With a full night’s sleep, we woke up today ready to bid adieu to jet lag. The skies were overcast, but in maritime locales like this, we weren’t too worried about it. After breakfast, Bill went down to the restaurant - la Jacaranda- next to the apartment, where we ate last night and got his internet hookup to post the first blog. Following that, the four of us set out on foot to explore the Vau beach on which our apartment is located.
We walked towards the next big beach, closer to Portimao and found excellent, protected walking trails along the cliffs. With the good wood fencing even Dawn felt totally safe next to the cliff edges. The views were spectacular! We found it strange that two restaurants along this cliff edge had been abandoned. They appeared to have excellent locations, so perhaps either the threat of collapsing cliffs, which they appear to do regularly, or some attempt to preserve the cliff edge for the public, closed them down. Maybe, however, we have found a restaurant opportunity for Dawn. The skies got bluer and bluer.
On our cliff walk, we came upon a few stairs down to the very secluded beaches. We decided to head down one set and walk back to the apartment along the beach. It was a beautiful walk, but as we got closer to home, the tide was coming in and in several spots along the beach one had to time the waves to run around rock points that got inundated when the waves crashed on shore. Jim claims the only bragging rights for getting around a final point with only minor water damage, where Dawn & Bill with slightly more water damage, were forced back to the stairs with Marjolein as the tide continued to come in and the waves and water got higher and higher. Another day!
At noon we met our tour representative and booked the tour we wanted for Seville, Tangiers and Gibraltar for next week and a day trip to Lisbon for this Good Friday. We also made plans to attend a gypsy market on Saturday in Loule – Dawn! Hold on to your purse - and a flower parade in Sao Bras de Alportel on Easter Sunday.
For the afternoon we headed to the end of the earth – as Henry the Navigator knew it anyway. Sagres and Cabo de Sao Vicente are at the most south-westerly tip of Europe. It was a beautiful sunny day by now and we found both the Forteleza Sangres and Cabo de Sao Vicente very stark and beautiful with 60 metre cliffs. The landscape, mostly devoid of trees, was brimming with various yellow, pink and white spring flowers. All along these cliffs were fishermen, hanging perilously over the edge fishing. They appeared to be catching small rock bass type fish. They had to reel and reel to get their tiny fish to the top of the cliffs. It hardly seemed worth the trouble.
On our way back to Jardim do Vau, we stopped at a few pottery stores looking for just the right plate for Bill. No luck yet! We also made a grocery stop at an Intermarche in Alvor for dinner stuff for tomorrow night. For tonight we ate at a cliff top restaurant between our beach and the next – da Rocha. We finished off our first full day with a rousing game of hearts and some more excellent Portuguese wine.
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