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Thursday 11^th SEPTEMBER 2008

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Today we reluctantly left the delightful guesthouse and hospitality of Craig and Sasha and transferred to Mertola in Portugal. On the way we stopped to walk around Serpa with its mediaeval castle and walls. Although we didn't see it, Serpa is world famous for its 11 Megawatt solar farm, click here for more information.

The name on our bus which pronounces as 'Al-Qaeda' didn't worry us too much until we realised that the date was September 11th!

Having explored the castle, the ancient walls and the network of narrow streets, we checked our watches and realised it was Beer O'Clock - again!

These two pictures were taken from the private terrace attached to our hotel room in Mertola.

This town has an extensive history going back to Roman times and there are many excavations in progress to unearth its long and varied history under the Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Christians.

On the side of the white building above left is a sign showing the level to which floods reached in 1895 - absolutely incredible when you see the level of the river way below us. The river is now controlled upstream by a dam. The river has flooded the other bridge right up to the parapets

A stork's nest. Storks are now thriving after they became a protected species and nest sites are provided on all electricity pylons to encourage them to return each year.

Many coffins are stored in niches in a wall with all sorts of religious paraphernalia to accompany the corpses.