Nazaré

We also visited the town of Nazaré which is one of the most popular beach resorts on the ‘silver coast’. It is located on the Atlantic coast and it has long sandy beaches, considered by some to be among the best in Portugal. The town consists of three neighbourhoods: Praia, which is along the beach, Sítio, an old village, on top of a cliff and Pederneira, another old village on a hilltop. When we arrived it was raining so we went to a local Portuguese restaurant for a traditional seafood lunch.

Nazaré is the venue for surfing championships. It is also a popular surfing destination because of the high breaking waves that form due to the presence of the underwater Nazaré Canyon. The canyon increases and converges the incoming ocean swell which, in conjunction with the local water current, dramatically enlarges wave heights.

Due to the height of the waves, numerous surfing records have been set at Nazaré. In November 2011, surfer Garrett McNamara surfed a then record-breaking giant wave measuring 23.8 metres. In November 2017 Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Kodak broke the previous record by surfing a wave of 24.4 metre. Then in October 2020, German surfer Sebastian Steudtner broke this record, riding a wave which measured 26.2 metre. On 18 January 2018 Brazilian professional surfer Márcio Freire died whilst practicing tow-in surfing.

When we walked down to the point it was very windy and quite difficult to walk. The waves were only small, about 4 metres but the ocean was still churning and looked fierce. I wouldn’t want to swim in it.Read more