Only a small area of the Algarve conforms to the image you get in a Tui brochure - ochre cliffs, blue sea and sandy coves backed by a wooded hinterland of big high-rise hotels , sprawling apartment complexes and golf resorts. Inland it is hilly, mainly forested and sparsely populated apart from a few old towns like Loulé and Monichique. Eastwards, beyond Faro, the coast is flat, the sandy islands and salt flats of Parque Natural da Ria Formosa merging into Spain's Costa de La Luz and the Donana National Park to form one of Europe's biggest areas of protected wetland.
In the west, stretching north from Sagres the coast is completely different; high cliffs form a wall facing the wild Atlantic swell. It is empty and beautiful; the occasional bays and remote beaches are a surfers' paradise. This is where we are now. The plan is to spend a couple of nights hereabouts using free beach parking then head to a site in Olhau on the edge of the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa. In other words explore the Algarve's extremities studiously ignoring the bits in-between that feature in 'winter sun' brochures.
In fact amazingly the winter sun also shines on the bits excluded from the brochure. Today was glorious, a warm afternoon declining gently into evening, the air soft and mild, the sunset misty, grey clouds smudged with dusty pink patches.
The beach parking at Carrapateira is one of the best places we have found to get off-grid. The village, a kilometre or so inland, has a slightly ramshackle 'work in progress' look reminiscent of Greece. The parking itself backs onto a big tidal lagoon overlooked by a headland.
On the clifftops there is a network of wooden walkways to protect the delicate plants, the vista from viewpoints is stupendous, the big Atlantic swell powering across the bay to break on the wide sands of the Praia de Bordeira.
Like yesterday, well beyond the clifftop safety fencing, local fishermen were perched on rocky outcrops high above the waves. It looks like a very precarious way of catching your lunch, but perhaps it appears more dangerous than it actually is.
On the way back to the van Gill paused to examine the yellow flowers that edged the roadside. We've come across them before in the Cabo da Gata. Gill speculated that they are a form of Cape Sorrel.
As the afternoon wore on a few more vans drew up. A happy mix of surfer's beat-up old campers, retirees with their gleaming 'pride and joy', a few thirty somethings with toddlers in tow, a pleasing mix. Even the dogs seemed to get on, though they ranged in size from over-bred toy terriers to what appeared to be a recently domesticated cross between a wolf and a woolly mammoth.
Aside from the nearby cliff scenery, the tidal lagoon is interesting too. From part way up the hill its shape takes on a slightly other worldly form. It tempts even the most amateurish photographer to take vaguely artsy shots.
Not just one photo-fest, but in the evening too, when the sandbanks catch the light at sunset and glow.
It is lovely here, easy to feel at peace with yourself and the world. That's a rare occurrence these days, a moment to cherish.
No comments:
Post a Comment