Plunge in pure turquoise water and loose your breath surrounded by these views.

This article is part of the series about wild swimming in central Portugal.

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"Flying over the Quelhas stream like a hawk in search of its prey," says the official introduction to this path. It is 170 meters up, and 17 mins walk upstairs to the top from the parking; the hawk would not be attached to those numbers as I was walking there for the first time.

The local government did an amazing job building a wooden pathway with countless stairs through the valley, otherwise accessible only to goats and their shepherd. "The journey between heaven and earth" goes the introduction deeper - this one is more accurate if you did not eat enough energy-rich food before the upstairs struggle.
The access, however, gives a chance to be in the breathtaking space between the rocky slopes rising just off the Coentral village.

To do a cold dip, you need to get off the wooden pathway and walk, like the shepherd and his goats, the rocky terrain. The access to one of many small basins isn't hard, but you need to commit to it.

My favorite place is at the end of the wooden path. I like to do a cold dip next to the waterfall, and afterward, watch the stream while eating a sandwich - after the cold, it tastes many times better.

Along the stream, sometimes, are attached to the climbing gear, groups of canyoning enthusiasts - the valley, then, can get noisy. The shepherd occasionally appears in the silence, teasing with his weightless stroll. If you go there, like him, to find quiet, you can choose from multiple basins along the Quelhas stream. Generally, the harder the access, the wilder it is.
The crystal clear turquoise water is around 12 degrees in November, and it doesn't change much towards the summer. That is a pure Southern European cold dip.

Getting there.