On Saturday, Rodney climbed aboard his bicycle and did a reconnaissance of Luz, giving me time to get our website up to date. Or not. He was back in less than an hour; it turned out that we were a lot closer to the town than we thought. He didn’t fancy cycling back in again, which makes me think that maybe the hill is steeper than he’s letting on, so we slothed alone beside another empty campsite swimming pool for a couple of hours and then spent the rest of the day whiling our time away in slow-motion…..
And on Sunday, we both climbed aboard our bicycles and peddled down to Luz. After a slow stroll around the village, we spread our towels out on the sand and read our books to the gentle sound of the waves. So relaxing. And we followed up our siesta with a very late lunch at a beach-side café, before cycling back up to the campsite. Not too steep, but I did have to push my bike on a small section……..
Finally on Monday, we expended a bit more energy. We drove into Lagos for an English Breakfast; although with a carrot, gherkin and cauliflower garnish, it looked suspiciously ‘un-English’. It wasn’t as good as Rodney’s, but at least there was less washing-up and the fresh orange juice was delicious. A roam around through the old town had us liking the place; definitely somewhere we could come back to. Near the Fort da Ponta da Bandeira, we met a man selling boat trips and it seemed like a good idea. It turned out to be a brilliant idea. Our trusty toothless sailor took us on board the MV Humberto, pointed to two lifejackets and set off around the fort. The coastline along this section of the Algarve is spectacular; continual stacks, caves, arches, chimneys and grottoes.
The little blue and yellow boat weaved in and out, around and under. We squeezed into sections of rock so small that we had to reverse out as there was not enough room to turn around. Our capitan pointed out ‘the elephant’, ‘the windows’, ‘the cathedral’, ‘the camel’, another elephant and the names of all the tiny beaches tucked in amongst it all. It was so spectacular, especially set against the most vibrant blue sky and a sea so clear and coloured the most lovely turquoise and blue.
None of our photos can possibly reflect exactly what we saw and without the feeling of bobbing about on the waves, it’s just not as dramatic, but they will be a lovely reminder of our hour out at sea near Lagos. Back on dry-land, we drove Eileen out to Ponta da Piedade, parked up and then strolled around on the cliff tops above where we had just been floating. We could see all the way down the coast back to Luz and on to Ponta de Sagres, the tip of Iberian Man’s beard.
Our last expedition for the day was a climb down around 150 to 200 steep wooden steps, which led us down to Praia do Camilo, one of the little beaches we had spotted while on the boat trip. We spread our towels and enjoyed the view of the arches and stacks from a different angle and watched all the colourful wooden boats passing by with more happy tourists aboard. The climb back up to the main road wasn’t quite as easy, but we just took it slowly, turning around regularly to soak up the views as we went.
