Relaxed and memorable MD3 team’s gathering

In the last episode, MD3's squad went to the cliffs of “Pia da Ovelha” and since then they were searching for more adventures which leads to today's episode! July 3rd of 2021 hiking, picnicking, getting wet and some sun!

This journey starts with a gloomy and rainy day (“chuva molha-parvos” translation for this could be something like “rain that only wet silly people” is basically that annoying, very weak and persistent rain). We meet at “Monte Redondo” a small parish of Leiria and off we go to “Cabeço de Monte Redondo” it is one of the three geodesic points in the centre of Portugal at the top of a hill with a broad view of the surrounding areas special the pine forest a.k.a “Pinhal do Rei” (King’s pine forest) order to be planted by D. Dinis (debatable subject at the moment because there is the possibility that was his father D. Afonso III instead of him but this a story for another day), the aim was to climb the hill up walking but we end up cheating because of the rain and go by car… anyway once up there the views were amazing and the sun start to look at us and we found a giant tree root (2 meters long height at least) and a renovated place.

From “Cabeço de Monte Redondo” we went to an amazing lake called “Lagoa da Ervedeira” (Ervedeira’s Lake don’t worry is not like Camp Crystal Lake and no Jason Voorhees to be found) a treasure hidden in the grand pine forest with a breathtaking landscape like you would saw in northern American classic films. In here we had a nice picnic in our jackets because the cold weather and rain still hadn't cooperated, so we decided to play card games (Monopolio cards) and wait… guess who’s back?! 💥 Sérgio Bernardo for the win with an awesome super cool kayak also sun starts to shine and the day become really great and funny! 😁 (take a look at this small preview)

The main goal of this day was to make it as memorable as possible and it was easy because 90% of the people that participated in the kayak session got a sunburn! There’s nothing “cooler” than to get all itchy and feeling feverish to remember an activity 🔥

Links and places if you to to check and go - we walked around a total of 8km give or take (not counting car and kayak parts):

• Cabeço de Monte Redondo (18 km +/- from Leiria), Monte Redondo, Leiria
• Lagoa de Ervedeira (27 km +/- from Leiria), Coimbrão, Leiria

P.S: As always it respects rules given by Direcção Geral de Saúde (our National Health System)

P.S.2: I want to give a special thanks to Sérgio Bernardo (check his awesome article and presentation that we present in our Geek Sessions) for bring the kayak that allows to get through the cool activity 👊🏾