The Wild West - waves, rocks, eco-tourism.

Tomorrow we are heading for Lisbon to stay with our daughter Sarah and her partner Rob. We intend to leave the van at the campsite at Costa Caprica for a couple of days and stay with them in their new flat. It will be odd to have proper walls and a roof. We get very used to living in our lives in a 15 square metre box.

For the past five days we have wended our way northwards up Portugal's west coast. The landscape which straddles the west of the Algarve and the Alentejo is sparsely populated and the coast protected. It is very beautiful. We stayed in a mixture of approved wild camping spots and campsites, all near the coast.

At Vila do Bispo we turned left on the road to Aliejur, leaving 'red roads' for yellow. This was not without some trepidation as our experience of Portuguese minor roads is they have a tendency to deteriorate quickly from being somewhat neglected into fully developed donkey tracks. In fact the roads in this part of Portugal are much less hazardous than those in the north, better surfaced and signed. Even the driving behaviour seems more polite and less prone to suicidal attempts at overtaking.

The treeless landscape typical of Capo Sáo Vicente continued for a few kilometres as we headed north, then changed to one of low rolling hills. The road is lined with a mixture of umbrella pines and eucalyptus. It winds through small valleys a kilometre or two inland, a pretty route, but you get no sense that you are next to a spectacular coastline other than the tendency for most trees to lean towards the east, reflecting just how many days they get blasted by Atlantic gales.

Rather than post separate pieces about each of our stops, I have decided to put them in one post - more photos with comments than the usual ramblings. 

1. Carrapateira 37° 4' 19" N, 8° 49' 49" W.

Behind the Saharan expanse of the Praia Bordeira there is a large flat car park officially designated as the 'Praia da Bordeira RV Park'. It's so official it even features on Google maps. For a beachside parking, the beach is actually not that easy to reach, at least not without a wading a bit.

You get a great view of the broad undulating sands and the fizzing surf in the distance, but the shallow Ribeira da Carrapateira separates the parking from the beach. The nearest bridge is in the village about 1.5km distant. We did see people​ wading across. If you picked the right spot it is scarcely knee deep, but it was chilly, so instead we took a walk along the hillside and watched two kite surfers skimming up and down the calm inlet.

A lovely peaceful spot, after dark wonderful for star gazing. We watched the moonrise over the dunes - utter silence apart from the row rumble of surf and chafing cicadas.

2. Praia da Odeceixe 37°26'17.4"N 8°47'53.0"W

Next day we stopped here for lunch. Another estuary, another stunning beach, this time flanked by towering black cliffs. Even more spectacular are the rock formations just to the south directly below the clifftop parking where we had lunch.

A steep path leads down to a small sandy cove - Adegas beach is one of a handful of official naturist spots, though a good few of Portugal's more remote beaches in practice are 'textile optional'.

Officially overnighting is not allowed here, however when I posted a picture of the place on Motorhome Adventures a member commented that last November she had stayed for a week, so I'm guessing out of season the regulations are not enforced.

3. Zambujeira do Mar  N 37.52577, W 8.7753

We stayed for four nights at the Campismo Zambujeiro. A great little site on the outskirts of a fishing village which has developed into a low key resort. The site was well run, the staff friendly and helpful and we met some interesting fellow motorhomers, all inveterate travellers with stories to tell and places to recommend.

A coastal long distance path runs from the Cabo São Vincente all the way to Porto Covo - in fact, a notice claimed that it was part of a network of long distant coastal walks that stretched all the way to Estonia! This small section had been developed to provide dune and clifftop boardwalks to protect the flora and discourage people from getting too close to the dangerous cliff edges.

I think the whole Vicente National Park is making a real effort to develop sustainable tourism. It's good to see. I liked the way shaded resting places had been built half way up the steepest slopes in recognition that the arthritic as well as the athletic may use the paths. Small platforms had been placed at strategic west facing spots to provide comfortable seats for sunset watchers who wished to watch the spectacle without the ubiquitous Ibiza Chill soundtrack found in nearby bars. It's civilised here.

4. Cabo Sardão. 37°35'52.2"N 8°48'57.6"W

Another lunch stop that would work as a place to overnight. Highlights are, a square lighthouse with wings that give it palatial aspirations, more coastal boardwalks that take you across a carpet of heathers and rock plants. The marked paths are also there to discourage the inquisitive from seeing how close they can get to the cliff edge before they plummet to an early demise. What is a warning to some is a challenge to others....

Perhaps the place's real USP is the fact it boasts the worlds most windswept football pitch. Every single game played here has resulted in a draw of 17 apiece; the home side playing with the wind in the first half leading 17 nil by half time, the visitors equalising in the dying seconds of the second half.

5. Porto Covo 35° 51' 7" N, 8° 47' 15" W.

The camp site here is very cheap. It is also very cruddy. In truth it is mainly a site for statics complete with the colony of feral cats that such places inevitably harbour. A few pitches are set aside for tourers, and even fewer are large enough for a 7m van. There are plenty of places to stopover in Porto Covo itself. It seems to be tolerated if not exactly encouraged. We only discovered this after we had pitched at the site 

Porto Covo is slightly odd. It has a small fishing port in the cove at the foot of some low cliffs. The rest of the place spreads out in a grid above, uniformly white streets where it is impossible to tell which are old buildings and which newer. It has a slight 'toy town' look as a result.

The exception to this is as a small development of low cuboid neo-modernist holiday apartments on the outskirts which​ remain half-built. 

Looking north from the cliffs you get a good view of the docks at Sines. It's the only town of any size on Portugal's southwest coast, developing in the 1970s from ancient fishing port into a major container handling dock, petrochemical refinery and centre for power generation. After days of empty landscapes the sight comes as a slight shock.

Tomorrow we head for Lisbon. It will be great to see Sarah and Rob's new apartment and experience Lisbon from an insiders perspective, albeit newly arrived insiders.