A trip to see Barragem do Arade

Today we took a spin in the hire car up to the Barragem do Arade, the reservoir in the hills behind Silves from which the region gets its water supply. It’s very peaceful up here. The reservoir is surrounded by small rolling hills, quite striking-looking, nearly like a child had drawn them! A number of people were swimming in the reservoir, but we had heard tales of huge fresh water eels and also of a drowning, so we decided against!  

Until the 1950s, the Algarve was not suitable for large scale habitation due to the absence of a reliable water supply. The Mediterranean climate brings rain in the months between October and April, but almost no rain at all during the months of May through to September. During the 1950s, the Portuguese Prime Minister, António de Oliveira Salazar, ordered a study of the feasibility of the dam and reservoir project, commissioning the construction of a large number of reservoirs and dams/barragems across the Algarve. There are now 28 reservoirs spread across the region.

Coordinates: 37.23870395485856, -8.377900974339536