I finally made it to Portugal on Friday 13th December and was headed to Faro airport to pick up my friend Raimon. He was going to be spending several days with me travelling along the Algarve coast up to Lisbon. What I forgot was that when you cross the border from Spain into Portugal you gain an hour so I was an hour ahead of time! Fortunately I had already found a nice location in a nature reserve ten minutes from Faro airport so it just meant I had a little more time there waiting for the plane to land.
After 5 months of travelling alone it was lovely to have some company and also someone who was happy to spoil me. I had relinquished the planning reins to Raimon and we headed to the small town of Olhao, the largest fishing port in the Algarve. We were not disappointed by the number of fish restaurants to choose from and decided on a simple laid back looking one. We chose Cataplana, the most traditional of Portuguese dishes. Now I’m not really a great shell fish eater but this was delicious. We also spotted some stork nests, which I was highly excited about as I did not know there were storks in Portugal. The picture below is actually at Lagos as we could see the storks in the nest. We even got to see them flying around.
After food, as it was now around 5pm we headed to our overnight destination, beach parking at a small place called Ancao. It was dusk by the time we arrived so we couldn’t check out the beach until the following morning. It is actually a very long stretch of beach, perfect for a long walk, but as we had a lot of other beaches to visit over the next few days we decided to head straight for Vale de Lobo. I remembered going here as a 15 year old and wanted to revisit the red cliffs. They weren’t as expansive as I thought but they were still pretty impressive.
Our next stop was Praia dos Arrifes in Albufeira. Apparently it is one of the more beautiful beaches in Albufeira but it is very small and in the summer gets very busy. However, there were only a few other people visiting when we were there. It has beautiful rock formations.
From here we went to Praia da Marinha, considered by the Michelin Guide as one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in Europe and as one of the 100 most beautiful beaches in the world. It did not disappoint and you can walk along the top of the cliffs for a long way.
Our final destination for the day was Porches. A beautiful spot to sleep overlooking the Atlantic and we sat and watched the sunset drinking a beer from the end of the arch. Although I was a little nervous about falling in!
The next morning we were in for a lovely surprise as we ventured on to the beach below and discovered an archway through to a part of the beach that looked inaccessible. You had to time it perfectly though because of the waves coming onto the beach. I let Raimon do it as I had already got one pair of shoes wet! I should have just taken off my shoes. The timing to get on and off the rock I am standing on was tricky enough.
After our beach fun we headed to Fortaleza de Sagres. A very cool fort surrounded by cliffs on 3 sides. It was pretty windy up there. It has an amazing sound chamber that gathers the tidal force of the water hundreds of metres below and forces the air and sound of the water upwards in a truly amazing gush of air and sound. See my video on facebook here https://www.facebook.com/mindfulvanlife/videos/565511684031191/
Our night’s stay was just a little way along the road above a surfers beach with maybe 200 steps down to it. Good job there was a bench at the half way point.
Day 4 was a rain day but Raimon had an interesting beach lined up, Praia de Odecexie, Aljezur which straddles the border between the Algarve and Alentejo regions of Portugal. It is situated at the mouth of the River Seixe which forms the border and lays down a lush green valley leading to the beach.
Odeceixe is a big sandy beach that is popular with surfers, but there was no-one there when we visited. The break around the river mouth can be especially good. There are very big waves here and when we got too close to the sea we had to run for our lives not to get caught. I was of course having hysterical laughter at our shenanigans.
We drove out along the river valley which was very scenic, as part of the Vicentine Coast Natural Park, before we picked up the motorway to head to Lisbon. I had found a good spot not too far from Lisbon centre which overlooked the river and the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge, which is the longest suspension bridge in Europe. I am glad I didn’t know that when I drove over it! It has two levels, the top level is for cars and the lower, is for trains. The picture below of it was taken from Lisbon castle. It’s longer and higher than it looks from this view, that’s for sure.
The next day was Lisbon city day. So we arrived at the train station where it said we could get on the famous yellow No. 28 tram to take us up the hill to the old town but it appeared that you could only get off them here so after an hour of waiting we jumped on a more modern one only to realise that we could have quite easily have walked the route!
After wandering around the Praça do Comércio square (doesn’t sound very glamorous does it?!) we visited the Elevador de Santa Justa, a 19th century lift that transports you up 45m from Baixa district to the Largo do Carmo. I agreed to go up it because it didn’t look that high but what I didn’t realise is that once you get out of the lift you have to walk up a metal spiral staircase on the outside of the structure to get to the viewing platform at the top. Raimon encouraged me to go up, and once I was up there it wasn’t so bad, although you can see I’m not completely happy posing for this photo. The coming down was worse but I made it.
En route to the castle we found a lovely restaurant offering a two course meal with an alchoholic beverage for 12.50 euro so we stopped to eat and the lunch was amazing. Castelo S. Jorge was fun to explore and has some great views over Lisbon
After the castle, as it was getting late, and we felt we had seen enough we started walking back down the hill and there right in front of us was the illusive No. 28 yellow tram ready to board. So we hopped on and had a ride up and down the hills of Lisbon where only these trams can go as the roads are too narrow and too steep for the newer trams. This ended our day in Lisbon perfectly.
We left Lisbon and headed back to the Atlantic coast to Guincho Beach for our last night together as Raimon was leaving the following evening. We were parked pretty close to the beach and could hear the waves rolling in the night, which is really quite soothing. It was a perfect spot although once again we had arrived in the dark so had to wait until morning to go play on the beach.
In the morning as it was Raimon’s last day, we had decided to brave the water. The weather hadn’t really been conducive to it and neither was this morning really but it had to be done. Raimon lasted all of 30 seconds, because his feet froze, whereas I think I’ve just got used to cold water so I ventured in for a little longer. He’s probably going to kill me for putting this picture of him here!
After frolicking in the sea we discovered a cold water shower, yippee!
For our last day we headed to the westernmost point of mainland Europe, Cabo da Roca, and boy was it windy there. I think it must be the most windy place I have ever been and what was strange was that the wind blows from the land rather than from the sea? Confused! so if anyone knows why please enlighten me.
We then went on a bit of a scenic tour via Sintra with an aim to see the Castelo dos Mouros, a moorish fortress up on the hillside. What we didn’t know was that you are not allowed to drive to it, but I ignored the man waving at me (as you do) and drove up the steep hairpin bends anyway until I got to the top where the police directed us to go in the opposite direction. We found another entrance where we were told if we wanted to see the castle we would have to leave the van and be driven up by them! We only wanted a quick look and there wasn’t really enough time before Raimon’s flight home to stay long so we decided against it. By now the weather had turned, it was really windy and the clouds had descended and we were going along a very narrow windy road, with sheer drops on my side. Finally we made it safely back to the main route and headed to Lisbon airport.
I was sad to be saying goodbye to Raimon. I had enjoyed his company immensely and it was so nice having someone to explore new places with. I was not looking forward to the 2000km drive back to the UK especially as I had seen how much rain was forecast across Europe for my drive back. It took me six days and I eventually crossed on the Eurotunnel Xmas morning. It was a beautiful sunny day and the last stretch of my driving around the M25 motorway back to Sussex was almost a pleasure.
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