Sagres - Sunshine, shadows, spectacular sea side, and surfing.

Thursday 4/4/13

Well it's about time. We woke up this morning to bright sunshine and a vivid blue sky. It was time to go for a ride around Sagres, after a leisurely breakfast by the pool of course.

Before we headed out on the road we decided to have a quick look in a shop across the road that caught our eye on the way into town yesterday. We left our helmets on the bike and off we went. About thirty seconds after we walked into the shop, it bucketed down rain. Where did that come from? It poured. After about ten minutes it eased up enough for us to make a run for the nearby supermarket and do a little supply shopping. It's amazing what you can find...

 A lolly packet on the shelf. Um, really?

After further inspection, we found it was a bone,

we just couldn't see the other end.

Five litres of red wine, for less than two euros.

Most importantly I found my beloved Kinder Pinguis. I have a lot of trouble finding these, in fact this was our third visit to this supermarket and I hadn't been able to find them on our previous visits. Needless to say I cleared the shelf of stock. Yum.

Back to the hotel and I realised I'd left my helmet hanging on the mirror on the bike. This of course meant that the opening was facing upwards, in the rain. Yes, there was about a cup of water in my helmet, and all the interior foam was soaking wet. Hmm.

The weather had eased up a little, but it definitely wasn't riding weather, so I grabbed my camera and decided to walk down to the beach. That makes sense doesn't it. Don't put on all the waterproof clothing and ride, just go for a walk in the rain with normal pants and shirt. Sometimes I worry myself. About ten minutes into my walk I remembered how much my leg was hurting, and I should be resting it. I think I need a guardian to look after me.

Anyway, here are a few things I found on my walk...

Typical Portuguese dog. He was sleeping in the middle of the road, and the cars were driving around him.

A paid camping ground? In Portugal? Are you joking?

Just park and camp where you feel like it.

Check out that sky.

This hotel was right on the beach. The one behind overlooked the beach. There is no shortage of good hotels in Portugal.

Now this is what I call a beach house.

Step out of the front door onto the sand.

Heading in for a surf.

The waves weren't much, but the guys made the most of them.

The rain put an end to today's plans, so tomorrow we'll have a quick look around Sagres before we head north. We have to cover about three hundred and fifty kilometres tomorrow, and we'll be making a few stops along the way, so we'll need to make a start reasonably early.

Yeah, like that's going to happen.

Goodbye Faro, we have a lot more of Portugal waiting.

Wednesday 3/4/13

Today we made a very very leisurely start, taking our time to pack, wash our bedding and towels, and give our room and the bathroom a clean before we left Moto Clube Faro.


It was a bit sad as we've met some great people during our time here and our planned two night stop turned into a three week holiday. 

I think most of all we'll miss Farense and his greetings when we walked in the door of the club...and his daily visit to our room. I have to admit I did get a little teary when I gave Farense his good bye cuddle. He really is an uber cool dog.

After our last good byes we rolled out of the parking area and pointed our bike towards Sagres, the most south western part of Europe. 

On the way we stopped off at Albufeira. It's a pretty cool spot that used to be a fishing village but now days is a tourist trap. We weakened and had lunch here overlooking the beach.

Not a bad view to enjoy over lunch.

Along the coast in the other direction.

It became very obvious that Albufeira is a popular holiday destination for people from the UK. It sounded very strange to hear a lot of people speaking English. 

We also saw a couple of things neither of us had ever seen or heard of before...

Like a lift, or elevator, to take you down to the beach!

Really?

If you don't like lifts, you can take the escalator.

Once we were down on the beach we found a sand sculptor. I would like to have seen the finished project.

There was a fresh water stream flowing out to the sea. The whole area was a great playground...

...for birds...

...little kids...

...and big kids.

The stream flowed out of a large cave.

Back on the bike we made tracks towards Sagres. It was a nice ride through rolling, green hills dotted with white houses, with the ocean in the background. There are some very pretty places in Portugal.

