Day 274 – Friday 7th December 2018
A lovely sunny day relaxing in the warm sunshine while Cfor explored the neighbourhood.
He seems fascinated with our French neighbours
Today he even said hello to some Germans
His travels done for the day he lounged under the table; it’s exhausting work being a cat.
Day 275 – Saturday 8th December 2018
Beautiful sunny day and another very lazy day.
At the French embassy next door they are gathered around a laptop watching the news and talking animatedly about the rioting in Paris. Funny how quickly Macron has gone from poster boy for the EU to Louis XVI.
Day 276 – Sunday 9th December 2018
Another beautiful day. Did my Couch to 5k this morning and ran for 25 minutes which is a week ahead of schedule. Although I managed 10 seconds of Usain Bolt at the end I was properly knackered. From now on I am going to stick rigidly to the schedule.
Julie’s son Darren arrived this morning for 4 days with his girlfriend Lucy.
We went for Sunday lunch at LazyJacks
and ended up at Ponta da Piedade; it’s a stunning bit of the coast.
Day 277 – Monday 10th December 2018
Beautiful sunny day. Lucy wanted to see the caves at Benagil so we set off before lunch.
… Darren wanted to stop at Kartódromo; we didn’t have to queue
It’s a big complex
We all had a blast around the track
It was great fun but I’m far too cautious a driver to be any good in a go-cart; I like to drive so I never have to put the brakes on.
Having said that I’m a lot faster than Julie!
On to the caves at Benagil.
The big cave with the collapsed roof is the Algar de Benagil
Of course everyone climbed over the safety barrier to get better shots of the beach below
me included
By the time we’d made it to the beach at Benagil the boats trips to the caves had stopped for the day 🙁
Lucy, Darren & Julie at Benagil beach
Day 278 – Tuesday 11th December 2018
An overcast day and at 18°C it felt quite cold.
To Praia da Luz for lunch where I was stung by a wasp, I never saw that on the menu!
After lunch we went for a spin around the coast and ended up in Lagos to see the Christmas lights.
Back at the van it was time to eat
where on earth is the Whiskers!
Day 279 – Wednesday 12th December 2018
An overcast start to the day. I did Day 1 of Week 6 of my Couch to 5k. The inside top of my left leg was complaining from the start and it didn’t get any better but I managed to finish the session. I think I pulled something getting out of that go-cart yesterday; going to give it 4 days to clear up.
After breakfast Lucy wanted to go back to Benagil for a boat trip round the caves.
a little boat but it had a surprisingly big engine on the back
There are dozens of caves on this part of the coast
Many of them have small sandy beaches
and holes in their roofs
Very difficult to do the Algar de Benagil justice from a boat bobbing about in the sea with a Samsung J5. I asked the captain if we could land to get better shots but he said he didn’t have a licence to land.
This is what the Algar looks like from the beach with a decent camera and probably a little Photoshop. Full credit to someone else.
the coastline is full of stacks and arches
The sightseeing over the Captain said he was going to do his ‘James Bond’ and promptly opened up the throttle, heading for a stack or two and swerving around them at the last minute. He landed the boat by shooting it 30ft up the beach. Great fun but I really should have held on rather than trying to film it.
Day 280 – Thursday 13th December 2018
A wet and windy start to the day but the sun soon showed itself. It was great to just do nothing after the past few days.
we did manage a walk along the beach at Praia de Luz
even with the sun out it must be cold in there