SUNGRL

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.

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 : )