We rolled into Sagres and found it was located on top of a BIG cliff and looks like an interesting place. We have to cover about 350 km to our next planned stop so I think we'll stay another night here so we can have a good look around tomorrow.

We found our hotel and were pleasantly surprised. I'd booked on line and it looked OK, but with a room rate of only twenty eight Aussie dollars, including breakfast, I wasn't expecting much. What a surprise. We had a large, spotlessly clean room, with a kitchen. Brilliant. The Hotel Don Tenorio is a real bargain.

Our room overlooked the pool area.

We hit the supermarket for a quick shop before going across the road for dinner. It's almost as cheap to eat out as it is to cook here, so we're making the most of it. We ordered a dish of seafood rice that serves two. We expected a rice dish with some seafood, but got a huge pot of seafood with a little bit of rice. There were crabs, crabs, and more crabs, with some mussels and prawns thrown in for good measure.

 Just a small piece of crab... half the body!

...and a little claw.

After a very satisfying feed we hit our hotel for a kip and discovered our final bonus in our room. The TV had a channel that broadcast movies, in English. Cool. Of course we stayed up and watched a movie.

Tomorrow we'll see what we can find in Sagres, apart from the beer by the same name.

Thank you Moto Clube Faro.

Tuesday 2/4/13.

Tomorrow we will tear ourselves away from Moto Clube Faro and move on.

We want to say a HUGE thank you to the club. The people there are so friendly and generous, and the club is like nothing I've experienced before. You guys have, and are, something very special.

A big thank you to...

Ze Amaro.

President.

Braza Tavares.

Secretary

Catarina Antao. Our Guardian Angel

and regular translator while we were there.

Luis, Cabe Bill, and Leia.

These guys keep us well fed and plied us with drinks.

Also thank you to all the members we met for making our stay enjoyable, with special mentions to Carlos, Gaspar, Rui, and Marco. Everyone we met from the club made our visit to Faro  an exceptional and memorable one.

You guys are the best.

Last of all thank you to Farense. You made it really feel like home for us. You're a good mate and we'll miss you.



Will we be back? Well, let's just say that I think we need to experience the Moto Clube Faro hospitality at the Concentracao Internacional de Motos at least once in our lives.

So, maybe...

Cheers and thanks once again, Simon and Suzanne, 

The Aussies.

BELOW IS THE ABOVE BLOG TRANSLATED IN GOOGLE TRANSLATE. I HOPE IT MAKES SENSE.

Obrigado Moto Clube Faro.

Amanhã vamos afastar-nos do Moto Clube de Faro e seguir em frente.

Queremos dizer um enorme obrigado ao clube. As pessoas de lá são tão amigável e generoso, eo clube é como nada que eu tenha experimentado antes. Vocês têm, e são, algo muito especial.

Um grande obrigado a ...

 

Zé Amaro.

Presidente.

 

Braza Tavares.

secretário

 

Catarina Antão. Nosso Anjo da Guarda

e tradutor regular, enquanto estávamos lá.

Esses caras nos manter bem alimentado e manejado us com bebidas.

Luis, Cabe Bill e Leia.

Também agradecer a todos os membros que se reuniram para fazer a estadia agradável, com uma menção especial para Carlos, Gaspar, Rui e Marco. Todos nós conhecemos do clube a visita a Faro um excepcional e memorável.

Vocês são os melhores.

Último de tudo obrigado a Farense. Você fez isso realmente se sinta em casa para nós. Você é um bom companheiro e nós vamos sentir sua falta.



Será que vamos voltar? Bem, vamos apenas dizer que eu acho que nós precisamos experimentar o Moto Clube Faro hospitalidade na Concentração Internacional de Motos, pelo menos uma vez em nossas vidas.

Então, talvez ...

Felicidades e obrigado mais uma vez, Simon e Suzanne, 

os australianos.

We now have a deadline to meet in Barcelona, so we'll have to leave Faro.

Monday 1/4/13

Wow, it's April already. How did that happen?

At last we woke up to blue skies and sunshine this morning. I rushed downstairs and put last night's load of washing out in the sun. Back upstairs I started sorting out our gear and getting ready to pack everything up for a fast escape.

