This was our fourth visit to the Peneda-Gerês National Park in under two years and it was much-needed antidote to what is going on in, what feels like from the remote landscapes of the park, the outside world.
We were lucky enough to have fabulous weather and I managed to take plenty of photographs. So here are a handful of images that tell the story of our trip.
The park just gets better and better with each visit. The landscape, even during a sizzling July, was looking the best we've seen it, lovely and lush.
The first route customers will walk is a stunning introduction to the park. Epic panoramas are what you sort of expect from great walking routes, but this had traditional hamlets, free-roaming longhorn cattle...
...wild horses, hoopoes, buzzards, and a flock of vultures circling ominously overhead as we explored an old wolf pit. Given the baking temperature, they were probably hoping we'd expire and end up as part of the display of bleached animal bones in the centre of the pit.
On reaching Soajo, we were greeted by Pedro and Rosa – the owners of the village houses where Inntravel customers stay. Their hospitality was as friendly and generous as ever.
As usual, they did their best to fatten us up like the proverbial Christmas turkey. After insisting to Rosa we had more than enough food from the supplies they'd left initially, the following day we still found that a bag containing a freshly made lemon sponge mysteriously appeared outside the front door of our village house.
We also visited the Inntravel hotel in Arcos de Valdevez, which is looking fabulous. Arcos itself feels in full summer holiday mode, with Portuguese families relaxing in the River Vez as they do every summer.