“I’VE not had a stripper for a year,” Philip confesses, with his wife, Margarida, by his side. I raise my eyebrows and smile wryly. It’s not the kind of talk I’m used to hearing. But, then, context is everything.
I’m standing beneath the shade of a green-leaf canopy in an ancient cork-oak forest in the Alentejo region of Portugal. There are cork and holm oaks all the way to the horizon, across the parched, straw-yellow lowland, where it has not rained for five months. It is a remarkably scenic vista that, in theory, is protected. Yet there’s a problem: one I’ve been keen to help address by booking on to a guided corktrekking tour through the forest.
Herdade da Maroteira is a traditional farmland estate near Redondo. The Portuguese town is typical of rural Alentejo, a close-knit community living in whitewashed properties with colourful window frames, and where almost everyone appears to move around by tractor. It’s an agricultural hub for the area.
Maroteira, owned by Philip Mollet and Margarida, spreads up the hillside from Redondo towards the Serra de Ossa. It has been in the same Anglo-Portuguese family for five generations.
Philip’s great-great-grandfather arrived in Oporto from England in the 1820s. He traded wine and port in the Douro, but moved inland to find cork forests and sell cork to his contacts further north. It was once a much larger estate: today Philip farms 400 acres (167 hectares).
IT IS early May, and the sunshine is warm — a pleasant 23ºC when I climb into the vintage, open-top Land Rover with Philip and Margarida, whom I met at their winery and corktrekking headquarters, in Redondo. We drive the short distance to Maroteira and, once off-road, along the tracks of the farm, and it is as if the rest of the world had vanished. Immersed in the Maroteira landscape of cork and holm oaks, I have a feeling more of African safari than European forest. While the trees provide much greenery, the grassland beneath looks arid.
“We’ve not had any rain since January,” Margarida says. “That’s unusual. We usually see as much rainfall as England in a typical spring. Average summer temperatures, though, can be around 40ºC; that’s when we take visitors in our air-conditioned jeep.”
Philip parks the Land Rover beneath a huge cork oak tree, next to a well built by his great-uncle, in 1949, which is now adjacent to some modern-day solar panels. “Our farm is as off-grid and as sustainable as we can make it,” Philip says. “We use water from the well and solar power. As you can see by the landscape, water is a very precious resource here; so everything is dry-farmed without irrigation.”
We continue along the tracks, walking deeper into the ancient forest. It’s not one of dense canopy, more like open parkland. We pass Philip’s small herd of Charolais-Limousin cattle, a hardy crossbreed suited to the conditions of the Alentejo, and 42 acres of vineyard planted on old sheep pastures. “This is a traditional cork forest,” Philip explains. “It’s not a plantation. We have tried planting, but we’ve had a 100-per-cent failure rate. Nature knows best.
istock Newly harvested cork oak bark
“The cork oak is the only tree in the world that has two barks. Harvested at the right time, the outer layer should peel away easily with an axe devised for stripping the bark. The cork is still manually harvested in rotation, usually every ten to 11 years. If you see a red trunk, it is fresh harvested; it then blackens with sunburn until new bark grows.”
It is when, climbing steadily, we reach the top of the farm, with an almighty view over the forest, that Philip explains his earlier “confession”. When I ask why the cork-strippers have not harvested lately, he explains: “The trees are protected; they have been since the 13th century. But the price of cork has devalued over those centuries, while the cost of harvesting has risen — such that, in some years, it is not viable. As an example, we own 150 hectares of cork forest; yet 80 per cent of our income comes from the 17 hectares of vineyard.”
That is why they set up the corktrekking tours, like the one I am on, to showcase the beauty of the forest to visitors, and (it is hoped) to subsidise the necessary management of it.
Philip and Margarida have first-hand experience of what happens when the forests are not maintained. “Without the income to maintain the forest, scrub inevitably grows in and around it, which becomes a huge problem, as it can assist wildfires,” Philip says.
“In 2006, there was a huge wildfire,” Margarida continues, “when 13,000 hectares around us burned. That included 60 hectares of our land. Phil and I were the last ones to flee, as we saw the forest burning around us. We left everything inside the house except some family photos and the dogs.”
AFTER our short trek, and a wine-tasting of Maroteira’s internationally award-winning wines, we sit over a lunch of delicious traditional dishes from the Alentejo region at a village restaurant run by a family trio: grandmother cooks, mother serves guests, and daughter makes desserts.
Over tomato soup filled with smoked pork and boiled eggs, I mention how I’d seen fields of young olive and almond trees on my journey to Redondo. “The supposed protected cork forests are being ripped up to plant miles and miles of olives and almonds by large investment companies. As there is so much high-value economical interest, the government and the regional authorities allow this super-intensive agriculture to establish, all subsidised,” explains Margarida.
Caroline MillsTrekking through the cork forest on dusty tracks at Herdade da Maroteira
But it requires irrigation and pesticides, she explains, and Philip calls it “an ecological disaster for the region”. Margarida adds: “It is a short-term vision. The future is desertification of the beautiful, traditional cork forests.”
The couple are trying to protect the forest through their corktrekking tours. “The cork forest is a dead weight,” Philip says. “But I owe it to the forest to look after it. I owe my childhood to this forest.”
“Cork is one of the most natural, sustainable materials, with so many uses, from wine-corks to shoes, flooring, to building insulation,” Margarida explains. “If visitors to the Alentejo can add value to the forest, while having a wonderful experience exploring it, Portugal’s ancient trees can have a bright future.”
Travel details
Corktrekking tours by Maroteira available all year, but must be pre-booked. The Corktrekking Experience Pack includes tour, lunch at a traditional Alentejo restaurant, plus winery visit with wine, local Iberian black pork and cheese tasting. Visit: corktrekking.com/trekking-tours-alentejo
Redondo is 26 miles east of Évora (35-minute bus journey from Évora’s Terminal Rodoviário), and 86 miles east of Lisbon. (Direct train Lisboa-Oriente station to Évora is 1hr 35min (£8 approx); or bus Lisboa Sete Rios-Évora 1hr 45min).
For information about the Alenteo area, including the Alentejo Wine Route visit: visitportugal.com/en/destinos/alentejo
For religious sites visit:
tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g189101-Activities-c47-t10-Alentejo.html