PORTUGAL

Classic city breaks. Rugged, wildlife-rich coastlines. A wealth of history. Portugal offers Iberian culture and adventure in abundance – here’s how to best discover it

- MARTIN SYMINGTON

There is a fresh candidate to join the premier league of ‘Great Swimming Pools of the World™’. Cool, sparklingly clear and shimmering in dappled shade, the pool is formed by granite boulders and fed by a waterfall on the Regueiro dos Enxurros stream. I chanced upon this sublime spot on a hot afternoon while hiking through the wild Serra d’Arga range of hills in Portugal’s northern Minho region.

Actually, I have a water snake to thank for the find. My walking companions and I disturbed the coiled creature while we forded a stream. It slithered away, but we followed it around some rocks to the pool. The water looked so inviting, even harbouring a hidden snake in its shadowy depths, that we peeled off sweaty T-shirts and jumped in.

Having grown up in northern Portugal, I’m frequently asked for tips on exploring the region. If my questioners are hikers, nature lovers or merely adventurous, it is the chain of craggy mountains, running parallel with the coast between Porto and the river Minho to the north, that comes to mind. The Serra d’Arga, one link in this chain, rises 825 metres out of the sea and is deserted save for wild ponies and the ruined São João monastery. There are few marked walking trails, but over the years I have followed countless ancient shepherds’ paths across these wild uplands where birds of prey wheel overhead and boar scrabble in the scrub.

As with so many parts of Portugal, there are always wonders and fresh discoveries, so I should really not have been surprised to come across enchanted rock pools of a kind that in other places would feature in brochures and have railings and drinks stalls. But there was something unusually elating about this hidden spot. Not even water snakes could keep me away.

Lisbon