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Published: December 5th 2010
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Alcacer de Sal
Looking down from the fort Hi all,
We left Lisbon after a great week and headed over the distinctive 25th April bridge, so named after the date of the 1974 revolution which ousted the long time Portuguese dictator Salazar, we drove south past the city of Setabul then turned slightly inland and into the region called Alentejo, (Alen-Tejo meaning all things south of the river Tejo or Tagus as it's commonly known) this large area south of Lisbon is the driest and hottest in Portugal and produces cork bark which is one of Portugal's main exports, as we drove by the endless woodlands almost all the trees had had their bark stripped up to the first branches where the cork had been removed.
Our destination was Alcacer de Sal on the Sado estuary, long ago an important trade town built by the Moors and sacked by the Christians in the 12th century. The town is mainly on one side of the river with the Moorish fort on the hill top above and again we wandered round the alleyways and took photos including views from the top of the hill. The campsite here was fairly small but had good facilities, the tv room even had
Alcacer de Sal
A typical house in the back streets British tv, the first we had come across in 3 months, a sign of things to come we found as when I told the site manager we were heading for the Algarve his comment was 'so your heading back to Britain then' meaning the Algarve had virtually become British, Red Lion pubs and full English breakfasts were the norm he said.
We left Alcacer and headed south (again) for the new Zmar Eco Camping Resort, the directions we had were crap but we found it after asking the locals (again). Now this place was something different to anywhere we had stayed before, the site was established with the environment in mind so everything was made from recycled stuff and all waste was recycled and solar powered throughout, now that makes it sound like a haven for tree huggers but far from it, it was more like a 5 star oasis in the middle of nowhere. The site was a little more expensive than your usual campsite in November but we had the use of the excellent 100m outdoor pool, the indoor wave pool, all the sports facilities, the bar, tv room etc etc all to ourselves (again), the place
Zmar
The impressive 100m pool had more staff than customers! but speaking to the bar staff it had been packed solid in the summer. Apart from using all the above facilities for the 2 days we stayed we also did the tree top rope walk and zip wires which was great. The site was also based around a lake and happens to be within the SW Alentejo national park so was teaming with bird life, we had white storks, cattle egrets, great white egrets, greater flamingos, azure winged magpies and many many more small birds all around the van.
The next stop was the Algarve town of Sagres so we drove south through more of the national park, through some lovely countryside and once at Odeceixe we were in the Algarve, when in Sagres we visited the old fort of Henry the Navigator, this fort was sacked by Sir Francis Drake in 1587 and now is a maritime museum, then a visit to Cabo St. Vincente the most south westerly point on the European mainland (this was as far south west as we could come), as we stood by the lighthouse (the brightest light in Europe) we looked both east and north along the
Zmar
Nobody else on site but us coasts to see surfers on the Atlantic swells and fisherman precariously perched half way down the 200ft cliff face catching mullet fish.
We stayed the 1 night near Sagres then after the predicted heavy morning rain we moved east and just up the road to a site next to the village of Espiche and 5 mins from Praia de Luz. We'd planned to make the Algarve more like a normal holiday so we stayed here for 9 days in all as it was a very nice site with all the facilities we needed, it included a nice swimming pool although it was like getting into an ice cold plunge pool, but we braved it, once!. Whilst here we went to the lovely beach at Praia de Luz, we travelled on the bus into Lagos for lunch, we wandered around Lagos marina and town then walked the 7 km back to Luz along the impressive cliff top walk which gave us great views of the small sandy bays and sea stacks that line the Algarve coast, plus great views further east towards Portimao. We used the bar a lot on the nights playing pool and chatting to the many friendly
Brits (snow-birds) who had extended their summers/autumns and were on the Algarve for the winter, we really enjoyed Luz and had a great 9 days there.
Our next 'normal' holiday spot was in Albufeira just a 30 min drive east and the place my parents and sister were flying out to for a weeks holiday the coming Saturday. We arrived on Tuesday 23rd Nov and spent the next 4 days getting our bearings and finding out what was on offer in the town ready for their arrival, the beaches were lovely and when the sun shined the British snow birds were the only ones braving them but the weather became mixed with heavy showers and the nights were getting chilly. On the Friday night my mates from home were together playing poker so they called me to chat and catch up which was nice and they mentioned it was snowing, now that was well over a week ago and we have been watching closely what's been going on from afar, more of that in a minute. My parents arrived on Sat 27th Nov and over the first few days we stayed in Albufeira eating and drinking in the local
bars and as the weather was poor we used their hotel pool and jacuzzi, in the evenings the kids got their fix of X factor and I'm a celeb and I watched the snow reports from home. On the Tuesday we dropped my Mum and Alison at the local shopping centre then the boys drove upto the new Autodrome near Portimao, this new facility has a formula one track which is already used by the F1 teams for testing but it was the kart tracks we went to see. It has 2 large and 1 small track so we hired karts and had 30 minutes on the large track to ourselves, the kids loved it, nearly as much as me and my dad, that night we had a great meal on the campsite at the all you can eat bbq buffet.
We hired a car and over the next 3 days and between heavy thunder storms we visited lovely towns and beaches at Quarteira, Loule, Lagos, Praia de Rocha and we drove up through great scenery to the highest point in the Algarve, to the mountain of Foia near Monchique, it's 902 metres height giving us great views of the
south and west coasts of the Algarve. We enjoyed great nights out in Albufeira, further use of their hotel pool and sauna and on their 'final' night, (my mums birthday), we opened the christmas presents they'd brought out, it really was a great week and really nice to see them all..........but it didn't end there, due to the lovely weather you are having back in the UK, the closed airports and the fact that the Spanish air traffic controllers went on strike on Saturday 4th Dec left my mum dad and sister stuck in Portugal, believe it or not after queueing for nearly 8 hours at the easyjet check in desk they were told it will take a week before they can fly home!!! so they have been put up in an all inclusive local hotel, now to me that sounds like a result but my mother is not happy!!! so we are changing plan slightly and moving tomorrow to a campsite near their hotel for a few more days on the Algarve before we move into Spain later this week.
Take care all and sorry for the long gap before blogs
Neil Dan and Harry
x
PS...... we
Praia de Luz
The kids on the beach are so gutted were missing out on the heavy snow falls, the thick ice, the freezing winds, the gridlocked roads, flu's, colds etc etc...........no were not really, if it makes it any better we've had thunder storms and some chilly nights too, I nearly had to put some socks on the other day!
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