The Salt Marsh Yvonne Boyle

The Salt Marsh

‘O salty sea, so much of your salt is the tears of Portugal’ Fernando Pessoa

Between Taviro and Olhao we stop at the coastal salt marshes, little packets of handmade Portuguese sea salt sold nearby. I can easily buy industrial salt at home. But here I stand by the salt marsh pans where sun dried grains are harvested.

Every time I reach up and bring down my pauco saco of pure white salt, I am back on the edge of the Ria Formosa, sun, sea beyond the sand spits, the onward journey waiting, touching the ancient salt gathering cycle come alive again, tasting ‘the sea dust’ of the ‘salinas’.

Yvonne Boyle