Days 32-37 (30th Sept to 5th Oct): Lisbon to Olhão
Day 32 (30th Sept) (10.09 km) - Lisbon: Unfortunately Pete was feeling very much under the weather with his cold for most of the day so in the morning I wandered around by myself.
I have loved looking at all the different azulejo tiles and this morning was no exception. Here are a few I found decorating buildings within a few hundred metres of where we are staying.
The building itself had beautiful marblework inside, this tim real marble not timber made to look like marble.
There were human remains. A chest contains the remains of seven Martyrs of Marrakech, missionaries put to death for their failure to abandon Christianity. Below the sacristy are crypts with human remains, and there is a royal pantheon containing, among others, the tombs of the last King of Portugal and his eldest son, murdered in 1908.
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| The prophet Elijah |
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| Ivory |
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| Behind this was a picture of child Jesus sweeping the path outside his house |
Then there were the vestiges of power, the things that make me truly uncomfortable with the message they send about what it means to be Christian.
On a completely different note, there was an immaculately curated collection of Portuguese seashells.
There was an exhibition of azulejo art depicting 38 of La Fontaine’s fables. Jean de la Fontaine was a French poet of the 17th century. He also told fables, apparently often using animals instead of humans to avoid censorship. The pictures I show here are each just a tiny portion of the total artwork. This art was used to decorate the cloisters of the monastery in a period when the cloisters were walled in.
The church itself is a statement of power but the ceiling was beautiful all the same.
You could climb onto a rooftop terrace for 360 degree views of Lisbon.
There were beautiful parts of the building too.
After leaving the monastery with my first souvenir - origami paper with azulejo tile patterns, I wandered a bit more in the Alfama area. I had my the most delicious Portuguese tart I’ve had yet, served as apparently it is best served, with cinnamon.
In the afternoon, Gill, Rod and I went to the Castle of St George, situated at the top of Lisbon’s highest hill. Another wonderful spot. The castle is in ruins but has been used on and off for many centuries. Even Napoleon used it during one of his campaigns.
We, Pete included, later caught an Uber down to an old fort on the river known as Belem Tower. It was closed on a Monday, but our driver told us that the inside was not really much. It is situated on a bay-like part of the Tagus River, close to the river mouth. Apparently, it used to be on an island.
Another famous Lisbon site was nearby - Jeronimo’s Monastery but it too was closed on Mondays so we could only see it from the outside. Gill and I did get a peek inside the cathedral as it opened for mass. While it was grand, they are obviously doing renovations around the halfway mark, so we could not see the full extent of the building. However, as you can see, the sheer height is impressive.
Day 33 (1st Oct) (6.59 km) - Lisbon to Lagos: We said our farewells to Lisbon with a long city traffic drive to where we were picking up our hire car with which we will be touring the south coast of Portugal and southern Spain. Fortunately, the drive out of Lisbon was much easier. It involved crossing the immensely long (12.345 km) Vasco de Gama Bridge which is a 120 kph quick route out.
It was not long before we started seeing the difference between the north and south of Portugal. We couldn’t see mountains and, for the first time, the fields were big enough to allow mechanisation. We saw quite a few of those mobile irrigators. This is meant to be rice country but I only saw a few fields of what possibly could have been rice.
One thing we did see were heaps of large nests on power pylons. We didn't see any birds though.
We deviated from the main road to Lagos to see some of the south-west coast, in particular stopping at Porto Covo where we enjoyed morning tea at a cafe on a pretty little beach.
Vila Nova de Milfontes was our next stop, another pretty place on a river. There were lots of boats here and lots of roped off areas for swimming on bay beaches.
Our last stop was the surf beach at Odeceixe. The actual township is further down a valley that you follow to the beach. There were lots of surfers here.
The road to Lagos continued inland, where we saw many pine plantations of what we think are stone pine, the ones used for pine nut harvesting. We also saw quite a few cork plantations with the trees scarred from where cork has been harvested.
Our first treat when we arrived in Lagos was to be tricked by parking scammers who help you find a parking spot in a crowded free public carpark, then ask you for money. We paid them far too much but at least we found a park only 5 minutes walk from our accommodation. It is always tricky when your accommodation is in the historic centres because the streets are so narrow that you often have to park quite a way away. Them we had to wait 25 mins for someone to bring the keys to our apartment. However, the apartment was cute and neat.
Gill and I wandered out of the historic centre to find a supermarket for breakfast goodies and when we returned the others were ready to explore. We wandered along the waterfront for a while.
