Southern Portugal Part I

[Andreas Thorbeck]

In March 2008 and April 2009 I had the chance to go to Southern Portugal. Unfortunately the two trips were rather short - 7 and 10 days respectively.
In 2008 a good friend of mine, Stephan Eger, accompanied me. Back home my wife, Wiebke, was so impressed by the photos that I "had to" do the same trip again with her a year later in 2009.

First Stop: Setubal and Parque Natural da Serra da Arrabida

Setubal, a city of about 100.000, lies only a few kilometers south of Lisboa. Setubal doesn`t offer many sights or tourist highlights, except for the old part of town and the delicious "Moscatel de Setubal" (dessert wine). We nevertheless decided to spend our first night there, because we wanted to escape the big city Lisboa and because of the proximity to the Serra da Arrabida.

setubal.jpg

The Parque Natural da Serra da Arrabida is small mountain range about 22km long and 8km wide. The highest points reach up to 500 meters above sea level. More than 150 species of birds as well as some rare mammals and bats can be found there.

Setubal from mountain.jpg

The Convento da Arrabida, a Franciscan monastery. In former times the bay was frequently attacked by pirates. This is why the monastery was build high above sea level.

Convento.jpg

Convento close.jpg

Enough culture! When we left Germany in 2008 it was still snowing while the landscapes in Portugal were already in full bloom...

Cistrose pink.jpg

The first reptile we spotted was this Psammodromus algirus

Psammodromus.jpg

Second Stop: Reserva Natural das Lagoas de Santo Andre e de Dancha (near Sines)

Some impressions of this lagoon and the landscape surrounding it...

lagune Wiebke.jpg

lagune blumen.jpg

Lagune blume unbekannt.jpg

My favourite flower: Cistus ladanifer. It`s a pyrophyte which means that its seeds germinate when there has been a fire.

Lackzistrose1.jpg

Lackzistrose 2.jpg

Lagune birds.jpg

Third stop: Aljezur

Aljezur is a rather small town on the south-western coast. A point of interest for herpers is this bridge in the town center...

Aljezur Brücke.jpg

Here`s the answer:

Natrix maura 1.jpg

Natrix maura 2.jpg

I don`t know many other cities where you can watch snakes hunting, do you? According to some people living in Aljezur, one can not only watch Natrix maura but also turtles and European otters (Lutra lutra) from this bridge...


The next morning we tried to spot some turtles on the banks of a little river. We saw a few from the distance, but we mainly heard them jumping into the rather cold water! However, this little fellow wasn`t that shy:

Aljezur Rana perezi.jpg

And this nice girl was even more tame:

Aljezur Psammodromus.jpg

Aljezur Psammodromus tame.jpg

We suspected her to be a gravid female, because she showed more interest in basking in the sun on this rather cold day than she showed fear - very unusual for this rather shy species!

And here are some pics taken at one of the beautiful beaches near Aljezur:

Aljezur beach1.jpg

Aljezur beach 2.jpg

aljezur beach3.jpg

End of part one!

[Mario Schweiger]

So here you will see it again (Picture: does it bite?).
Just come slowly close to the herps!

Mario