On the last weekend we went on our very last day trip to the west coast of the Algarve before we´re leaving Portugal next week and flying to Thailand. Although we´ve spent two winter seasons here there are still beaches we haven´t seen yet and Praia da Carriagem was one of them.
I was surprised myself when I saw that beach and asked myself how it is possible that we haven´t visit that beautiful place during all that Time. It´s also listed on Magic Seaweed as a surfspot and the following shots will show you why.
The beach is almost at the border to Alentejo the region next to the Algarve and its a bit of a drive from Lagos were we live. The last few kilometers were over unsealed road but still easy to drive with a 2WD and well worth it. Especially if the beach is completely empty and absolutely no one is there except us.
The only one who was there was that cute dog we met right at the top at the car park that seems to be living in that cute little house together with his master whom we haven´t seen the whole time.
Down at the beach it was as beautiful as any other beach here on the west coast of the Algarve. Its funny because at one point you think if I have seen one I´ve seen them all but in the end they are all different and every beach has something special that is worth to get explored. In this case these green super lush seaweed fascinated me. Believe it or not the photos with the seaweed are not edited, it was literally glowing in the sun.
After a long stroll on that lonely beach we went up again and I grabbed my camera with my tele lens to take some shots of the nice waves that were rolling in. Although the south coast of the Algarve is either flat or choppy due to bad weather since weeks the west coast was delivering some fine waves almost the whole time.
Despite the fact that there was quite some solid waves coming in and that spot being on magig seaweed the line-up was empty and no one to be seen in the water. Might be because of the drive to here or the spot being a bit tricky with all the rocks in the water. I would have not paddled out here as well to be honest.
Looking at the photos again I realise that it also was quite windy and tricky to get into a wave. Water temp also has dropped quite a bit and is now at around 14 degree.
As beautiful as this may look, conditions like these can quickly become a nightmare as a surfer especially on a spot like this one. If you don´t know the spot and where all the rocks are, sets like on ethe photo above can get you in real trouble. You should never ever surf something like this on your own.
After that we went to Aljezur for lunch. Aljezur is a bit of a surfing hub on the west coast and has one of our favourite restaurants. Unfortunately I did not take photos as I was way to hungry but since I always eat the same there I add some from last time. ;)
On the menu: Swordfish Filet and Picanha...sooo good
On our way back home we made one last stop at Carrapateira for a quick coffee and one last surf check at Praia da Bordeira a beautiful and huge open faced beach with huge sand dunes. i like that spot to take photos as you can position yourself on a small headland with a great view on the break of the waves.
As on the other beach I was a bit surprised as there was only one surfer in the water at the beginning. Tide was still high and there was a lot of water moving around, waves were breaking far outside and the wind was annoying. Have to admit that I´m not a big fan of wind. As a surfer you want off shore wind but if it gets too strong it gets pretty ugly.
After a while two more surfers paddled out and I was really surprised how fast they got into the line-up. There was a perfect channel near the cliffs that pulled out both surfers in a about 2 minutes despite the heavy swell.
And finally after waiting for almost 20 minutes one of the guys had a wave. As said before on the other beach, while it might look easy from the outside it can be a big hustle to catch waves on some days.
The funny thing about the last two shots I just realised at home. While the take-off from this guy looks good on the first photo it did end not as good as expected. That´s part of the surfing sport, you win some and you lose some.
All in all a great last visit to the west coast of the Algarve. Now we´re off to warmer regions and not long until I finally surf in shorts again without that annoying wetsuit that I hate so much. It has been almost 3 years surfing cold waters. In the beginning I really thought that I start to like it and I´m going to be a cold water surfer, unfortunately that changed and I have to admit that I absolutely prefer warm waters.
you will find this post on pinmapple as well
[//]:# (!pinmapple 37.36506 lat -8.83678 long One last excursion - Praia da Carriagem and Bordeira d3scr)
