Walking through the Valley of Shadows

Our journey begins at the Chapel of Our Lady of Gerês, the starting point for an adventure that will take us to explore one of the wildest and most emblematic valleys in the mountains. We begin our ascent through the Valley of Shadows, always accompanied by the Amoreira River, whose crystal-clear waters form small lagoons and hidden waterfalls that make this first stage especially magical.

Along the way, we pass the Hut of Shadows and, shortly after, we reach the Shadow Mines, located in the heart of the Gerês-Xurés Transboundary Biosphere Reserve. Located at an altitude of over 1200 meters, these mines were, during the Second World War, an important point of extraction of tungsten, the valuable "black gold" that profoundly marked the history of the region.

This linear route runs through the entire Valley of Shadows on the Spanish side, revealing a landscape full of waterfalls, natural lagoons and a unique biodiversity, characteristic of this world biosphere reserve. We continue climbing and, from this point, the trail becomes wilder and more challenging. We then arrived at the border between Spain and Portugal, marked by Milestone 91G, where we found Portela da Amoreira and its old corral.

From here we follow the dirt road that leads to the Carris Mines, an area where it is common to see wildlife roaming freely in the mountains.

The Carris Mines, located at an altitude of 1440 meters, constitute a vast mining complex composed of ruins that bear witness to the intense exploitation of tungsten in Portugal during World War II. Among stone walls, abandoned galleries and metal structures corroded by time, it is possible to relive part of the history of the "black gold of Rio Grande do Sul". At this privileged point, we also contemplated wide views over the mountains, including Pico da Nevosa, the highest point in all of Gerês.

After exploring the mining area, we went around the Carris Mines dam and began the return, descending again to the Vale das Sombras to the Chapel of Our Lady of Xurês.