Friday 1 March - Sagres

After five weeks tootling slowly across the south of Portugal, we have made it to the south west corner. There are two south-westerly points: Sagres is more south than west, whereas Cabo de São Vicente is more west than south. We are at the former and today walked towards the latter (I've just looked at a map and discovered that they are only 6km apart; had I realised that earlier we likely would have walked the whole way between the two today).

A coast path wends its well-waymarked way along the limestone cliffs, through a landscape that manages to look simultaneously arid and green. The large variety of plant life contrasts with a lack of bird life.

Here are a few snaps:

My favourite photo of the day - just look at those colours and textures! From where I took this snap, we dropped down to a beach, walked below this formation and up a staircase, only then to find ourselves in someone's garden. Fortunately, there was no-one about, so we continued along their drive, through their gate and out onto the road, which is where we would have been (per the route I'd downloaded) if we hadn't been enticed by such an obvious stepped path.

What a huge walking group! We hurried past, whilst they re-grouped and took photos, as we know how difficult it can be to get past this many people when they are in motion:


As is typical with limestone country, caves and archways abound, some of which are visible in this snap. We had to walk around a few sizeable sink holes (at the bottom of a couple, we could see the sea) a short distance inland too.

This beach marked out turn-around point. Notice all the surfer-dudes bobbing around, but there was rather a lack of waves for them to ride.
 
Can you spot the cliff-clinging fishermen in this snap? I'm not sure I could bring myself to scramble down to their perch, never mind sit with my feet dangling over the edge once there!
 
Finally, a view over to the fort at Sagres, next to which Bertie is parked. It's a bit of an exposed headland in the current strong westerly winds.


Edited to add a further version of the fishermen photo, this time with an arrow pointing at their location: