Malhão

We were up early again this morning with the sprinklers which was good because Russ wanted some sunrise shots of the villa with the drone. Getting those shots in the bag nice and early we had a quick breakfast and then headed out to Faro. First stop was the chapel of bones which was an unbelievable sight. The bones used to make the chapel were from 1200 monks that had been buried and after 8-10 years they were removed from the ground and the walls were made from femurs and skulls. It really was a beautiful, amazing but macabre sight.
From there we spent some time wandering Faro, checking out a few more chapels which were also beautiful but gaudy at the same time, the biggest of which was late 16th century and had huge wooden statues in from the mid 17th century. We all agreed that far to much money is spent in these churches while people around the world are homeless and starving. It doesn’t seem right.
Then we moved up the coast to Olihue, pronounced owl apparently and had a quick lunch before driving a little further up the coast to Taveria where Russ wanted to get some photos.
We found a little car park and then took a 1 mile hike along the salt marshes out to a huge sandbar that was packed with beach goers and tourists and there we found the sea of anchors. 100 huge anchors placed in the sand in memory of fallen fishermen. It was quite a sight and we couldn’t get quite as near as we wanted but Russ managed to get some good shots with his telephoto lens and then we took a little train back to the car park.
From Taveria it was a 50 mile drive taking 90 minutes to get back to the villa and we arrived back at 6:30pm. Just enough to time to get changed and head back out for our 7:30 table at Jaoa’s restaurant, Russ had the Portuguese fillet steak which was presented beautifully and tasted the same, Ellie had the chicken which she said wasn’t great and Colin and Jean shared a Chàteau Brionne which is a whole meal of steak, chips and vegetables served with fruit. Then it was back to the villa. It had been a very long day and we were all tired and ready for bed.
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