SUNGRL

Another fairly relaxed day in the Algarve. It started with a run for both of us – yes you did read that right – Stevie took to the streets!

A little trip to the shopping Mall – Forum Algarve – which is quite a large mall in Faro. It has this massive supermarket called Jumbo. Sad as this sounds – I quite enjoy looking round these foreign supermarkets and seeing what they have to offer. Jumbo is by far the cheapest in the area with all the main brands plus the local specialities.

We then went for lunch at BJ’s which is just down the beach from Vale do Lobo towards Quarteira. This place is slowly becoming our local. Great food right on the beach. Today they had a three piece band called The Business playing – they were great fun and involved everyone in the restaurant.

They have a dress up box where you can grab a hat or a wig or whatever takes your fancy and put it on. The staff also indulge themselves as did the band.

It was a great afternoon : )

Today we played the second course in Vale do Lobo – the Royal Course.

We found this course tighter & shorter than the Ocean Course. It was still really nice & well kept. The bird life on the course is good & the golf club encourages it by providing shelters for the birds. I saw these three large geese waddling along the path – when we came up the 11th here they were sitting in a perfect row on the green taking it all in – see a couple of photos below.

The 16th hole is a par three with cliff top carryover – one of the most celebrated golfing images in the world, which has become the veritable symbol of golf in the Algarve.

Another enjoyable round while basking in the Algarve sun : )

On our way back from Sagres we decided to call in to Portimao which is still in the western Algarve. Portimao is the biggest town in the western Algarve and sits on the bank of the Arade river facing Ferragudo on the opposite bank. It has a population of 55,000 which is slightly less than Faro which has a population of 64,000.

The main beach Praia da Rocha has become a resort in it’s own right over the years. We had lunch over looking the Praia da Rocha.

Portimao is a port for the cruise ships visiting Portugal and has plenty of bars and restaurants. Apparently it is one of the best places for shopping in the Algarve.

Today we took a road trip to Sagres and Cape St Vincent – this is the south western most point of Portugal & Europe.

The Cape is a landmark for all ships travelling to the Mediterranean. The cliffs around the cape rise near vertically from the Atlantic to a height of 75 metres. The cliffs were quite spectacular. This is also a common spot for surfers – apparently the surf is always up somewhere at the Cape due to the west Atlantic Ocean creating such good waves for surfing. We saw some surfers heading for the beach just prior to the road to the Cape – they had a number of boards, backpacks and a toddler in the front pack. A family day out.

The present lighthouse is 24 metres high and was built over the ruins of a 16th century Franciscan convent in 1846. This lighthouse, guarding one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, is among the most powerful in Europe – it’s two 1,000 watt lamps can be seen up to 60km away.

We noticed that the landscape changed the closer we got to the Cape – someone had described it to us as something out of Wuthering Heights and we could see what she was saying. It was quite mystical and very windy. The wind made it quite a cool spot which is obviously quite a common theme given the vendors selling ponchos and woollen hats outside the lighthouse. We toughed it out in our summer gears though.

Apparently the sunsets at the Cape are spectacular.

We then drove back to Sagres – it is quite a tranquil town with a pretty harbour. As mentioned above it is popular with the surfers and the beaches are lovely. It is not so popular with the tourists yet. We had a very pleasant wander on the beach and sat and watched the happenings from two little concrete seats.

Tonight we had dinner at the Scot’s place we met last week at one of the restaurants on the beach – Gus & Sheila. They had some friends visiting from Scotland – Nicholas & Veronica.

We got some NZ lamb from the supermarket and Steve used their charcoal BBQ to cook it. He hadn’t cooked using charcoal before so it was trial and error.

Nicholas got the BBQ going with some expert fanning with the newspaper. The lamb was put on the BBQ and the lid put on. Half an hour later the BBQ seemed to have lost it’s heat so into the oven went the lamb. Again Nicholas came to the rescue with some more expert fanning with the newspaper and reignited the BBQ. On went the lamb again.

