Last time I was in Porttugal, it was the weeks following 9/11. Everything felt a little fraught. I was feeling homesick, perhaps because I was lonely and a little frightened by what had happened. I was travelling with a 4 year old on my own, so my tiger Mum was uncertain about whether travelling was the right thing. In fact, we would be home by late November that year.
Yet despite the angst, Portugal was kind. I have beautiful memories of Lisbon and Sintra. I stayed at a friend's in Lisbon, well, a friend of a friends whose lover was Portuguese, and kindly allowed us to stay in his apartment in the city. I had my 30th birthday drinking capirinhas by the castle with a lightening storm crashing around.
And one of my most treasured memories was staying at a farm near Sintra with the waves crashing and me and Jarrah picking figs, ants crawling over him as he clambered up the tree to pick them.
But today I'm older, travelling across the border in an old Series Land Rover with my husband. At first we are unimpressed - the beginning of that end of the Algarve is all ex pat apartments and motorhomes. Exhausted after hours of driving, we stayed in a motorhome park, kindly allowed despite the fact we didn't have an onboard toilet. They let us use the staff ones.
The next day we visited the famous Bolingil Caves, where a huge limestone cavern is fed from the sea. A party boat full of techno and semi naked people boomed it's presence just over the cliffs, someone one sold orange juice, and tons of tourists begged a hopeless glimpse over the cliff top. Needless to say it wasn't our thing and besides, if we were going to be twats about it, we had better caves at home without the tourism. Ugh.
We put a shout out on a Facebook group and were quickly helped out. A local guy gave us some suggestions on the other side of Lagos where we wouldn't be bothered.
Sure enough, we found a 4x4 track where we parked the car near some ruiens and went for a walk along the beautiful cliff tops. Spring here is just remarkable - the wildflowers are stunning.
Still, it was early in the day, just after lunch, so we continued on to another spot, a disused ruined fort overlooking the sea.
It wasn't all ruins around here - there were also some pretty stunning houses overlooking the ocean.
The beach below was called Praia Figuelo, and there were a few vans parked up but still we thought it was a bit exposed for camping.
I'm sure we could have had a secretive camp at the fort, but again, it was too early. Instead, we had a sleep on the beach and moved on to what would be the perfect camp for a couple of days - but you know what I'm.going to say, don't you?
That's a story for tomorrow.
With Love,
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