Portel, (…) has the privilege to be surrounded by its mountains, the most important relief accident in the Alentejo which, elevated above the surrounding peri-plain until a height of 1350ft, allows us to enjoy a unique landscape and remarkable seasonal changes.
We can say these mountains mark the frontier between the High and Low Alentejo. It’s a mountain massive of schist-greywacke origin where we can find the characteristics of an ancestral wood. Despite some slopes having already suffered the effects of the eucalypt massive plantation, we cans still observe in this place flower communities representing what should have been the original wood. Namely the holm-oak and cork-tree plantations which associated to the arbutus, the leafy-shaped, the myrtle, rosemary or bushes, compose an aromatic and colourful landscape. As it would be expected there’s a most rich fauna associated to this flora, from which we can detach some vertebrate protected by the laws of nature as it is the case of some species of birds and mammals.
In the northeast part of the mountains, near the River Dgebe, the schist outcrops mark the scenery. Once more we are before a rich and varied landscape, to which are associated traditional human activities as the mushroom collection or honey production.
This region will surely suffer the unavoidable consequences of the development of the Alqueva project which will surely be expressed in the landscape, human communities and ecosystems.
The dam of Alvito is placed almost in the west limit of the mountains of Portel, which contributes to a particularly beautiful scenic framing helped by the natural richness of the region. Around the dam we face one of those ecosystems resulting from several years of agricultural activity, translated into a dispersed cork-tree and holm-oak plantation associated to uncultivated bushes that started to grow after the culture abandonment.
It’s also a particularly interesting area to the vertebrate fauna. The otter, for instance, is one of the mammals occurring here in direct connection with the water plan, as well as the wild boar, the fox and the badger. Among the birds we detach the water birds as loons, herons, common white-eyed ducks, frisadas (a variety of pigeons), coots or water-hens.
Similarly to other places of the same kind, this dam marks a landscape dominated by the lack of water resources, becoming an attraction pole to open-air activities either it is the traditional ones, as sports-fishing, or the picnics on holidays and some uses as bathing-zone, or activities with an increasing expression in our region as nature walks, bird watching, canoeing, paddling, sailing, photographic hunt or painting.
Still in the surroundings of the mountains of Portel, we’ll find southern, most interesting remains of the original Mediterranean vegetation near the brooks of Marmelar and Pasparda. Some holm-oak plantation associated with a heath sub-wood, myrtle, several species of cistus, rosemary, arbutus and mastic-tree allow us to enjoy magnificent and beautiful places to which the preservation condition of the riparian gallery of the recessed valley of the brooks largely contributed.
A more thoughtful and expert look may easily recognize the presence of wild boars or deers, observing them or registering the signs which reveal their presence. Also here the avifauna presents a remarkable diversity and richness, with special emphasis in some rare or endangered species at the European level as the Royal Eagle, the Honey-Buzzard, the Bonelli’s Eagle or the Booted Eagle among others.
So, we can say the mountains of Portel an their surroundings justify, a thoughtful and lasting look from the nature and open-air lovers which allows us to fall in love with the place but also to collaborate in its preservation; mainly if we think that this kind of landscape is striating to be rare and constitutes an heritage as important, or even more, as the Castle of Portel.
-
Guia de Turismo Natureza da Câmara Municipal de Portel, 2000 – Nature and Tourism Guide of the Town Hall of Portel (Text of Nuno Lecoq)