Smoke gets in your eyes

Neither of us slept well after such an unusual travel day, less than five hours for me. No chance of a lie-in when the ship began to manoeuver at six forty five, and start its inland journey up the Douro. Early on, the sky was clear, but became hazy, then ominously cloudy as we passed by places where wildfires are being fought on hillsides many miles away.  Breakfast at eight was a feast of choices, cooked, cold meats, fruit and cereals. At a steady ten miles an hour on an incredible winding river, it was difficult to establish at first which direction we were travelling in, and I felt quite disoriented. My smartphone map was hardly useful, as the GPS signal bounced back and forth in the urbanised area, just occasionally on the river. Soon after breakfast, away from the conurbation with steep woodland on either side, our progress on the map became more obvious.

Our first stop was for Crestuma lock, the first of three hydroelectric barrages to mount this day, a mere 14 metres, just after we'd finished breakfast. The Patricia the cruise director gave us the maritime health and safety briefing, and introduced the schedule for the day. Then a stop for the second Carrapatelo lock, an awesome giant, one of the largest in Western Europe, with an ascent of 35 metres. It's difficult to describe the impact of this, with huge doors opening upwards into a vast void dripping with water. As we waited, several swifts were circulating casually, foraging for insects above and below top deck level. After the ascension, the sun deck was closed to passengers as the vessel's superstructure had to be flattened to pass through the exit portal, given its size. The barrage was built in the sixties when river vessels weren't quite as large as now.

Then we passed for an hour before lunch along a stretch of river where the sky filled with brown clouds of wildfire smoke. We got the stench and the smuts from a blaze many miles away, and saw two firefighting helicopters with buckets fly down and scoop up river water. The sun shone dark orange through smoke clouds above us at one stage. As we sat down to a light buffet lunch, I spotted an osprey circling over the river, stooping to take a fish, unsuccessfully. Two of them, apparently, but we soon passed their fishing spot. As we approached the next barrage I spotted a colony of cormorants occupying an island and water nearby. A place rich with fish no doubt. Then I spotted two large herons on the move, confirming this as a potentially fruitful hunting ground for them too.

With a fruit and veg salad type lunch, I had two glasses with the meal, an interestingly flavoured bitter chocolatey red and a light lemony low impact white. Effectively, local house wines. We get to try the posh stuff at supper time. An hour later we went through the Bagauste lock, an ascent of 28 metres. That means we're now 77 metres, 245 feet higher than we were when we set out this morning. The temperature soared above 35C to 38C on an exposed mountainside when we visited the Quinta San Luis at tea time, for a guided tour of the winery, learning about how red and white port wines are made, with a tasting of both at the end. The winery is located about 150m above the river, with a long winding narrow approach road, handled with supreme confidence by a local coach driver. 

It was only 20C in the winery itself and 18C or less in the place behind where giant oak wine casks as tall as a two storey house stand like silent sentinels in the shadow of the mountain side. Fortified wines are an interesting and pleasant experience, definitely best with fruit or something savoury. Taken on their own, and without a water chaser doesn't do them justice. A couple of hours later, the taste of the aquavit added to halt fermentation, was still burning my tongue, when the distinctive flavour of the wine had departed. Not my sort of everyday drink really.

We descended from the winery to the A222 riverside main road to Pinaho. Our ship went ahead to its planned berth for the night on the quayside by this village, described as being at the heart of the Douro. There's a train that runs the length of the valley, and I glimpsed it passing through as we were about to embark, but too quickly to take a photo. Clare was keen to cool down with dip in the ship's tiny swimming pool. It wasn't really deep enough for a swim however. It's really there for people to go and sit in on a day as hot as this one. At least the wind blew away the smoke and we glimpsed the sky again.

Then a welcome session with a glass of incredibly dry white wine before supper, to introduce the entire staff and crew of MV Douro Elegance. I didn't count but there were about forty altogether I think. Then a gourmet five course meal showcasing the red and white wines of the region selected to go with the evening's meal. All together nicely balanced, although the slab of rare to medium beef we ended up with, went well with the wine, it a was twice as large as it needed to be, it took so long to eat.

I had a conversation at table with a Bristolian couple with a widowed sister, all of whom were Catholics, all of us of a similar age, and sharing the same experiences of growing up in a different world, grateful for what this taught us. A conversation full of appreciation and gratitude for our different experiences of life. There was entertainment in the lounge to follow, but after such enjoyable conviviality I needed to return to the cabin, upload photos and write, before turning in for the night, recharging my digital devices before re-charging myself with sleep. What an amazing day.