Ruínas do Sanatório Albergaria Grandella

We had a lazy morning as planned today. Ellie cleaned Wanda’s floors, I had a shower and then we filled Wanda’s water tanks. Just before midday we set off in search of an old sanitarium. When we found it on the edge of the village of lousa there were runners doing time trials and to our dismay the path ran right through the middle of it.
We parked up and started walking up to the walls and could see the markers for the runners but there was no one there to stop us so in we went.
It was an amazing building not only to photograph but just to walk around. Arched doorways and pointing walls, the whole place was like a maze and at one point I lost Ellie completely. During that time I found tunnels that led right underneath and they were like cloisters and I actually managed to get all the way through.
As we were about to leave 2 runners came back from where they had run to and they were collecting the markers so as they left I got the drone out and done some aerial photography, it looked even better from the air.
From lousa, we drove back to the car park at Mafra where we had stayed before. Made a cup of tea and chilled for half an hour before we went to the wolf sanctuary.
There’s no way Wanda was going to get up the road to the sanctuary so we had to walk the last 3/4 mile uphill on a cobbled road and got there at exactly 4:30pm, just as the guide was starting.
Sara, our guide was excellent. She first spoke in portugese and then English for us but she did stay with Ellie and I and we got to ask her lots of questions on the route, but to our utter disappointment we didn’t see any wolves.
Leaving the sanctuary we walked back to Wanda in the dark and then returned to Mafra where we would spend the night for the last time. Tomorrow we will be moving area.Read more