Back to the sea

Drove northwards Monday to Arruda dos Vinhos a small village in the hills surrounded by vineyards. We had a slightly surreal experience driving through the outskirts of Porto Alto, suddenly the writing on signs above shops, advertising hoardings and even the buildings style was….Chinese. China town seemed to have come to Portugal at some point in the past few decades, and to have left again – it all looked somewhat run down and neglected. Within a few miles the local venacular switched back to Portugese and we were shaking our heads about the obvious lack of integration that happens when incomers stay in their enclaves – seems like history repeats itself!

We overnighted at an Aire beside another Intermarche Supermarket in the village where on one side there was a smallholder type property with a field where geese and sheep grazed. It had the appearance of a quagmire, goodness knows what the sheep were finding to eat, but the geese looked happy and fat! The other side the hypermarket and car wash, then across the road houses (with yard dogs – but I’ll come onto that) and inbetween goats on tethers. Juxtopositions of different centuries lifestyles!

Dog wise, on our morning walk I realised that the Portugese seem to keep dogs in much the same way the Brits keep rabbits as pets. The vast majority live outside, a good proportion in tiny hutches (swop the word for kennel), some get to free range in the garden (with some wonderful sterotypic behaviour up and down boundaries), some live alongside human settlement. These last in England correspond to the rabbits that have been “dumped” or released into the wild by owners fed up with them – some of which survive and integrate into wild populations, and some die quickly. The Portugese village dogs – well I don’t know the area well enough to know where they come from – if it’s a self sustaining population or if these too are “released into the wild”. I’m sure that there are a small percentage of Portugese dogs who are house dogs, well  treated and valued members of their families but I’m not convinced it’s common….a bit like house rabbits in England!

We also watched the local single village dog (a bitch actually) who seems to live around the hypermarket – she was quite vocal but after watching her displays at a distance, and our dogs reactions….well I’m beginning to think that a lot of the barking that we are hearing is the Portugese dogs way of socialising. They all seem really quite wary of direct interaction with other dogs – there aren’t many that actually come and sniff our guys, most of it seems to be “verbal and at a distance” interactions.

Then there’s the point about the scarcity of numbers, and I’ve realised that it’s because of limited food supply – and the need for food overriding the need to socialise. Dogs are a social species, but the overriding need for food to survive means that numbers can’t congregate if there isn’t enough food to go around. As English abroad, we are just so not used to considering the importance of whether there is enough to eat!

By Tuesday lunchtime we’d driven to Peniche to the Aire by the Lighthouse, the sun was out, and the lunchtime highlight was watching a pair of Peregrines on a cliff stack about 50m infront of the van and they put on a show – working as a pair to attempt to flush the rock doves off the cliff slopes for their lunch. Pretty spectacular panoramic views out over the Atlantic and pretty special, watching Peregrines hunt in their natural cliff face environment.

A pretty good antidote of wild bird watching to the slightly depressing canine situation! And so far here on the coast at Peniche, no unattached dogs for once!

And after our drive to Peniche over the hills, on narrow roads amongst wonderful old villages with extremely narrow roads.....relaxing after a hard day in the office....