which we usually measure the size of our surroundings. Now the distances are interminable, and the stars, above, shine with a tropical glow…But what is most extraordinary about him is his inflexible determination to preserve an unmistakable physiognomy, no matter what… of its destiny: the endless plain to which it gives life and movement… A free world, without walls, which allowed all invasions to pass and remained inviolate, oblivious to the changes of history and faithful to the effort that earned it. No limits in space and time. Whichever cardinal point you choose to worry about, you will always have infinity before you, lying fallow for any sowing.” (Miguel Torga)