Not long after that it clouded over and started to rain...again. It was just light rain, then the sky went dark grey. Very uninviting and it started getting heavier. It was supposed to be bright sunshine all day long today. Looks like it's another night in Faro.

I jumped on the lap top and got involved in a couple of April Fool's pranks, then I got "got" by a friend at home. Well done Chelsey, you got me good.

We had lunch downstairs and I then found out that the World Super Bike Championships are on in Aragon, Spain next weekend. There's an Aussie team competing in the World Super Sport Championships with Mitchell Carr racing the Aark Racing Triumph Daytona 675R. Aragon is 1,000 kilometres away and Suzanne has said she'll stay here if I want to go. A two thousand kilometre ride, with half the weight gone off the bike. I'm very tempted.

Mitch at work on the Triumph Daytona 675R

OK, plan B. After checking the web, the WSB is at Aragon in two weeks time, not next weekend. So plan B is...we can go there via our very full Portuguese itinerary...and, I've just booked tickets to see "The Immortal", a Cirque du Soleil show inspired by Michael Jackson. That's on in Barcelona on Wednesday night after the WSB. Now we HAVE to leave Faro. We've got thirteen days to be in Barcelona.

More details on The Immortal here:

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/michael-jackson-tour/default.aspx

On our walk back from today's supermarket shop we met the woman who feeds the stray cats across the road. She was putting out a mountain of food for them. It turns that she feeds cats in three different areas with, I'm guessing, leftover food she gets from shops. She also takes the female cats to be sterilised to try and control the problem. There are some good people out there.

Back at the club we went down for a pre dinner drink and were accosted by Ines, who wanted her face painted. Then she wanted to paint Suzanne again. Three hours later we returned upstairs...very hungry.

Ines is ten years old and she managed this as her first body painting, without any instruction.

We could communicate with Ines by using Google Translate.

What a great idea.

Farense copped a paint job from Suzanne as well...

He didn't look too worried.

Tomorrow? Well, I am now no longer going to say we are leaving Faro tomorrow. I have resigned myself to the fact that we will probably spend the rest of our lives here.

Rain, rain, go away. Go away from Faro, Portugal at least.

Sunday 31/3/13

I woke up feeling a little worse for wear today. Last night was the biggest, loudest, longest party at the club since we've been here. We were in bed early, but the fun continued downstairs until just after four am. I know because I could hear it. I did consider going down a few times, but then thought the better of it. It would just get messy, or at least I would. The music was great and the "shout" bell was rung at least eight times. When the bell gets rung, whoever rings it shouts the bar a crate of beer. Thinking about it now I kind of wish I'd gone down. Eight free beers is nothing to be sneezed at. Oh well.

Looking outside it was still overcast and wet so our intended ride out east was put on hold. Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze it in before we head north.

Do you know we chose the wettest, coldest winter in forty years to tour Europe on a motorcycle? I remember early in the trip I'd say to Suzanne that we weren't seeing many other bikes on the road. We should have got a hint when people looked at us strangely and said "It's summer in Australia now isn't it?" We can't complain though, we've actually been very fortunate with the weather, and it's still a brilliant experience.

The moto swap meet was a bit disappointing. I was hoping to find a showroom condition Macal or Famel for about two hundred dollars, but no such luck. (More like two thousand euros plus...if one was available.) There were lots of bits and bobs but nothing we needed.

Not a Famel in sight.

Farense popped up to say good morning, and stayed for a little while. I think he expected an Easter egg, but chocolate is poisonous to dogs so that was never going to happen.

Farense likes Suzanne's bed.

As the day progressed the rain got heavier, and heavier, to the point where we'd say it was bucketing down. The forecast was for a mainly sunny day but we didn't see the sun all day. It's good to know that weather forecasters get it wrong all over the world, not just at home.

We went downstairs for dinner and saw the news on TV. It was reporting flooding in the middle of Portugal and showed roads under water! That's not good.

