The rest of Western Algarve

Andre headed over to find something for breakfast at the market this morning since we are in a hostel that has a kitchen and we have access to plates etc. A quick breakfast and we are off to hike up to the castle. This straight uphill hike gets any cobwebs left of my brain from last night cleared out. Very pretty views from the castle. This castle is what is left that was build by the Moors around 1300. Amazing really that anything could still be standing. 

Start of Climb to Castle

Castle in Aljezur

Walked back into town, spoke to the guy working the desk at the hostel for recommendations on what to do for the day. Like most young people here, he has dreads, looks like a surfer dude, and seems to love it here. He points us in the direction of a couple of pretty drives along beaches as well as a town we should visit.

We start off doing a loop that will cover 2 beaches that are just a few km outside of town. I thought yesterday was beautiful, but the rugged scenery getting to this beach beat anything we have seen so far. I could have sat on this cliff all day and just looked around, simply amazing.

Fisherman, how many are lost each year at sea

Stork

One of the prettiest views all week-end

Arrifana Beach harbour

Back in the car and travel to the next beach area and come across a real surfers beach. There were around 40 surfers out today, amazing how they do not bump into one another. Watched them for a wile then headed out again.

Arrifana Beach

Surfs up on Arrifana Beach

Next stop was the town of Odeceixe. We walk around this very pretty tiny town, little tiny streets running every which way. We find a small grocery store and pick up some ham to go with our leftover crescents from breakfast, this will do for a beach lunch today. Next we go to the beach just outside Odeceixe, a very nice beach again with lots of sand dunes, but it is so much windier today it is cool. We sat back from the water and out of the wind and it was quite pleasant. I think we were kind of toured out, spent a could of hours here just relaxing. In all I think we saw 7 other people the entire time we were there. A very nice way to spend the afternoon. 

Town square in Odecixe

Beach where we did our picnic lunch

 

Following our extra long lunch we headed home via backroads and managed not to get too lost. We drove through a couple of towns that we visited the first Sunday we were here, and I hate to say it but it is all kind of turning into a blur already! We did make one more stop on the way home, I really wanted to see the flamingos that Andre saw the other day so we went to that beach.

This beach has a lagoon with a very long boardwalk around a good part of the lagoon that allows for great birdwatching. We saw some very interesting birds including the flamingos, but I wish we knew them more. We did speak to a couple from the UK that pointed out a very rare bird that there are only 100 left in the world. It was especially interesting because Spain had gotten 5 pairs of these birds to try to re-introduce them and get some breeding going, but they have moved here to Portugal to this lagoon. We did see 2 of them, very different looking birds. Andre will have to find them on the internet, I don’t remember the name, and we’ll see if they the Brits us a story or not :) We think it was a Purple Swamphen.

Got home around 6PM, have walked to the grocery store as we need milk for tomorrow. Supper is done, hoping to get the rest of the week-end pics up and posted, and just relax, it is good to be `home` again after a very busy weekend.