Tag: surfing

Portugal & Souther Spain trip- Thursday 15th May 2025- Day trip to the west coast.

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Our usual slow start to the day was greeted with cloudy skies and lots of cooler wind. A definite day for heading inland and exploring…..it was a Jackson mystery tour. John kindly kept me to slightly larger roads having given me the heebie-jeebies a couple of days ago. We set off towards Lagos before turning towards Lisbon. We then took the road to Aljezur a rather quaint village nestled either side of the river.

John then directed me down a much less used road…there were more filled potholes than actual road…

I did wonder where we were off t. We passed a couple of cars coming the other way, a small shrine, a couple of crofts and a few dilapidated buildings before coming to some mudflats. I hesitantly drove on, and on, and on….after all the road was wide enough to do a 12 point turn!!! So I wasn’t going to have to reverse for kms! We caught up with a car in front who was also hesitantly driving. Suddenly we cane on to a newish piece of two lane tar road…wow…the bone rattling stopped. About a km later we turned a corner and wow…wow…wow….the most magnificent bay of pristine white sand…..and a very well layer out carpark and a cafe with viewing deck…..my goodness what a surprise. There was a surf school giving beginners lessons at the far end of the bay and at the end of the where the cafe sat was some black spiky lava like rock….it reminded us of “Hell” on Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean.

It was still very windy and because I needed the toilet we decided to have a Coke Zero in the cafe.

On leaving the cafe we noticed the beautiful wild flowers and the information board.

We retraced our tracks down the bone shaker road back on to the main road and headed towards Sagres. John told me to look out for a right turn to some unpronounceable place in about 11 kms time. Sure enough the sign to Carrapateira appeared. This was a much more touristic place and we followed the sign to “ Pontal”. We passed several car parks and continued to climb up a narrow road. At the top lots of cars were parked. There was a magnificent view of a busy beach below with kite surfing amongst many of the activities in offer. We sat in the car, out of the wind and enjoyed our picnic.

We decided not to take the raised walkway down as coming back looked like activities made for the young and fit!!! Having enjoyed our sightseeing we took the road on to Vila Do Bispo. Enjoying the variety of landscapes.

We then took the road back to Luz which we had travelled previously on our return from Sagres.
Prior to setting off in the morning we had quickly gone to the supermarket to buy some fillet steak…..after about 8 days of eating only fish we decided a treat was needed….2 delicious large fillet steaks for €13.60.. We had these with hot new potatoes, beetroot and salad….followed by Portuguese custard tarts……perfect…..in fact a perfect ending to a perfect day.

Day 6- Wednesday 15th May 2024-Par to Newquay- Cornish Staycation.

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John went to the station at 7.30 this morning, although we can see the trains from the front room and bedroom of the house, he wanted to take some photo’s on the station platform. So Dad and I had a slow start, made the picnic and picked him up at 11.00am. We headed off and through St Austell then turning right across what we call the downs, stopping briefly at Quintrell Downs station for a photo….

……before carrying on to Newquay. Newquay is a town on the north coast of Cornwall. The town is known for Sandy beaches at both Fistral and Watergate Bay. The waves from the Atlantic Ocean create strong surf. The town is bordered by several miles of Sandy beaches which make it one of the UK’s favourite holiday destinations.


The Fistral Bay is perhaps the best known surfing beach in the UK. As a consequence of this, in the summer it’s probably the most crowded! In fact at the height of the holiday season you might have to share a wave with another 300 people, but it’s worth it because Fistral can provide some class waves and holds swells up to 8ft. We didn’t stop at Fistral Bay today because we couldn’t find a car park where we could sit in the car and enjoy watching the surfers. It was very windy again today and there were some quite heavy downpours.


We eventually found a nice car park overlooking Watergate Bay…we counted 25 surfers along the bay. A leisurely picnic lunch was taken in the warm car, whilst watching the surfers ride the peaks, drop off, snake and carve, twist and turn. I always love watching them, knowing the excitement and adrenaline rush they will be having….it’s a long time since I had that feeling during my windsurfing years, but it’s one you never forget and you feel it in your gut every-time you watch others succeeding….I could watch surfers all day.

After lunch we drove further up the coast in the direction of Padstow. We went through some lovely seaside villages/towns.

We stopped for a view of the Bedruthan Steps. It is a National Trust car park with a Cafe, shop and toilets. We had decided not to do the walk to see the steps as Dad had previously done it with my sister, but it is a nice view point and we did need to use the toilet. We were told we would still have to pay for parking…John headed off to get a ticket..£2.50 for 1 hour, £5 for 2 hours and £9 for the day…..Johns reaction was ‘How Much!!’. The Lady said “IT IS National Trust’ !!!! ….No wonder there was plenty of room in the car park. To appease John I bought him a tub of rum & raisin ice cream……When the lady told me the price I just managed to refrain from saying I only wanted a couple of scoops not the whole container….and they were certainly quite small scoops…..talk about rip-off Britain…75p for a wee!!!! End of Rant !!

We continued up the coast a little further before heading back across the Cornish peninsula. After zigzagging through the Cornish lanes, with John saying the mirror at his side was brushing the bank of wildflowers, then he looked and saw it was the same on my side!!!….

……we made it back to Par. A quick stop at the St Blazey CO-OP to replenish the milk and fresh fruit supplies was required before we shut the rainy grey sky out for the night….. would you credit it no sooner had we got back the sun came out…Sod’s law !!!
We are eating in tonight, Fish pie, asparagus, spinach and ginger cake with custard….

Tomorrow we hope for a better day weather wise so that we can go to Looe on the train…we love the quaint fishing village and the fish market will provide us with a nice supper…..but it’s all dependant on the weather because it’s quite a long walk from the station to the main town centre.