Saturday, 29 December 2007

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  Summer at Alentejo

  Weekly Photo Challenge

  Being so late for the Weekly Photo Challenges, I thought I could make them all "at once".
  
  Personal reasons made me go to Alentejo several times this Summer and every time I took pictures, thinking on making entries about it, since I didn't had the time to do it then. Now is the time!

  I hope you enjoy traveling to the Alentejo, the south interior region of Portugal, one of the most forgotten and, thanks to that, well preserved in their traditions and way of living. One of the strongest and well individualized culture of Portugal.
  
  
  

  Weekly Photo Challenge hosted by: Sherrytwinklz
  Subject: Love is...

  
  

  It's no secret that everyone love their own relatives, mainly children.
  So it's obviously not a secret that I love my grandsons, Beatriz and Artur.
  But that doesn't tell you much about them or us, as a family…
  Let me start in a different way…
  

  Mountains and Hills

  Weekly Photo Challenge hosted by: Rainydame
  Subject: Mountains and Hills

  
  

  Some people consider the landscape at Alentejo boring.
  Yes, it might seem boring if one is used to high hills and breathtaking mountains.
  But to me there's nothing more breathtaking than, at the bend of the road, sightseeing that village at the top of the hill, miles and miles away.
  It's like arriving home.
  

  
  

  Landscape ends at the horizon and earth lays down as an animal, flanks smoothly up and down with the breeze.
  

  
  

  The bride definitely marks the passage to another world.
  Once by train, today by car, the river always make us stop by its beauty.
  

  
  

  It's hard to believe that while we have been in Lisbon, not having time to breathe, the river was there, all the time there, always changing but as it were immutable.
  

  
  

  On the distance, the village call us, and we know that that stop in the path, a stop in the time, is over. We have to go…
  

  
  

  And the river goes it's way to the sea, so do we.
  

  
  

  Some kilometers after, we arrive to the village, Serpa, a ship riding the wave of the hill.
  The Moorish castle, later Spanish, later Portuguese overcome all tempests.The Counts live now in Lisbon and the palace remains eyes closed, sleeping, in the full silence of the countryside.
  

  Texture

  Weekly Photo Challenge hosted by: Fetherland
  Subject: Texture

  
  

  No matter where we turn, the same landscape. And the furry texture of the soil feels like an invitation to walk and walk, until the horizon.
  

  
  

  No matter how many times we have pictured this, we always take another picture, as if we could capture the breathe of the plain, it's soul.
  

  
  

  The air is naturally perfumed. There are gum-roses everywhere and despite the flowers are gone, the whole plants exudates it's strong scent under the heavy sun.
  

  
  

  All these fields belong to farms and animals usually graze here.
  

  
  

  Look, there are two pigs. That's how near we can see them as they run a lot…
  

  
  

  Cows are smart too. One isn't ever completely absorbed on grazing. Instead, keep an eye on us, ready to give the alarm…

  
  

  We have to watch our steps as cows preceded us…
  

  
  

  It makes me happy to see them free.
  These are from a rare specie from Alentejo. It's called Mertolenga as it's from the region of Mertola. They live from very poor feed and resist to long periods of dry. That says all about raising cattle at Alentejo, doesn't it?
  Poor souls… and they taste delicious…
  

  
  

  This is a traditional farm at Alentejo.
  It's a complex of buildings in a center of a vast domain that provide housing to all employees and, in the old times, even got church and school, as a small village.
  In harvest time, hundreds of persons used to come from north for the season and the Monte (that means the Hill) had also to provide shelter to all of them.
  Thousands of persons worked at the "Montes".
  Today we are lucky if we find an old men who sell us some honey, but increasingly we find people from Lisbon who park their Land Rover next to lawns.
  

  
  

  Well, I was exaggerating a lot... and being quite unfair…
  Any soil with a beautiful texture such as this one, gives anyone a hard time to be changed into a lawn. And that, anyone can tell…
  

  Tranquility

  Weekly Photo Challenge hosted by: Brilliantlypure
  Subject: Tranquility

  
  

  This sign is at Minas de S. Domingos, an even far village at the map of memory. It marks an utmost tranquil place.
  The abandoned mines of S. Domingos.
  

  
  

  Several other signs explain us all about it. But nothing can ever explain the awesome of visiting such a place, which made Romans sail oceans to collect gold, silver and copper and brought to Portugal English and Belgians companies that left in 1966 leaving behind such an environmental wound.
  

  
  

  S. Domingos mine belongs to Metallogenetic Province of Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB), which extends from Spain along the south area of Portugal, in Baixo Alentejo Province.
  The general geology of the mine consists of the Volcano-Sedimentary Complex with acid and basic rocks from Tournaisian age.
  

  
  

  It was an open pit mine, exploited to a depth of 120m below the topographic surface. From this depth down to a depth of 420m, mining accesses consisted on wells and galleries.
  As you can see, the open pit mine is partially filled with water.
  This water, as a consequence of the pyrite oxidation, is extremely acidic, has high contents of sulphate and heavy metals, and represents one among others environmental problems associated with the S. Domingos mine.
  That's probably one of the most strange places to spend a Sunday afternoon…
  

  
  

  Average grades of the exploited material range from 1.25% Cu (10% Cu maximum), 2-3% Zn and Pb (14% Zn and Pb, maximum). Massive pyrite grades average in the range from 45-48% in sulphur, and in addition to pyrite there are subordinate amounts of chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena and other rarer sulphides.
  Everything was first transported by donkeys, then by train. These are some leftovers but most of the railways srill remain on place.
  

  
  

  Old people used to say that that water, because of its acidity, was good for healing wounds, on the other hand, they used to damp animal corps there as they quickly melt… Lovely…

  
  

  During exploitation, mined raw material was crushed in this mill located near the open cast pit.

  
  
  

  
  

  Nearby, there's this building.
  

  
  

  It stands just next to the graveyard English made built, as they couldn’t be resting near the miners.

  
  

  After all, it all vanish.
  

  
  

  The crushed material was then taken by train, along this small river. A red river, yes.
  

  
  

  One of the impact of mining here was the enormous quantity of wood that was necessary. Because of that, trees are rare. Those small plants resisted.

  
  

  Three kilometers south of the mining area, here at Achada do Gamo, the crushed material was smelted to obtain high level grades of copper ore and sulphur products (which was largely used in the chemical industry, until the 50’s).

  
  
  

  
  

  Workers used to live in houses nearby, where enormous dark dumps of slag, called “Black Dunes” have replaced the natural landscape.

  
  

  The S. Domingos mining area contains presently several features that may result in important chemical impact.

  
  

  The silence of the surrounding where no birds fly and this poor rabbit drawn in a dark blue lake near the factory, made me feel that I had never been before in a more tranquil place.
  It was the tranquility of death.
  
  Since 1966 the population of S.Domingos, mainly old people, waits for someone who do something about the mines. As measurements are done monthly and the mine is stable, there's no hurry. In time, even old miners become tranquil…
  
  About S.Domingos Mines:
  http://www2.brgm.fr/mineo/SiteReport/IGM_test_site.pdf
  http://www.springerlink.com/content/j234747771314mv0/
  

  Next on Photo Challenge:
  OK123Letsgo (Fences)
  Handmade_n (Pets and their people)
  CanadianNational (Peace)
  Gitarezan (Fire and Ice)
  QueenChris (Chocolate)
  

  It all happened in Summer at South Portugal!
  I hope you liked your first visit to Alentejo!

  

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