Cheers for the Corticeiros

Got up far too early (though not as early as them) to go see Rui and his team removing cork from the cork oaks - his wife came with their two littlies to show us the way - thanks, Zezinha.

Absolutely fascinating.

Main photo is starting on a tree - Rui was embarrassed that it was a sick tree, and I was going to get a better one later, but - very unusually - it has started raining, so this was the only tree I watched. Then an extra of a more general view, with them higher up the tree, and M helping carry the (heavy - it loses a lot of moisture after being harvested) cork to the truck. Then the foreman of the land painting on the year - they will next be harvested in nine years' time. And a final one of one of the guys working precariously high up.

They then stopped for lunch - they'd been working since 4:30am. The owners of the land get rich on cork harvesting, but for these guys, it is back-breaking, dangerous, seasonal, and poorly paid work. Even so, they need many years' apprenticeship to do it properly - it is highly skilled, and if done wrong, will kill the tree.

I worried about the fact that they were all, except for Rui, smoking, when the grass is so dry; that lunch contained a LOT of beer; and that I know Rui, at least, had had very little sleep.

What heroes these guys are. May you think of them next time you pop a cork...

(Adding a link to a video about preserving cork.)