WAGS 16.02.2022: Praia Grande e Comer Grande.
(Press Play for atmosphere)
Most expats in the Algarve when asked why they moved to Portugal are prompted to menti0n sunshine, friendly natives, cost of living or fleeing from Justice or family.
For me the only reason is the Beach - Best Escape Anyone Can Have !
Everything is better at the beach - even rain!. I like to have a side of beach with my morning coffee. If there is a Heaven, I'm pretty sure it has a beach attached to it. Since I arrived in Portugal, I have always lived with a view of the beach and it is this that lifts me when I head for the sun, sand and sea.
As John Masefield said :-
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
A And so it was that we gathered, in the forenoon at Villa Paradise in, Salgados, a fairly hefty stones throw from Praia Grande, or was it Praia de Salgados? There are no dividing lines nor signs, so I will just call it The Beach.
It was a rare occasion, as since my embargo on upwards travel and a penchant for latibulating, I have rarely appeared at the start of a WAGS Saunter, saving my energies for mastication.
However given the declared location for Rod's stroll, I failed to see how he could find anything other than minor undulations:
Meanwhile the Leaders Blog report has arrived, so here goes:-
Starter pic with an exotically coloured car as a backdrop.
Peter, Antje, Paul, Myriam, Yves, Geraldine, John, Maria, , Hazel, Chris, Rod
It was a cool but bright morning when John, Hazel & Geraldine, Maria, Chris & Antje, Yves & Peter, Paul & Myriam and Rod met at the recently revamped, and very French, Cafe Paradis in Salgados for coffee. Thus fuelled we headed off eastwards towards the Salgados lagoons.
Still Life with white and black specs!
We were immediately rewarded with splendid, if rather distant, views of countless flamingos, spoonbills, various waders many other varieties.
This bit of Salgados is probably fairly safe from developer predators.....at least one hopes so as there now so few areas where one can so easily see such treasures of nature so abundantly.
Not forgetting to play along the way.
Why such broad smiles?
and from the rear:-- I wonder who took this one!
We continued east along the boardwalk to the bridge and carpark where we turned down on to the beach .
It's a long way to Tipperary
Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere..
Did I start my thingummy whatsit?
The tide was low so there was plenty of firm wet sand as we headed back westwards. This beach under such various names as Praia Grande, Praia de Galé etc. is probably about the same length, in its entirety, as Meia Praia or Alvor, but straddles the border between Silves and Albufeira Concelhos. The nearer one gets to Armação de Pêra the more ominous the threat of developers becomes; indeed the western lagoon is but a shadow of the eastern one with a massive block of nearly completed flats only a stone's throw away and some ominous earth moving just to the north.
Our only climb! The completed flats are behind the dune!
Where the would be stream flows into the sea just to the east of Armaçâo de Pêra we turned inland along the edge of the lagoon...now almost devoid of any birdlife but a view of which apparently adds another half million to the price of the flats. At this point we paused for the walking wounded to decide whether they would head straight back or follow a longer loop round to the north further inland. In the event injuries were found not to be so severe, and the route not so challenging that the party remained complete. The whole of the Salgados flatlands were once a most important agricultural area; a couple of large ruined farmsteads, a number of old windmills and winnowing eiras are testimony to this.
View from the top
The land has now been taken over by the highly invasive species of cytisus multiflorus, more commonly known as white broom, spanish broom or indeed portuguese broom.
In any event the result, at this time of year is a billowing ocean of 2 plus metre high broom shrubs with laden with wave after wave of white blooms heaving gently in the wind and stretching almost as far as the eye can see. Surely a quite unique sight. So hypnotised were some indeed that they managed to get lost a mere couple of hundred metres from our goal!
Others are reputed to haunt the interiors of the ruined windmills............
....where they make their beds!
In any event our leader, evidently still smarting from his recent failures to keep the gourmet (or do I mean gourmand?) elements of the WAGS happy, had actually reserved a table for the assembled company. The impossibly gallic complications of the buffet menu required the intervention of our own resident chevalier but that achieved we enjoyed a really rather good lunch.
