It was time to head south and from Nazare to southern Portugal,
to start making my way towards Morocco. As
per my normal routine, I checked out SearchForSites, the website/app that I
have been using to find camping spots. I
found a free one, really just a parking spot, near a town called Odemira and
started the four-hour drive.
A challenge when camping at free spots is that nature calls
for me in the morning and I prefer to not use Octi’s toilet for that purpose
unless it becomes an emergency. So I’m
always scouting out the public toilet options ahead of time on Google Maps. This morning, I had a 25-minute drive to a
seaside town called Zambujeira do Mar to the nearest option. Seemed
like a nice place but there was a lot of roadwork going on and I couldn’t help
but think that the locals will be happy when that’s all done.
I found a tourist info building which had a 24-hour
toilet. Whew. Afterwards, I walked down to the
seaside. The town is perched up on a
cliff and there was a view of a gorgeous sandy beach with rocky cliffs bookending
both sides.
The beach at Zambujeira do Mar.
Church is a callin'! It was a beautiful Sunday morning.
What a spot for breakfast!
After some breakfast by the beach, I continued south along a
windy coastal road. And there were a few
surprises along the way.
Whaaat?!?
I didn't expect to visit the "Great Plains of Portugal"...
Why did I bother going to the Serengeti a few years ago?!?
Rio Seixe almost at the ocean.
Unfortunately mist from the waves took away from the sharpness of the view.
Around lunchtime, I arrived at a town called Aljezur which
had a large grocery store, but I noticed a nearby castle on a hill across a
river from the town, so I decided to check it out before getting lunch. I found a parking spot for Octi at the base
of the hill and found a path to hike up to the top.
Looking up at Aljezur Castle.
Now looking down from the castle. There were some old buildings around the base of the hill and on the walk up to the castle...but I didn't capture that in this or the previous photo.
A 360 panorama from the castle.
Looking west from the castle...can't quite see the ocean. It's about 5 kilometres away.
There was a nice big Portuguese flag flying at the center of the castle.
On my walk down, saw this nice mural of some of the history here.
Plus this cool looking statue...that's quite the moustache.
Some of the homes at the base of the hill.
At 1 o'clock that afternoon, the final Formula 1 race of the
season was happening and although I’m not the biggest fan, this was a big race
where one of three drivers could win the championship, although Lando Norris
was the favourite. I found a picnic
spot, made my lunch and enjoyed watching the race. Technology still occasionally blows me away. There I was, seemingly in the middle of
nowhere, watching a race on my laptop through a cellular feed from my phone!
After the race, I continued to my selected campsite which
was also in the middle of nowhere. From
what I saw on the app, it looked like a nice peaceful site although I was
greeted by a few barking dogs. I met the
owner, a lady in her early 60s named Vera, paid my 15 Euros and settled in. It was a rustic place for sure, but I thought
it would do for one night.
The Sunday sports
were going to continue at 6 pm as there happened to be a big American football
game with the Baltimore Ravens (my sister and her family live near Baltimore so
it’s their team) and it had playoff implications. I checked to see what my cell signal was like
and I could not connect. I was parked
too far from reception to pick up their Wi-Fi so I walked closer and tried it
out. I received a signal but was blocked
from accessing any of the free sports streaming websites I use. Oh dear, this isn’t good. I weighed my options, checked the camping app
and decided to relocate to a place closer to civilization and was able to watch
the game…but sadly the Ravens lost.
I ended up staying at that spot in a town called Figueira,
just northeast of a coastal city called Lagos.
During that time, I did a few day trips.
The first was to finish off cruising the coastline in the southwest
corner of Portugal.
Back at the coast on Monday at Bordeira's beach. I drove up the hill on the left.
The view from up on that hill.
A nice set of waves coming in.
Time for a selfie.
I drove about 3 kilometres on a dirt road (just called "E de Praia"...east beach?) and loved the coastline.
Looking south toward, almost to the end of the coast facing west towards the Atlantic, then it curves to the left and faces south.