It cooked within no time the second time around. Steve & I thought the lamb was a bit overcooked but it turns out these Scots like their meat well done so all in all a good result.

It was a great night with lots of laughs. We are now planning our trip to Scotland for later in the year : )

Please appreciate the picture below – it took a little working out how to set the Samsung Galaxy up on the timer. Left to right back row – Nicholas, Steve & Gus. Left to right front row – Sheila, Veronica & me.

Today we played the Vale do Lobo Ocean Course. This course is 5 minutes walk from where we are staying. We had read and heard that is the lesser of the two courses in Vale do Lobo but we thought it was great and really enjoyed it. It is a bit hilly in places but that added to the experience and was good exercise pushing our trundlers up and down.

The golf club has been in existence since 1968 and has held the Portugese Open in 2002 and 2003.

Today being Sunday we did what all good people should do on a Sunday – relax. That probably sounds like everyday for us at the moment and you’d probably be right.

We went for a walk in the Ria Formosa again today. The bird life is quite prolific which is good to see. They have these bird watching towers along the walk so you can sit in there and watch the birds in their natural habitats.

We hit golf balls again in preparation for our round tomorrow.

We then went back to Vilamoura for lunch. It is such a great spot to people watch, read our books and soak up the sun.

They also have a Costa Coffee place there which does a nice soy decaf latte. It also sells beer so Stevie is also very happy too. The Poms complain that Costa is expensive – Costa Lot but the coffee and beer are both cheaper than NZ so no complaints here : )

The Loule Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning. The market building is open all week long, but each Saturday local farmers head to town and offer their wares in the streets and alleys that surround the Mercado (market) building.

Flowers, bedding plants, fruits, vegetables, herbs, homemade cakes, eggs, cheeses, chourico (chorizo is the Spanish equivalent), presunto (dry cured ham), bacalhau (dried and salted cod) are all on offer by friendly locals.

Inside the market building are a lot of fish vendors and it is very smelly! They are there every day except Sunday.

We indulged in the berries – strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. I bought some goats cheese to go with the fig and almond roll – yummo! The 2kg of strawberries we bought cost EU3.50 or NZD5.60 The raspberries cost us EU1.00 or NZD1.60 and the blueberries EU2.00 or NZD3.20. I think we’ll be back there next Saturday : )

The picture of Steve with a beer was taken at lunch today – he is much happier with this size beer!

We had another round at Pinheiros Altos this morning & the last couple of days practice paid off for me – not so much for Stevie though : (

It was another really hot day but we teed off early so were out of the sun by 12pm.

Took a couple of photos of the storks on their nests. There were baby storks in the nest and you could see their little heads popping up every now & then.

Went down to our local beach about 4:30pm & it was still 25 degrees. I had a brief swim – the water is still quite chilly – the hot air temperatures have not had a chance to heat the sea yet. It was refreshing anyway.

Today we took a drive to Vila Real de San Antonio (VRS) which sits on the tidal river Rio Guadiana that separates Portugal & Spain. You can take a ferry across to Spain for EU1.75.

A bridge was built over this river back in 1991 which eased the congestion down in VRS. This is quite an impressive looking bridge – see the picture below.

At the end of the 19th century the town was a major canning centre for sardines and tuna, and the port was busy with the ships that sailed the Guadiana. It is still a thriving community based on fishing, agriculture and tourism.

There is a large town square where we had lunch. The town square is surrounded by orange (laranjal) trees. We had a lovely paella. Steve ordered a small beer and they delivered a very small beer as a joke – see the pictures below. Most of the shops had shut for the afternoon siesta from 1pm to 3pm. The restaurants were open.

Spain is on a different time zone to Portugal so when you catch the ferry across to the Spanish side you need to put your clocks forward an hour.

As we sped along in our little Fiat Punto with no air conditioning we saw that the countryside took on a more agricultural look the closer we got to VRS – lots of orange plantations.