SUNGRL

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.

We had a relaxing day today. We started the day with a walk at Ria Formosa which runs along some of the holes on the San Lorenzo Golf Course, along some sand dunes and then out to the salt lakes.

We then hit the driving range for a bit of much needed practice.

We then decided to check out Maria’s Beach Restaurant at Garrao which is a beach between Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago. It is a stunning beach and we had a nice lunch at Maria’s.

True to form Steve befriended a Scottish couple, Gus & Sheila. It turns out they have a house just around the corner from us so we are going there for a BBQ on Monday night. They travelled by campervan from Aberdeen in Scotland – it took them 4 days. They have two Wheaten Terriers called Lucy & Matt who also travelled with them to the Algarve. They have been here for the past 5 months and told us the weather we have been having is unseasonably warm for this time of year – hey, we are OK with this.

A picture paints a thousand words but for those that don’t know Steve that well he is feeling much better and apparently the Corona’s have never tasted so good : )

Today we went to Vilamoura which is one of the largest tourist complexes in Europe comprising over 2,000 hectares of land. It has the largest marina in Portugal where up to 1,000 vessels can berth. There was some very nice boats berthed in here. It is surrounded by hotels, shops and restaurants. We heard a lot of english accents so clearly a very popular holiday spot with the British.

There are 6 golf courses in Vilamoura which we hope to play over the next three weeks. Altogether there are 37 golf courses in Algarve.

The weather was lovely again with the thermometer in the car registering 29 degrees. We popped into an Irish pub to watch the Liverpool v Chelsea match in honour of our Liverpudlian mate Paul but unfortunately it was not Liverpool’s day.

Steve is definitely on the mend although he still sounds very special. He is eating again but struggling with drinking beer – is this the turning over of a new leaf? I can only live in hope : )