Odeceixe

Today we packed up & headed south for our next beach stop. I was particularly happy to be moving on, because I had inexplicably been eaten alive over the last week & Jackie had not. I have no idea when or what had bitten me, but I have now got 30-40 bites on most parts of my body.

The first stop was Zambujeira do Mar to inspect their beach, but we weren’t overly impressed. It was a bit too small and quite crowded. We drove on for about 5 minutes & stopped at Praia do Carvalhal, which was a beach in the middle of nowhere and had potential. It had a bar/cafe, a random Thai massage hut and a decent sized beach. It was a definite possibility to return to.

Another 15 minutes later we arrived at Odeceixe, a small town which we had earmarked for our next stay. Three miles down the road was a horseshoe shaped beach is considered to be one of the best beaches in Portugal. We viewed it from the car park high above & decided that it was probably the beach for us, but we would drive down to Sagres in the most southwestern corner of Portugal.

The hour long drive took us through the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina. The South West Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park is the finest preserved stretch of European coastline, covering over 100 km, from Porto Covo in the Alentejo, to Burgau in the Algarve. The Park includes various unique species of animal and plant life, and is visited by many zoologists and botanists from all parts of the world.

We didn’t see any wildlife in the Park, but on the outskirts of Odeceixe, we found a farmer’s field that contained ostriches, zebras, bison and water buffalo. It was a bizarre sight & no obvious explanation for it.

Upon arrival in Sagres we stopped at an Inter Marché supermarket for some essential toiletries & 10 litres of white wine. We also had an extremely cheap lunch in their cafe. It was populated by apparent gap year surfers and other poor people. After this pit stop, we continued on to Fortaleza de Sagres, which is a fort, lighthouse and church complex on the southwestern peninsula. It was €3 to enter so we didn’t bother. On the peninsula it was ridiculously windy & we very quickly made the decision that we would look to stay back in Odeceixe.

Jackie had researched and made her mind up of the hotel she wanted to stay in for the next 5 days. Unfortunately during the day, the price had gone up on Booking.com to a price I wasn’t comfortable in paying. The price didn’t change during the journey back to Odeceixe, so we ended touring the town and I managed to persuade Jackie to downgrade to a similar property, but exactly half the price, almost £200 cheaper!!!

Over a couple of our most expensive beers on this trip (€5 for a small bottle of locally crafted beer), we booked our cheaper accommodation, which is actually decent albeit slightly bijou. It has the added bonus of a proper balcony & a decent fridge, BUT we only have a small double bed.

We settled in to our new accommodation and Jackie had to grudgingly admit that this room was actually better than the place she wanted to book. I won’t mention it again………much.

We had a couple of white wines on our lovely balcony then headed out for a quick stroll before stopping in the highly rated Portuguese BBQ restaurant opposite our apartment . Despite having to put up with a precocious impatient 14 year old waiter, the food was superb. We started with a portion of garlic mushrooms, then Jackie had prawns in piri piri sauce, whilst I had grilled pork in pickles. I chose the cheapest bottle of red at €10 and quite frankly it was lovely. No one could ever accuse us of being wine snobs.

After dinner, we retired to our balcony for a glass of white wine from our 5 litre bladder that cost just €13.

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