Heading back inland a few kilometres.
What's making that sound?
Looking straight up, it looked like the turbine was moving...but alas, it was the clouds. This is the second time I've been able to stand right under a turbine, which is really cool if you've never done it before. The other time was in New Zealand, here's the blog post.
The start of this video has minimal wind noise, so you can hear the whooshing of the blades better.
Cordoama Viewpoint, which is also a paragliding launch spot.
Which looked amazing...
...but the wind was howling offshore (which I try to state in this video), so no flying today.
At the southwest tip of Portugal called Sagres.
The fort at the point...it was impossible to get it all in the photo, plus it's not that visible with the sun righ there.
Unfortunately it wasn't open due to a staff strike.
Looking west. There's a lighthouse on the end of that point on the right.
It was quite windy, but there were three guys flying parakites (a new type of paraglider that can fly in stronger winds than a paraglider). One guy, definitely an experienced pilot, was flying over to the fort and climbing up quite a bit higher from the ridge lift from the walls...fun to watch.
This is looking in the opposite direction, and this was mainly where the guys were flying.
I had booked a boat tour for Tuesday morning to the Benagil Cave with Atlantis Boat Tours. It’s a very popular spot with a cave that you
can enter from the water and there is a small beach inside with a skylight at
the top of the cave. You used to be able
to kayak there and swim in the water, hang out on the sand, but due to some hazardous
or dodgy incidents, that is no longer allowed.
You can only visit the cave on a boat and you can’t get out of the boat.
Just as I was about to start driving to the “Port of
Portimao” for the 10:30 am tour, the small city where the tour would begin, I
received a call from the company that the sea was too rough, and we would not
be able to enter the cave. We could
still go on a coastal boat tour, but the main reason to do this was to see the
cave. I decided that I would stick
around for one more night and try again in the morning.
So what to do today?
Let’s go see another castle! I
had planned to go to Silves Castle after the boat tour anyways…I might as well
check it out now.
A couple of days ago, I saw a bunch of huge nests on large electrical transmission poles with what I thought were storks standing in some of them. Unfortunately, there was no where to stop...but this time, on my way to the castle, there was a spot to stop. I saw some in nests and others standing in a field.
They are monogamous birds and migrate from Europe to Africa, either over the narrow strait at Gibraltar (which these guys in Portugal would do), or by the Levant if they were coming from eastern Europe as they rely on thermals to get high and fly far.
And they like to nest wherever they can!
The Castle
of Silves was built around 200 BC! Between
the 8th and 13th centuries, the castle was occupied by the Arabs who expanded
it, making it one of the best-preserved Arab fortifications in Portugal.
Close to the entrance to the Silves Castle.
Not sure who this dude was...but I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley.
The ruins inside the castle walls.
A 360 view inside the castle.
A nice garden that was outside of the castle walls, but not the lower village walls, of which only some bits were left.
The fancy gardening on the inside of the castle walls.
This was as good as I could get from outside of the castle...
...this is what I found online. I saw this vantage point as I was leaving town, but couldn't be bothered to try and find parking to snap the photo.
The castle wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t mind blowing either. Still, I’m glad I checked it out.
The next morning, I drove to the harbour in Portimao for the
boat tour to the Benagil Cave. There was
some roadwork going on right by the water and I wasn’t sure where to park, but then
I saw a motorhome with signage for Atlantis Tours. I parked the van and wandered over to it,
even though I was 45 minutes early. I
spoke to one employee, a middle-aged man with a huge belly and he asked if I
was there for the tour. “Oh, it looks
pretty rough out there” he stated. “I
don’t think you’ll be going in the caves today, but you’ll have to ask the
captain. It was rough yesterday and I
just got home and went to bed.”
A younger guy stuck his head out the side door of the camper
and I had a brief chat with him. I asked
if I was the only passenger on the 10:30 tour and he said that I was. Now it was tough to tell if it was rough on
the ocean as we were in a harbour, about a kilometre inland. It didn’t seem windy, but they are the professionals,
so I decided to cancel the tour.
