Camel Spit & Cork Trees A Year of Slow Travel Through Portugal

Want to know the reason Portuguese cafes sell samosas, why you should steer clear of caterpillars, or what the numbers chalked on cork trees mean? At the start of a summer when the whole of Portugal seems to be on fire, travel writers Andy and Jack Montgomery swap life in the North of Tenerife for Portugal. Their quest to find somewhere to live moves from a traditional house beside a smugglers' trail in Alentejo's remote border country to a converted wine press south of Lisbon; an area where storks nest on abandoned farmhouses and flamingos wade through salt pans. As the seasons change, Jack and Andy's work throws up adventures the length and breadth of Portugal: walking the Portuguese Caminho de Santiago and dining with a count in the Minho; discovering why canal boats have soft porn cartoons on their prows in Portugal's little Venice; searching for a pig-shaped sausage roaster on the wilder side of the Algarve; sharing petiscos in a Fado-singing prostitute's house in Lisbon; and trekking to where the Virgin Mary rode a giant mule up a cliff on the Costa Negra. Getting to grips with both life and work reveals a fascinating land, a friendly people, and an eclectically diverse gastronomy which includes fried cuttlefish, pig's blood rice and desserts with bizarre names like lard from heaven. Camel Spit & Cork Trees is a fast-moving travelogue for travelers seeking a vivid and honest depiction of parts of Portugal that still lie below the radar of most visitors.