Peace and quiet on the Guardiana river

Ayamonte

Saturday 18^th August. We are moored in the marina at Ayamonte, a quiet, unspoilt town on the Spanish side of the mouth of the Guardiana river, which forms the border between Portugal and Spain. It’s a pleasant change after the noisy, busy and expensive Algarve.  We visited the indoor market today where there were no less than five fishmongers, all specialising in different types of fish. We bought a gilt head sea bream and barbecued it – very tasty!

Tomorrow we plan to sail 20 miles upriver to the twin villages of Alcoutim (Portugal) and Sanlucar (Spain). To get there we have to pass under a suspension bridge which has 20.5m clearance, and we realised today that we don’t know our exact mast height, or more importantly, the height from the waterline to the top of the mast. A quick check on Google came up with 17.3m, so we should be alright.

The suspension bridge

Sunday 19^th August.  As we approached the suspension bridge we began to wonder how reliable our Googled information was as it didn't look as though we would fit under it. We throttled back and held our breath as the mast neared the steel girders. We got through with (from our viewpoint) millimetres to spare, and by the time we reached the other side we were both having palpitations!

There’s no chart for the river, and the only advice in the Pilot book is to leave at low water and keep to the outside of bends, where the channel is likely to be deeper. The depth was generally good, but occasionally it would suddenly plummet, and it was anyone’s guess which way to turn to find deeper water.

We also had to contend with floating rafts of bamboo branches that came racing down the river towards us. Apparently, these had been washed from the banks after a particularly high spring tide – not something you want to get tangled in your propeller.

Sandpiper on the pontoon at Alcoutim

When we finally arrived at the village there was a Fiesta in full swing, and we found both the pontoons and the adjacent anchorage were full. Then we spotted a free mooring buoy, so grabbed it, only to discover that there wasn’t enough depth for us to stay on it all night! Luckily, after an hour or so one boat left the Alcoutim village pontoon, so we quickly motored over and took the space.



Sanlucar village across the river

Monday 20^th August. It’s lovely here – peaceful and scenic. We had a walk round Alcoutim today then took the little ferry boat across to Sanlucar. No customs or passports required! Apparently it’s a popular place for live-aboards to over-winter, and I can see why.  The villages have a timeless feel,  clusters of whitewashed houses cling to the hillsides beside narrow cobbled streets and each village is topped with a stone castle. There are a few nods to 21^st century needs, like a cash dispenser and wi-fi in the Library, but traditional village life still dominates.

We were told it would be cooler up river but it’s very hot – over 40c – and there’s no wind, so this afternoon we walked down to the river beach for a welcome dip, then sat reading in the shade of the trees. Now we’re relaxing on the back of the boat and watching the egrets and herons feeding in the river.

View from Alcoutim castle

Tuesday 21^st August. We left at dawn to sail back down river this morning, a much less stressful journey than going up, which meant we had time to take in our surroundings. The river is surprisingly unspoilt, with hardly any development except for the occasional wind turbine, and we spotted white storks on the river bank.

Back in Ayamonte we decided to do a big shop at the supermarket, which is conveniently close to the marina. The wine, beer and water was heavy, so I suggested we took the trolley all the way back to the boat.  A good idea in principle, but we should have remembered that shopping trolleys have minds of their own. As we turned our backs to unload it, the trolley decided to take a dive off the pontoon into the water! Luckily, it caught on our mooring lines, so Cliff was able to salvage both the trolley and most of our shopping, but not before two bottles of good rioja escaped into the deep.