Sailing and horse riding around the Algarves

The next day on the 5th, we had a 7:30am rise on yet another sunny & warm day to head off to the marina to meet up with the others to hop on to a sailing ship and head off to the Algarves... sailing!  The ship was pretty cool and fitted about 20 of us on.  It hage huge sails on it that were only used once we got out in the open waters.  As we sailed further away we started seeing these really cool rock formations along the coastline (the Algarves).  We kept going and the lady served us up "super bock" which is Portugal's local beer.  Me and Jarrad lapped it up as the weather is so perfect with the sea breeze in our faces.  This is definatly the life.  The rock formations of the Algarves were just amazing and it was great we did this as these formations and cave's are very famous due to their rareity.  Limestone pillars linned up along the cliff's!  They had a little dingie attached to the yacht, and was now our turn to hop in, so we jumped in and went for a ride all througout the caves, in and out in between lime stone pillars.  So beautiful with the water being crystal clear.  This was definatly worth every single bit of the 35 euro it cost!

lagos 01

After sailing we went and got our bathers and headed to this beach just around the corner near the cliff's that we saw on the boat.  It was very nice and secluded, but not as secluded as some of the rmote beaches we saw that some nudies decided to take advantage of :-).  Some of them you had to descent cliff faces to get too!  The one we settled on is descent enough.  It was a nice day, the sun was beating down, however the water was a bit chilly today but ok once being in for a while doing some body surfing.  I nearly fell asleep laying down on the sand for a while as it was so relaxing being on this awesome beach surrounded by limestone cliff's.  We eventually managed to pull our weary bodies up and get ready for some horse riding.  We met at the harbour again and got picked up by this lady and driven to her farm to met our horses!  My horse wal called Ivory and was the fittest and liked to eat things apparently so might have to watch him when walking passed stuff.  Before we headed off we all trotted around this stable, to make sure we were capable of riding.  We then headed out and saw some of the bushland of the Algarves.  My bloody horse wouldnt walk fast enough and kept getting so far behind, to then start bolting to try and catch up!! haha, (wasn't funny at the time though).  If your not an experienced horse rider like myself it scares the shit outta ya!  The ride wsa pretty cool and there was only 4 of us in total.  The leader was a pretty nice lady which has won quite alot of prizes for horse riding.  The funny thing about it though is these 4 dogs all came along for the treck.  haha they were so cute!  1 kelpy and 3 jack russels.  They are so used to the horses and visa versa that they jsut walk in and out of the horses legs (and occasionally getting kicked).  At the end of the trail the dogs all jumped in this bath together and frolicked around (as the lady predicted, as they do it at the end of every trip apparently, hahaha)!!  The horse trail was really cool and we got to see alot of the country side in style as well.  Jarrads horse was most amusing though as it kept dragging him through all these bushes to try and get the flies off its back, which was hilarious!  I couldnt stop laughing!  Along the trip we saw a few shotgun shells as people in camoflauge gear come out to shoot wild pigs and rabbits.  The horses bolt when they see these animals - so thankgod we didnt see any today.  After a chat and some pictures and saying goodbye to the dogs, we got dropped back off at Lago's centre where we went straight to the beach to relax again.  This time i actually fell asleep on the sand!  Then walked around and had tea, yes pizza!  haha!  Then back to do some shopping.  This town is just so cool.  I could definatly settle down here for a while and get used to the good life.  This town alone has made me love Portugal!  We went to the same bar again (the "Bon Vivant"), but this time up to the very top level which had a cool bamboo theme with wooden and bamboo bar and tables with straw for unbrellas.  Very chilled out atmosphere.  Then after a bit of a chat back to the hostel to get some shut eye.

lagos 02

The next morning we said Adios to Jarrad as we were leaving to Faro for a plane to Glasgow, Scotland and he was going big game fishing - sharks etc.  We packed our backpacks again and left.  We were pretty much running down the main street to try and make our bus, but we just missed it.  The next one wasn't till 3 and thats too late as we'd miss our flight.  oh shit!  We walked to the trainstation hoping for a miracle and thankgod there was one leaving for Faro in 15 minutes.  We got ourselves on that, no idea how i managed to sleep on it, but i did.  After arriving at Faro, we shared a taxi ride to the airport with a couple to save money.  As i've said before the Portugeuese taxi drivers are insane!  He was doing 130 in an 80 weaving througout cars.  lucky we got there in one peice!

lagos beach 01

Tonight we're meeting Margaret and Harry (danielle's nan's sister) at the Glasgow airport.

Portugal has been really cool and because of Lago's its now up there with a few of my favourite countries i've visited.  I'll be spreading the word to all future travellers i meet about this little layed back paradise on the southern portuguese coast..  The weather has been perfect.

lagos beach 02

lagos castle 01

lagos castle 02

sailing 01

sailing 02

sailing 03

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sailing 06

sailing 07 secluded beach

sailing 08 us 3

sailing 09

sailing 10

sailing 11 - clint

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sailing 13

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