Cristal Carvoeiro

... Luz for the last 40 years! Dinner is grilled sardines, garlic bread, calamari and BBQed pork steaks and chicken drumsticks. All washed down with some fine vinho verde.

18 Nov
Our last day on the Algarve B4 we head for a couple of nights in Granada, which was the last bastion of Islam in Spain. As part of our visit there, we hope to see the Alhambra and some of the Sierra Nevada. Then itºll be onwards to hook up with Annabelleºs folks ...

... but did some paddling! for lunch we headed 5km up the coast to Luz. A wonderful sunny afternoon and towards the end of it Lym did venture into what turned out to be rather too powerful surf tho he is now feeling more confident about trying to get "out back" beyond the white water, albeit usually unsuccessfully... more pracise required. Still, another day spent in mid20s temperature, few crowds and stunning scenery.

Another typical Porto Covo morning: bright, blue and upon inspection, very large swell; too large for us. Decision time - do we stay or move on? It was easy and unanimous, time to break camp and hit the road once again heading south. We looked at a couple of likely surf / camp destinations, until opting for Odeceixe, a town which straddles both the Alentejo and the Algarve ...

Over the last couple days I've watched my shaky plan fall around me. I don't really know where to go next, and surprise bills are depleting my meager funds. Thankfully I'm stranded in Southern Portugal, its cheap and beautiful, indeed there are less desirable places to be stranded.

I decide to join a group of young kiwis heading to Lagos; partly for the social aspect, partly because I would like to see more of the coast. Faro ...

... for everybody. When you're only working for room and board, you expect to eat pretty damn well.

I pull the meat out of the oven, its seriously overcooked. I bathe it in instant gravy and serve it up with the roast potatoes and tomatoes. While the family and guests sit down to the meal, we clean-up, plate dessert, and grab whatever remains. I'm fuming. They linger over coffee and dessert, allowing us a good head start on dishes.

Satiated, Daniella wanders into the ...

An excursion to Lagos’s Marina followed by a boat trip to Ponta de Sagres (The most western point of Europe, from where the Portuguese sailors started the discovery of new worlds) will allow to enjoy the
natural beauty of the rocks, especially the famous and most impressive caves of Ponta da Piedade, wild beaches and the sea waves on the cliffs along the coast and also some of the ‘highlights ...

... it was pretty tame until one of the toreadors almost got trampled by one of the bulls, the dude was lucky they dulled the tip of the bulls horns.


http://picasaweb.google.com /Jonny.D.Lawrence/20091016Albufeira?aut hkey=Gv1sRgCImA4oCXitDO5AE&feat=dir ectlink

The kiting in Alvor is supposedly one of the best spots in Portugal, because of a huge shallow lagoon, however the wind was in the opposite direction so we ended up kiting on the sea side in the waves. Exhausting, but very fun to launch off the waves. We met a wicked ...

... not "surfers" but we we’re much less scared of getting tossed by the big waves this time. We also came to the conclusion that it maybe wasn’t us that, but that it’s the size of the board that was hindering our performance....

http://picasaweb.google.com/Jonny.D .Lawrence/20091011Sagres?authkey=Gv1sRg CMmMtI7egbGKvAE&feat=directlink

... more then willing to point us in the right direction, he seemed to giggle when he looked at us. We stopped another man who wrote directions for us in Portuguese. This helped allot and we ended up finding the highway once again. From Lisbon to Carvoeiro - Take the A2 (motorway) to the Algarve moving on to the A22 (Via do Infante) heading towards PORTIMÃO until you reach the exit for LAGOA/ SILVES ...