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| This sculpture, among others we have seen, is made with wire mesh completely filled with plastic bottles. |
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| A fishing boat going out just before sunrise |
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| Part of the old town wall - almost all gone now |
Finding somewhere to eat dinner is always a challenge because there are soooo many places to choose from. So many little places. One thing we have found though in Portugal is that the menus vary very little, except in classy establishments. Of course the quality varies but I don't know how you judge that from the outside. Numbers of guests isn't always a good guide since often the locals only start eating after we've finished!
Day 34 (2nd Oct) (14.51km) - Cabo de Sao Vincente and Lagos: First thing in the morning saw me up and walking around the waterfront at Lagos, looking at the early morning workers, birds, and fisherman going about their business. Ialso got a glimpse of what the limestone cliff coastline around this area is like. A lovely time of the day.
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| These gulls are massive |
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| A successful catch by this Little Egret |
After breakfast, the first tthing on the agenda for the day was to drive to the most south-western point of both Portugal and Europe. We were lucky as usual in that it was a good day for walking, not too hot and not too blustery for such an exposed site. This massive headland suite is covered in small limestone rocks with low vegetation over most of it. The walk around it would probably be a couple of kms and there is plenty to see. For the first time in Portugal, there was good information about the flora and fauna you might encounter.
As usual, insects and other invertebrates didn’t rate a mention even though there were thousands of dragonflies on the headland.
There were a few flowers although most of the flowering was obviously long finished.
This headland was one of the few places we’ve been where I have heard lots of birds although I only managed to see a few. Lots of small thick bushes were great cover for many small birds.
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| A Black Redstart |
There were multiple old gun emplacements and from each of these a different view. There was a modern installation where you walked in a sort of made to the centre where you encountered the noise of waves from deep beneath you - a sinkhole of sorts I guess. There were other such holes around.
At first I thought it was a joke, two fishing rods placed at the edge of a cliff. But then we saw them, insane fishermen fishing from the top of the cliffs, perched on little jutting out pieces of rock. Eek! Rod saw one fisherman catch something. I saw another get his line snagged.
On the way back to Lagos we stopped in at a place called Salema that we had read was a lovely place. It was nice, a little quiet place, but I'm not sure that it was worth the detour.
Once back in Lagos we explored part of the harbour area we had not seen, walking out to the beach on the far side of the harbour from where we were staying. We had a very pleasant drink at a beach bar before returning back to the old part of town for dinner.
Day 35 (3rd Oct) (13.22 km) - Benagil Cave + coast, Seven Hanging Valleys Walk then Olhão: We had booked a 9 am kayak trip to Benagil Cave and coast which necessitated an early departure from Lagos. Fortunately we were all up in time and there were no missed roads and no difficulty finding parking. We had chosen our time slot well.
Benagil Cave does not look much from the outside but it opens up inside and with an open roof (it is really a sinkhole rather than a cave) it is beautiful. Until very recently people could swim in here and land on the beach but, as a result of the excess live it was receiving, the Portuguese have limited access to it. Now, only groups of six kayaks with a guide are allowed am 8 minute entry slot and none is permitted to swim or land inside the cave. Unfortunately two girls on SUPs decided to ignore or break the rules but it didn't overly affect our enjoyment of the place. The guide told them off nicely.
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| Our guide explaining about Bengali Cave |
We then kayaked along the stunning coastline and into other caves, including one known as the Pirate's Cave. Beautiful. Here we could get out and inspect the mussels and sea anemones on the cave wall.
We got out of canoes at a beach turnaround point and had 30 minutes to explore. We enjoyed a tunnel to a hidden beach, watched gulls and rock pigeons and generally explored the rocky crags from beach height.
On our kayak back to the beach where we had started we explored a couple of other intriguing cave-like spots. We noticed that there were more and more kayaks around and paddling became a little bit trickier as motor boats scored past. We couldn't believe the number of people on the beach, waiting for their turn in the kayaks. The guide assured us that these numbers were nothing compared to peak season. I know when I would not want to be there!!!
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| This was taken after many of the kayaks and boats had left |
After getting our walking shoes on, we started off in the Secen Hanging Valleys coastal walk which follows the cliffs from above. We started by heading west from Benagil. What views! This limestone coast is spectacular and rugged and ever-changing. There are obviously frequent rock falls / landslides but people insist on climbing out to the edge of cliffs for their 'Insta' shots. I couldn't watch some of them.
It was quite a hot walk and we were very glad of a cold swim in the ocean at the end of it!
