The rock stars of the Douro Valley
Think of the Douro Valley, and its ruby red wines and vertiginous vineyards spring to mind. But tucked away on the banks of one if its tributaries in northeastern Portugal is an extraordinary open-air gallery of prehistoric rock art.
There are thousands of images spread over 18km along the Coa river. But only three sites in the Coa Archeological Park are open, and can only be visited with an official guide. It’s a wasted journey if you haven’t booked well in advance – unless, that is, you are on a river cruise that organises this unique experience for you, such as this one with Uniworld.
On the way, our guide explains how the rock art of the Coa Valley, the largest collection of Paeleolithic etchings in the world, was saved from being submerged by the construction of a dam in the 1990s. Near the riverside, it is a short walk to the first panel of layered images of animals –
including auroch, the extinct wild ox – engraved in schist walls. Initially we need our guide to point out the lines, but soon we are identifying more and more creatures on the rock faces.
The excitement of the day means I am ready to relax when I return to the ship. Luckily, the swish SS Sao Gabriel is all about creature comforts. Everyone has free-flowing drinks, including a range of 20 different Douro wines served with meals. Nothing beats tasting the wines immersed in the landscape where they are produced, and a highlight of the cruise is wine tasting at the Douro Museum, followed by a tour of the Quinta do Pacheca wine estate.
Nowadays the only cargo on the Douro is tourists, so it’s a peaceful and uncrowded waterway. The most dramatic of the five locks we encounter on the journey upstream from Porto is at the Carrapatelo dam. At 115ft, it is the deepest lock in Europe, with soaring concrete sides. A two-hour coach journey leads to the beautiful city of Salamanca, home of Spain’s oldest university.
After all that, the ship turns round and it’s back to Porto, accompanied by uncountable glasses of the
Douro’s delectable wines. It’s heady stuff in more ways than one.
Uniworld offers a full-board eightday Douro River Valley cruise on SS Sao Gabriel from €2,307pp. See uniworld.com