Now I had the morning free, and my only plan today was to check
out the small city of Faro which was only an hour away and then camp near the
Spanish border. So I decided to drive a
few kilometers to a viewpoint in Portimao to “see what I could see of the sea”.
The beaches in Portimao.
This seagull didn't care about me one bit, so I was able to get very close to him. He was a beautiful bird...and I was quite pleased how the picture turned out!
What a beach! It must be packed in the summertime.
Amazing rock formations from the relentless tides.
Those are restaurants along the boardwalk at the base of the cliff.
It did not look that rough on the sea and I wondered if they just weren’t that bothered to do the tour that morning. Sure, I was the one who made the decision to cancel, but they didn’t try to persuade me otherwise.
This is the post office in Portomao...I was trying to send some postcards. It was ridiculously busy. I took a number and got 141, and when I first got there, the screen was showing number 90. It took over half an hour. I saw another post office later and it was just as bad. At least it wasn't as bad as when I was in Lima and it took an hour and a half plus I had to get my picture taken and my fingerprints scanned to send postcards!
Love it. These 3 couples of white storks found a perfect spot for their nests.
And across the street by the Lidl grocery store, this guy seemed to not want any neighbours.
I arrived in Faro mid afternoon and had a walk around.
Naomi would have approved of this tilework.
One of the attractions that kept popping up when I was doing
an online search was the “Chapel
of Bones”. I decided to check it
out.
This is Igrejo do Carmo (Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church) where the Capela dos Ossos, or Chapel of Bones is located.
First you had to go through the very gold-plated church.
This is the centrepiece. It's chock full of cherubs...but they are kind of disturbing. They almost look like possessed dolls.
The ceiling was nice though.
Super cool looking organ too.
There was antechamber off one side of the church which had about 8-10 statues like this one behind some glass. Here's Jesus with some dried blood on his face and legs along with scars on his thighs. I don't know why it has to be so gory...yes, Christians believe he suffered for their sins but sometimes I think it's over the top. Look at a religion like Hinduism or Buddhism and it's generally much happier stuff.
Then you passed through a courtyard...
...into the Chapel of Bones.
I was at the Killing Fields last year in Cambodia where there were thousands of bones in a stupa...so I guess I have met my quota for bones on this trip now...
It's crazy to look at each skull and think about that person and what kind of life they may have had...and that one day we will be in the same boat.
Like who was this person? What was their name? Did they have a good life?
This is the ceiling.
It was an interesting chapel, but not nearly as impressive as the "bone church" that I visited near Prague called the Sedlec Ossuary in 1995 when I was backpacking through Europe after university. The human bones were used to create art in a sense. There was a chandelier made of bones and this coat of arms:
This is in the bottom corner of the coast of arms, a bird plucking at the eye of a human....whoa.
Okay, now back out on the streets. First a graffitied building...
...then some nicely tiled ones.
This was an interesting building, with DNA, amino acids and a variety of other microbiology related items on the walls.
Near the Faro harbour. The city is actually set back a few kilometers from the ocean.
This looked like some municipal government building.
After a 45 minute drive from Faro, I reached the small town of Castro Marim by the Spanish border.
Octi's resting spot for the night.
This mounted knight was in the middle of the roundabout as you enter town.
It was a cute spot...and then the sunset light was incredible for about 10 minutes with the light reflecting off of low cumulus clouds. I even saw a hairstylist come out of her salon to look up as it was the type of glow that doesn't happen very often. Of course my phone's camera couldn't truly capture it.
It took me a minute to figure out where the Christmas music was coming from...it was speakers hanging from buildings. Nice touch.
They have "Medieval Days" here, but not sure when.
At first I figured that this was some kind of museum with medieval artifacts in it, but no, it was a real estate agency. I guess they can help you find your own "castle".
The castle up on the hill. It was tough to get a good look at it.
