Trip to Pedreira da Milhária - Campo Valongo | Portugal

As announced in the previous post, today i continue the walk made yesterday.
After crossing the bridge to the other side of the bank, and after having gone there on a very narrow trail beside the river towards the "Fraga do Castelo", we found ourselves on a complicated path to take it safely with the children who accompanied us, and although the river is shallow in that area, we didn't go there with the aim of taking a dip and then we decided to go back.

Again next to the bridge, we chose to follow the trail that extended through an uphill on that bank of the river.
Above, we soon came across a small sign that warned of the danger of falling stones that could occur ahead, and it was immediately possible to perceive the situation when we are presented with such a scenario.

Right at the beginning of the trail, the extensive wall that can be seen in the distance and that does not go unnoticed in the landscape, immediately alerts you to the place where the "Pedreira da Milhária" is located, from which the raw material for the company of Lousas de Valongo is extracted, a company dedicated to the extraction and transformation of slate, founded in 1865 with the main objective of supplying England and the United States with slate for roofs, floors, coverings and stones for billiard tables.
Currently the extraction is fully mechanized and the transformation processes a wide variety of products in which quality and natural beauty are the main attributes.

We follow the trail that takes us to the quarry, always accompanied by a colossal wall and walkway built with the slate extracted from the quarry, and once there, we are confronted with a mixture of beauty and destruction that only photographic records can convey an idea.
When I saw the processing plant at the top of the mountain in the distance, i remembered the time of the primary school when on a study visit to this place we were offered a small slate board and a slate tip with which we wrote on the board and at that same time we were also told that, that was the material that our parents used at school.
One of those memories that are left in our memory.

Still in that place, we stopped for a moment to make some records and for the children to explore and play, so that they too can remember these moments.

And so, without taking time to pass, it was time to return, but not before taking a macro, a single macro... and as always, it didn't stop there, in fact, when we started this trail, the idea would be to visit the blue lagoon, a lagoon that it is in the underground, but after seeing that huge wall and knowing what we could find ahead, it was inevitable, but now that we were at the starting point, on the other side of the bank, after crossing the bridge, it appeared the opportunity to make a quick visit to the blue lagoon, but you will see why in the next post :)

That´s all for today :)

See you soon

Thank you for watching :)

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