cold water, green shade and nobody around
You have to go down into the valley to find it. The road narrows, the plane trees close in overhead, and suddenly you're somewhere that seems to have been left off the main map. The Praia Fluvial de Ourondo is in the Paul area, one of the quietest parishes in the Covilhã municipality, tucked up against the Serra da Gardunha.
The water is river water, cold as it should be, and the sound that dominates is the current. There isn't much human noise around here. The families who come know where they are, they didn't arrive by mistake or by algorithm. That natural filter guarantees a certain peace that the better-known beaches in the region lost a long time ago.
Covilhã is up there, a few kilometres away, but this valley runs at a completely different pace. You come down off the mountain, plunge into the icy water and understand why some people prefer this kind of afternoon to anything else.
what you'll find
- running cold water, even at the height of summer
- dense shade along the bank
- a local atmosphere, no big structures set up
- the feeling of having found something that hasn't been advertised yet