Veggy starters
Although a far from energetic walk it covered some of the more interesting and varied beach, flat and wetlands around...well worth doing from time to time.
DCB says:
Certainly worth a visit, especially in the spring before the beach gets infested with umbrellas. towels and potential Benfica players.
As I noted above, one of my favourite walks on a beach not only does it have a board walk, but there are many beautiful white pebbles at low tide which make wonderful plant plot decorations for Myriam.
I am now waiting for my progressive views on senior walking to be adopted by the WAGS and for beach walks to be the rule rather than the exception.
Also this walk provided many photographic opportunities, and in fact with John Yves, Myriam, Rod and myself contributing, selection to accompany the narrative was difficult. I find myself with a few good pix left over so I will add them after the stats for your edification. I am aware that most readers only scan through the pics to see if they are in them so it seems a worthwhile value-added extra. Go on - tell me I am wrong!!
Stats and Maps.
John's thingummywhatsit
My Huawei watch (you need to enlarge to full screen, and perhaps reduce the volume.)
Rod's Outdoor Active on Samsung Watch/Phone combo
And now the extra pics. If you would like to be credited for your own pics then please identify them in comments as they get mixed up in my saved file for this blog.
A picture is worth a Thousand Words
And as has become a habit, I will publish an appropriate piece (or two) of music which can be linked to the foregoing or to a fond memory from the past!
Today as I mentioned we will have a Tribute to the Praia de Salgados Nature Trail Board Walk, not as you may have been expecting, by The Drifters, but an more up to date and rare remix by the Rolling Stones featuring Aaron Neville in 2013.
We are all aging, but some of us age differently - Mick Jagger had just turned 70 when this show was filmed and Aaron Neville was 72.
And to one of my favourite romantic duets of all time, by a more spritely Aaron Neville some 20 years younger with a 43 year old Linda Ronstadt. I am not sure why this particular song gives me a 'frisson' (a psychophysiological response to rewarding auditory and/or visual stimuli that often induces a pleasurable or otherwise positively-valenced affective state and transient paresthesia (skin tingling or chills), sometimes along with piloerection (goose bumps) and mydriasis (pupil dilation), but it is definitely a piloerection!
It was, indeed, a very leisurely walk. The scenery was stunning. The air fresh with the mild fragrance from the broom blossoms. The choice of the rendition by Aaron and Linda was most suitable! Though it was sad to see many windmills left in ruins. Imagine the times when they were all functioning! It must have been a rich farmland with industrious people!! Nostalgia!
ReplyDeleteMaria wrote:- Hi to the bloggers, thank you for a interesting blog, nice views of the beach, amazing must say, I do appreciate the walks on the beach. They Are fantastic, thank you too the leaders. I cannot tell which one is nicer Meia Praia. Salgados, Praia grande,ou galé. Whatever the name, they’re both beautiful. Photographs all fantastic, food very good, the best of all the company thank you see you all next week. M
ReplyDeletePS. Sorry, to the bloggers I don’t know to send it another way.🥺
An excellent Blog by the one and only Blog Maestro himself. I encourage you all to treasure his skills and talents. Note especially the little atmospheric sound track of waves and seagulls which he inserted just after the opening photograph - truly, a touch of genius. And his typical modesty too; he did not mention that bit when he tripped and tumbled gracefully to the ground, nor did he presume to publish the photograph of the incident. I can of course add it to the Blog, if there is popular demand.
ReplyDeleteVery pleasurable stroll through the blissfull flowering bushes and trees. Thanks guys for letting me join you again 🙂
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul for a good compilation of the walk, the sound of the waves on the beach in the back ground was fantastic. Thanks to Rod for the choice of walk, it is not often we get to see so many different types of birds and the photographs of them were good quality. Thanks to all the contributors of photos.
ReplyDeleteJohn wrote "And his typical modesty too; he did not mention that bit when he tripped and tumbled gracefully to the ground, nor did he presume to publish the photograph of the incident."
ReplyDeleteI think this must be fake news! I merely sat down to tie a shoelace ".