Time for a hike

So Andre has been writing most of this, but I will have a little input today. Mostly my days have been filled up with working from 8-12, then I go for a walk that takes about 45 minutes. I have found a loop that includes about ½ of the time along the beach. Today was warm enough that I was in a sleeveless shirt, Andre said the car read 22 degrees. Yesterday I saw a first, if you go to the beach and it is warm out and you don't happen to have your bikini on you, simply take off your shirt and sunbathe in your bra. Yep, saw two women doing this. Sorry Andre you missed it when you were off watching the blondes play soccer yesterday.
(Note from Andre, Wendy you should always have a camera with you. That would have made a nice picture for the blog. Portuguese fashion at the beach)
I then work until 4 and then we normally go for a walk for 1-2 hours and come back and make supper.

Tonight we had a little change because when Andre came back from his adventures he took me to a little beach he found. What a pretty spot, it is about a 10 minute drive from where we are staying, Maybe we will do a picnic lunch there one day. After supper we have been playing cards, I am not sure who is the crazy 8 champion yet, we forgot a cribbage board, but Andre is looking for a piece of styrofoam to make one, who knows maybe he will be able to sell some on the beach!! That is my typical day here, I am loving it and so lucky to be able to do this.

Wendy at Praia dos Arrifes

Today I decide to go for a 8 km hike since we have not been walking much, ha. That should get my golf legs in shape. It started off near an old abandoned farm that had some windmills at one time. There are almonds trees in bloom on the property.

Old Windmill

Almond tree in bloom

The trail continues thru more abandoned farmland where I saw a 2-3 hares running around. At one point I reach the only active farm left on the property. The farmer is moving his sheep and goats for grazing from the overnight enclosure.2 or 3 did not want to go. I watched for a while. I think if the farmer had a gun there might have been a bbq for supper. The funny thing was that the black goat led all the other animals out of the enclosure. I guess it is ok to follow the black goat but not the black sheep in the family. I wonder who is the black goat in our family. 

The trail continues to the beach. It is a beautiful sandy beach which is very wide and about 5-6 km long. The sand is very soft and unless you walk near the water you sink in about 2-4 inches. The trails takes you about 1-2 km along the beach. 

You then reach a lagoon area. There are some coots, heron, ducks, terns, an egret, an hoopoe and flamingos and some other birds which I do not know the names. The trails follows the lagoon for about 1 km and then you return to the stating point. 

I picked some almonds from the trees for a snack at home later. Stopped for gas as it was time. $1.68 a litre when converted to Canadian is $2.22. I will never ever complain about our gas prices being high.

On the way home, there are some houses high on a cliff. I decided to go see if I can get a nice lookout but ended out at the beach that Wendy mentioned at the start of today's blog. It is only a small beach but it is gorgeous with huge sculptured rock formations in the water.

Make my way home via a sub-division that the locals call Lego-land. The houses complex are all in block shape and all painted in bright colours.

Once I got home, I went to get my haircut.  More walking just what I need at this moment. Last night we saw a place while we were walking around and asked them how much it was, 8 euros.  Of course I did not into old town the same way as last night because it was a longer walk. Big mistake.  After seaching for a while aand not finding it, I went to another one.  She spoke some English so it was not too hard to get across to her that I wanted quite a bit off.  I now look like George Clooney again, Wendy says dream on.

Tonight after supper we went for a walk to get another key made for the apartment, then stopped at McD's me to get an ice cream, yep there is McDonalds here, right beside the KFC, and they do have ice cream. Home now and crazy 8 time. We talk about what we are going to do this weekend and the next few. Tomorrow I need to finish our weekend plan.