On the Caima river, close to Vale de Cambra city, is the beautiful and cozy river beach of Burgães where you can go bathing. Here, local and visitors can dive into the clear waters originating from the plateau of Freita. The Caima river, jumping from the top of Frecha da Mizarela, runs swiftly through the embedded valley of the Caima basin, flowing into the Vouga. Nearby of the fluvial beach, the fountain of Santa Cruz takes advantage of the waters of a small tributary of the Caima, testifying times where the network of fountains was crucial to the survival of the population. More upstream, at the Moreira dam, comes part of the water that supplies the Burgães irrigation network, which runs over 20 km to irrigate fields around Vale de Cambra.
Near here, in the foothills of the Arestal mountain the Moscoso stream has got some of the rarest fetuses of Portugal, the hart’s-tongue, curious fetus resembling a huge green tongue, and hare’s foot fern, epiphytes ferns growing on rock walls and on centennial trees. These species are relics of subtropical forests that once dominated the Iberian Peninsula, but now only found in a few small refuges. The columbine and the tutsan are also indicator plants of these forests with Macaronesian affinities, although they are far more common than above mentioned fetuses. From the diverse fauna we can find here, featured for the beautiful demoiselle, and the frequent iberian emerald lizard (endemic Iberian species) and common toad, which can be observed in grasslands next to Caima river.
The terraces are largely present in these parts, because of the waterways that so much labor required, but allowed to irrigate land which, otherwise, would never be cultivated.
