Estrada Real - Serro

Serro is a small town tucked away in the mountains and surrounded by rivers and dozens of waterfalls. The Jequitinhonha River, located about 7.5mi (12km) west of the city, begins its flow in the nearby mountain range of Pedra Redonda and flows northeast for 625mi (1000km) emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The river played an important role in the 16th century when Brazil was briefly divided into two governments and the river was the dividing point between the two. The river was also the location where the first diamonds were mined, producing much of Brazil’s earlier wealth.

 Neat little single and double storey houses line the narrow streets, some with six feet tall, whitewashed walls. As I meandered through the streets I stopped at a white house with blue trims and mellow yellow window shutters. The chandelier-like planter hanging from the veranda’s ceiling carried small pots of string of pearls, a small succulent, creeping vine with leaves that looked like peas. I could imagine whiling away a few hours with a cuppa, enjoying the peacefulness of the street.

 

The city of Serro is known for its cheese. Producing semi-cured cheese, ricotta, mozzarella and others, it is most famous for the Queijo do Serro, an artisanal semi-hard cheese. The recipe was originally brought from Portugal in the 18th century and later adapted locally to create a cheese with “greater acidity, light color and soft consistency”. The cheese is so special in Serro that it was granted Geographical Indication status which grants protected status and naming rights to locally created food products. The downside of such a designation in Brazil is that the product cannot be sold outside the state of Minas Gerais.

Pardon me, but I'm off to get some crackers and Queijo do Serro. I'm mighty hungry and salivating at the thought of cheese. What are the chances I can enjoy a hot cuppa on the verandah with the cheese?

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Between England and France

Sitting entirely in the territorial waters of France and United Kingdom, the Strait of Dover demarcates the English Channel to the east from the North Sea.

Being the narrowest point of the English Channel at a mere 21mi (34km), the Strait is the busiest international seaway in the world with over 800 vessels per day traveling either through it or across it.

The Channel is 560km long connecting to the west with the North Atlantic Ocean. The widest point between southern England and northern France is 240km. The English Channel is the smallest of shallow seas surrounding the continental shelf of Europe with a depth of 120m at its widest point and as little as 45m at its narrowest point.

Although it's been called various different names throughout time, such as Het Kanaal in modern Dutch, Oceanus Britannicus by Ptolemy in 2nd century and la Manche by the French since the 17th century, the first known reference to it as a Channel was on a 1450 Italian map referred to as Canalites Anglie. Dutch atlases of the late 16th century referred to it as Engelse Kanaal (English Channel) which may have been the influence to its subsequent permanent name once translated into English.

Beneath the seabed of the Channel is the English Tunnel a 50km long railway tunnel and a 20th century engineering marvel. Made up of three tunnels, two serve as railway tracks ferrying as many as 60,000 passengers a day between England and France and one is used for emergencies and maintenance. Privately funded and way over budget, the Tunnel took six years to build and finally opened in 1994.

The idea of the tunnel dates back to 1802, however, the equipment needed to cut through chalk marl were not existent until special tunnel boring machines (TBM) were designed and made to undertake the boring project. When boring from both sides of the channel needed to meet in the middle the English TBM bored downwards making way for the French TBM to cut through the middle and exit the other end. The English bore remains buried beneath the tunnel.

Traveling through the tunnel today takes a mere 35 minutes from end-to-end.