Guadiana valley route

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This route includes areas outside of the Vale do Guadiana Nature Park, some being Natura 2000 sites. The roads are narrow and some are dirt roads. Before going to the Vale do Gonçalinho Center book your guided visit to see the birds. In that case, take one morning for such, so, this way, this route will take more than a day. In Castro Verde, look for the rotunda with the ore sculpture and you will find the exit that gives access to the road with the indication "Centro de Educação Ambiental do Vale Gonçalinho", it is the old road for Entradas village parallel to the IP2. At the end of 6 km you will find a new sign and you have to go another 1 km on dirt road to the Center, then return to Castro Verde and take the N123 towards Mértola. This route allows you to visit some of the points of interest of Vale do Guadiana Nature Park and its surroundings, from the Pulo do Lobo, impressive in winter when the river has more caudal, but always beautiful with its potholes and the birds that pass and live there (from the Eurasian Crag-Martin to Black Stork and birds of prey), to the S. Domingos mine, a former exploration of pyrites. From the museum of Mértola with its many nuclei and the Islamic festival, to the old mining port of Pomarão, passing through chapels and geosites, having always with the birds in sight, Great and Little bustard, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Eurasian Golden Plover, Lesser Kestrel, European Bee-eater, European Roller, Calandra Lark and not forgetting Shrikes, Griffon Vulture, Red Kite and other birds of prey. Note that several of these species are migratory, so they are not in the region all year round. Among other places, this route passes through São Marcos da Atabueira, Amendoeira da Serra (here follow the signs to Pulo do Lobo), Corte Gafo de Cima and Corte Gafo de Baixo. In the latter you can take a pedestrian route through a landscape of holm oak that gives rise to dense patches of Mediterranean scrub as the relief becomes accentuated and the plain gives way to the river Guadiana cliffs. The riparian vegetation associated to the watercourses allows the appearance of bird species characteristic of these habitats. It also passes through Mértola, Corvos dam, Corte Pequena (small village of medieval origin), chapel of Our Lady of Amparo old hermitage of St. Brissos, in a small elevation (246 m), being a privileged viewpoint for the contemplation and interpretation of the landscape, S. Domingos mines, finishing in the old mining port of Pomarão. Pothole - A hole or basin cut into bedrock of a stream by the abrasive action of pebbles and sand swirled by turbulent stream flow.