We’ve been sticking to the coast up to now but decided to take a detour inland to visit Evora. The drive took us through the cork forests of the Alentejo. The cork trees are stripped to their waists, the underlying bark being red to start and turning slowly to a deep black in the 10 years before the trees are stripped again. The cork itself is strangely light (though that shouldn’t have been a surprise given how many win bottles I’ve opened) and has a very spongy texture.

Evora is a town of many interesting sights. We arrived intending to park under the aqueduct but on meeting some other motorhomers who were robbed overnight in their vans we opted to check into the campsite instead. Evora had the usual impressive cathedral and other interesting architecture but the highlight for us was the macarbe chapel of bones. The walls were created with monks bones (mostly femurs and humeri) and it is decorated with a trio of hanging mummies. The inscription above the chapel entrances reads ‘We bones here are waiting for your bones‘. It definitely stimulated thoughts of our own mortality, and it made me glad we are seeing the world before we enter the chapel of bones!