I may have mentioned before how crowded Europe is compared to Australia. It's hard to find a place where you're truly alone. I'd like to say we found a bit of 'alone' time in this biosphere UNESCO national park, but of course we didn't - there was plenty of people exploring the area just as we were.

We decided to skip the north coast of Portugal as the weather and surf weren't great, and head toward the border and the national park people call Gerês. It's the country's oldest protected area only national park, covering over 650 square klomentres, and connects with Spain's Baixa Limia which thus creates the UNESCO biosphere reserve of Gerês-Xurés. It's named for two huge granite massifs, the Serra da Peneda and the Serra do Gerês. Thus, there's some lovely upward and winding drives through the park which gave the Series 3 a bit of a workout - more crazy hairpin turns!

It was nice to get away from the eucaplypt forests and into more oak and pine- the last refuges of Portugal's typical Atlantic European flora, and more of a contrast to the more Mediterranean biome of Spain. Apparently there's over 200 vertebrae species, but all we found was this slug.

Still, it's a biodiversity hotspot which is really nice to know exists.

We saw evidence of boar, as well, with tufts of hair and this distinctive poo, but we didn't see any.

It would be a really cool place to hike, although we didn't - the whole area is dotted with megalithic structures and Roman relics. There's a nice balance between human activities such as hiking and the protected areas for the animals that live there, including, apparently, wolves - though I don't believe that one little bit!

We also saw quite a few waterfalls.

There was also a whole section where you weren't even allowed to get out of the car which was pretty cool. It's nice to know there are at least some protected areas for wildlife in Europe. I liked to think of the imaginary wolves running around at least.

Although we were moving through fairly quickly, it would have been nice to stop here for a few days and do some hiking. I don't know, a big part of me was kinda disappointed as I expected a more wilder place, but I guess that's kinda hard to find in this part of Europe. Still, I'm glad we diverted this way. It was a shame to miss the coast but you can only do one or the other sometimes. Such is life!