WAGS 18 09 23024: A Salgados Saunter

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 An uncharacteristically brief Leader´s report, so straight to it, padded out with photos and the occasional comment.  Over to Rod:_

Another walk that didn't go quite right....well, an object lesson in not to rely just on website information. 


A pleasant enough morning, not too hot and John & Hazel, Maria, Antje, Hilke, Yves, Lesley, Myriam and Rod turned up for coffee at the Villa Paradis Bar/ Restaurant only to find it  abandoned by the French, under major obras, certainly no coffee and certainly no lunch. So back in the cars and we moved round to the parking area near Carlos' Restaurant and nearest to the new bridge over to Armação de Pera where lunch was now planned. 


From where we parked, we eventually started walking back eastwards toward the wetlands. 


The Alcantarilha marshes were very dry and Yves disappeared into the reeds to photograph the dryness.





The Praia Grande flatlands are a real disgrace...rubbish everywhere and gypsy encampment mess. If the Cameras can't keep the place clean there will be no excuse to stop development.


The messy encampment.




At the wetlands, we were entertained by a stilt which kept walking among us, seemingly unconcerned.

Double-jointed knees allow its legs to bend forward

No worries
Lesley explained that it was distracting us humans so as to protect its nearby nest.

Yves got this shot

and also this - a glossy ibis, if I am not wrong



Back to Rod´s report.

Back at the central Boardwalk parking area we opted to go straight down to the beach and walk eastwards. With the new bridge access from A de P the beach at the western end is noticeably busier.



Limbering up

De-sanding

 We repaired back to the Carlos Beach Bar Boardwalk access....contemplating,  without much enthusiasm, having lunch there.  At which  point our leader received an emergency domestic call...the odd job man was about to run out of paint. Thus meant the Leader abandoning any ideas of his own lunch  and having to pay a hasty visit to Leroy Merlin. He was however keen to cross the Rubicon on the new bridge....never before having achieved this! ...so he accompanied them to the far side before returning. By this time we had lost Yves and Hilke who had anyway declined lunch, so from here the sagas of lunch must necessarily be left to the Blogger.



The Track and the Statistics




The Lunch

Pity the poor old Blogger. Dumped in the proverbial by both the Leader and Yves. One guy at the mercy of five ladies all demanding where to go for lunch, as if I knew. So off we went in to Armação de Pera , virtually unknown territory to me. Rod had mentioned an establishment called Estrela do Mar -good for fish- but it sounded expensive. I thought of a sandwich bar called Café 0.60 Centimos where we had once had coffee, and that met with guarded approval on economic grounds, but when we got there it was very closed down, so Estrala do Mar it was willy-nilly. 



Not at all bad, after all, as it turned out. Antje got us a table for six before the lunch time rush.


What did we get?


A rather prosaic bife do frango


Some very acceptable sardines,if not very numerous


Just right calamari



And mussels; although listed as one of the starters, the quantity seemed to satisfy Hazel and Antje.


Perhaps not quite up to the standard of the Scottish mussels recently enjoyed at The Spanish Butcher in Edinburgh.


The only trouble was that after lunch we then had to walk a kilometre or more back along the boardwalk to our cars.



Estrela do Mar could possibly be a good starting place in the future.



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