After a forgettable lunch we caught an Uber to the other end of the walk.. We saw the beach that we had explored on our kayak tour from above and with a much higher tide.
These are limestone cliffs so there are shell fossils to be found everywhere.
There were also interesting plants on top of the cliffs. One is called the Mastic Berry.
We also saw many thickets of Juniper. I’d never really thought about what Juniper was before, except that it flavours gin very nicely, so I was surprised to see that it is a conifer.
This part of the walk from east of Benagil was a little less warm and we did not feel we needed another cold swim on our return. Therefore we just headed to Olhão where our next accommodation place was. Here I found where the food and fish markets were situated, as we have missed them in other places and I was determined to see some while still in Portugal.
Day 36 (4th Oct) (11.29 km): I went for a morning walk to look around the harbour around sunrise, which is very late around here at the moment at around 8am. I finally managed to find what birds builds the huge nests we have been seeing. When coming into Olhão, I had noticed the large nests on top of chimney stacks. On this morning, I found a solitary bird in one - a White Stork!
There were a surprising number of people around pre-sunrise. Olhão has a big fish industry with canneries so I guess people were heading to work. Hard to tell, since most Portuguese seem to dress very casually at any time.
I found the fruit and vegetable and fish markets! Sooo many different fish I had never seen and some familiar ones. Fascinating and no one seemed to mind that I wasn’t buying but just taking photos.
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| Si many chillies that the owner didn’t seem to care that these had tipped out |
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| One of the butchers |
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| Fresh anchovies |
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| I THINK these are dogfish, a kind of shark. Always sold skinned. |
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| Tuna and salmon steaks |
After breakfast we all went down to explore the markets more. Rod helped enlighten me about a few more fish but still so many unknown. I’m sure many would have been called undersized in Australia. There were some mackerel looking ones which for the most part were only about 20cm long. A few larger specimens made me think that these must only be youngsters. Oh well, I can’t pretend to know.
Olhão is situated on the Ria da Formosa, a wetlands that lies between the dunes that border the Atlantic and the town. The water is all saltwater, and the area is a haven for wildlife, particularly birds. After a relaxed morning tea we headed off to Quinta da Maria, a nature reserve on the outskirts of Olhão, where there is an information centre, bird hides for freshwater birds and seabirds, and plenty of trees for small forest birds.
After a few kilometres of waking we had found fish, I had heard lots of White Wagtails, and seen lots of Fiddler Crabs. I’d seen birds chasing fiddler crabs, butterflies and dragonflies.
While the seabird hide yielded nothing, but Gill and I found plenty of birds while in the freshwater hide.
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| Our boat was the one with Solar Boat written on it. It's solar panels were on the roof bit. |
Here are some of the birds we saw.
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Whimbrels |
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| Little Egret |
Day 37 (5th Oct) (11.43 km): Olhão, Tavira and into Spain: This was our last day as a foursome in Portugal. We were in no rush to leave Olhão so I had time to go and check out the stork nest again around sunrise. This time, much to my delight, I found two nests and a pair of storks in each nest!
On everyone’s return back to our accommodation, we set off again, destination Seville in Spain. We decided to visit the coastal towns of Tavira and Manta Rota on the way. At Tavira we climbed some old castle ruins to get a view of the town. Once again, I enjoyed the view of roofs.
Manta Rota is really the last stop on the Portugal side of the border. From the beach we could see Spain, although not the actual river that marks the border.
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| The end of the land in this photo is Spain |
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| Another plastic bottle sculpture |
As we drove out of Tavira we also saw where Portugal produces a lot of its salt. Large piles of salt were not far off the road.
The crossing between Portugal and Spain is marked by a bridge over the river and that is all. I don’t even recall a ‘welcome to Spain’ sign, although there was a ‘see you again soon’ sign on the Portuguese side.
Portugal has been a pleasure. The people are so relaxed and we have been greeted with hospitality everywhere. We have seen fascinating things and visited many interesting places.
What have I not liked? The lack of variation in restaurant menus. We have eaten out a lot, since very few of the places we have stayed have had decent cooking apparatus. The menus from north to south hardly vary at all. The meat portions are HUGE and we have thus learned to order one meat dish between two. I have craved vegetables and although various Portuguese have assured us they eat lots of vegetable at home, restaurant menus rarely reflect that. I certainly learned that fish dishes and salads were my best bet. The fish was delicious.
What would I have done differently? I would have had a few days off between hiking days to enjoy the towns we were staying in, and I would have spent 3 rather than 2 nights at the places we stayed in the south. All very well to say, since we did not have unlimited time.
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