We racked up the pool balls again, and I won three two again. That's twice in a row I've beaten Suzanne. I think I'll retire now, before she gets her form back.

We'd still like to leave Faro tomorrow, but if this weather keeps up we might have to visit a real estate agent here and buy a house.

Worse things could happen...

Does the sun ever shine in Faro?

Saturday 30/3/13

Yay! Sunshine. We can dry our washing. Once it's dry we can wash the clothes we are wearing and have a complete set of clean clothes. I know it doesn't sound like much, but on this trip it's a rare occurence, and a very nice one. So tomorrow we can go for a ride, then on Monday morning first thing we can wash our bedding and towels...then hit the road.

So it's now after three o'clock and nothing is dry yet. It really is a conspiracy I tell you. It's been overcast all day.

Late in the afternoon we went shopping for dinner. On the way to the supermarket we found a lot of stray cats living in a vacant block across the road. When buying our food we included a box of cat biscuits for the strays. When we got back to the strays there were little piles of cat biscuits everywhere. Obviously someone is looking after them.

The feline ring leader.

Yum! Thank you.

I'd like to take this one home.

While we were in the supermarket we decided to buy Catarina, Leia, Luis, and Bill who all work at the club an Easter egg each. They work hard and have looked after us very well, so we though it was only fair. Do you know we couldn't find a chocolate Easter egg anywhere. Chocolate eggs mustn't be the go over here. We settled on a couple of Ferrero Rocher chocolate rabbits for the girls, and small boxes of chocolates for the guys. I hope they like them.

Tomorrow morning there is a swap meet type thing happening here. Yup, lots of motorcycle stuff for sale. I think I might have to give Suzanne my wallet before I go down for a look.

After that, if the weather isn't too bad, we'll do a day run west to Lagos, Albufeira, and Sagres, with lunch in Sagres. It's only a couple of hundred kilometres each way so it shouldn't be a problem. When we get back we'll finish our chores and be ready to head north on Monday morning.

It will be sad to see Faro in the mirrors.

Easter in Faro, Portugal

Friday 29/3/13

Happy Easter everyone.

It's a conspiracy against us I'm sure. There wasn't a spot of sunshine today, and it was cold with no wind. Not what you'd call ideal drying weather for wet clothes.

We bludged around the club today and did a little bit of preparation for our departure. After ten months I'm still refining the packing, and trying to get rid of stuff we don't need. You would think I'd have it sorted by now wouldn't you? Being a hoarder has it's downfalls. On a positive note, I found a space blanket that we "could" have used when we were stuck in the snow in Morocco. Suzanne didn't look that impressed. We now have another parcel to post home.

On a sour note, I bought some Australian flag stickers over with me to put on the bike and they were OK, but faded badly after a few months. I ordered some more from Australia. The description said "vinyl" stickers. OK, for all the sticker manufacturers out there, vinyl means plastic, not paper with a thin laminate of plastic on top. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get the left over paper and glue off clear motorcycle screens without scratching them? Not happy.

Tonight's dinner at the club was a delectable pork dish with chips and salad. The guys here at the club do such a great job. We ate alone because Frank and Lisa bailed on us again. I think they are getting old. (Love you guys.)

Later I was working on the blog when Farense decided he would like to help me.

I appreciated Farense's help, but he was typing in Portuguese.

Suzanne toddled off to bed and I stayed for another drink. Then I heard "So you're the infamous Aussie" in an genuine Australian accent. Paulo introduced himself. He grew up in Sydney and now works all over the place but is based in Portugal. We enjoyed a few beers and reminisced about the Castrol 6 Hour, Easter bike races at Bathurst, old bikes, and old racers. It was a good way to spend the night, and ignited a few foggy memories from a distant time. Am I really that old?

We're nearly ready to go but the wet weather may delay our departure from Faro. If I'm going riding in the mountains, I want to enjoy the mountain roads, and if it's raining, or the roads are wet, then it won't be much fun. I'd rather hold off for some good weather. The forecast says partly sunny Sunday, with bright sunshine on Monday. Monday might be the go. We'll see.