Animal Reserve and Ericeira

Tuesday we went hiking (well.. “dirt road hilly walking”) in the natural park 10 minutes away from where we’re staying, Tapada Nacional de Mafra. It’s essentially a 2,933 acre reserve created by the king almost 300 years ago. It currently has wild animals freely roaming it, a large trail network to access it, and educational programs for kids. There is even a small ropes course which I’d love to do with Ashok some day.

We targeted the green route, which is one of four well-marked trails, and is also conveniently (but somewhat inaccurately it turns out) mapped out in AllTrails.

The trail quickly gained elevation and the vegetation changed several times throughout our ~5.25 mi hike. The entire trail was 4WD drivable however, so walking was easy..

The expectation/hope was that we’d see wild animals. The ticket lady even told us which of the longest trails also went through the most dense active animal areas based off her frequent walks. For the first couple hours, this was our most exciting find.. a very shy lizard.

In some areas we encountered pine trees. Here’s what type they were..

For all the animal poop and tracks, you’d think we would be dodging animals left and right. Well maybe we were, but we didn’t see anything except the occasional lizard and beetles. Oh and one fast squirrel, which we surprisingly saw very few of.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day! It rained early on so everything was lush and clean.

We were standing in a large field musing at how the hike was still worth it despite not seeing any larger animals, when what should appear but an entire family of wild boars! They were in the shadows but fortunately we followed them to the next area along the road where they stayed and maybe even showed off a bit. one of the young ones dropped to the ground to get washed?/massaged? then jumped up afterward refreshed.

10 minutes later, within 5 minutes of the exit gate, we saw these two beautiful deer!

So what was already a beautiful and relaxing walk was capped off by both of the animals we were most looking forward to right as we left. Ok it did seem like a setup, but we were ok with it.

We then went back to the hotel to shower, change, nap, blog, and.. prepare for dinner. We decided to go to the coast in Ericeira, a nearby beach and surf town. We went to Jangada, a nice restaurant in a hotel overlooking the ocean. Ok.. turns out THROUGH a pool, but it was still really warm and comfortable, and we really could still see.. both waters.

I was excited to get fresh-squeezed orange juice because.. well it’s awesome, but also since it had been a few days since the real deal. However I took one sip and it was acidic as ever. For the first time ever, I returned my juice it was so bad. The waitress swore that she squeezed it herself but that’s only possible if the oranges had gone bad or something. Also no pulp, WTF?! Anyway.. I love water!

The pastas were incredible. We haven’t had much Italian on this trip and this really hit the spot. The pasta was perfect al dente, the meats tasty and cooked right, and the flavors were on point! Cheese foam isn’t something I’m familiar wth, and in this case it really made a commonly heavy dish into a.. medium but still rich dish. One of the best carbonaras I’ve ever had!

We finished it off with a chocolate torte with salted caramel sauce and peanut praline. Sometimes we’re so full that we can barely finish dessert.. we were full this time but.. it wasn’t difficult!