0428 Faro to Ourique

20^th Feb 2016

The Algarve fades, and we head into the peaceful countryside

The sad campsite in Faro didn’t look a lot better in the morning, although at least all the facilities and their wifi worked !  We packed up and went for  drive down the beach – Very pleasant, although a bit windy and cold at this time. 

Several people were beach fishing, and a few others were surfing.  The rest were well rugged up and just enjoying a morning walk down the sandy beach. We then headed out of Faro, planning to wander along the beaches of the Algarve coastline.

In the middle of a roundabout just up the road there are some interesting modern statues – All of people sitting or standing, and staring up into the sky – At planes – busy Faro airport is just nearby !  The kind of roundabout art that puts a smile on your face as you pass !

From Faro, we had no choice but to go inland – There are no roads along the coast due to wetlands and river inlets ! Up though Almancil and on to Albufeira, where we started to find some problems with the Algarve ! The coast is very rugged and rocky along here, which makes for some beautiful little secluded beaches, but you have to park up on the side of the hill and walk down.  Lovely if you want to go and lie on the beach for the day, but not much good if you want to drive along the coast to see the beach or have a picnic !

The coastline is also endless apartments, hotels, gaudy night clubs and restaurants – And most of the restaurants seem to be offering Fish & Chips or Roast Beef and Mash !   There are quite a lot of snowbirds (winter tourists) from N Europe here, most seem to be British, which makes for lots of white legs and people wearing socks with sandals !!  Don’t get me wrong – For people wanting to escape the N Europe winter, it is probably a perfect spot – Get an apartment, walk down to the beach in the sunshine , go and sit in a (rather plasticky) coffee shop for lunch, and then go out for a meal in the evening. But driving along the coastline is really frustrating as you are basically just weaving through housing estates.  Alternatively you can go a bit north and drive on the Autoroute if you want to just go from A to B, but that isn’t my idea of fun either. 

Then there are the vast motorhome parks – I can’t call them camping sites, because they have minimal facilities, are cheap, and are basically just enormous fenced off gravel areas with no trees where the mostly French an German motorhomes all line up like soldiers on parade, with 2 feet in between them.  Then the people sit out on their chairs in their 6 square feet of space wearing their speedos and get a sun tan, or jump on their bicycles / scooters / quad bikes (which they all have on the back of their motorhomes) and ride into town or to the beach.  

But while the Algarve really is scenically beautiful, it was not really our cup of tea at this time – so we headed north into the countryside instead !  And had a lovely and very peaceful afternoon.  First of all we headed to Silves, and coming down the hill we found a little town in the valley, and up on the hill opposite was a great big red stone Moorish Fort – Silves Castle.  Luckily there was a lay-by right there, so we pulled over and had our lunch sitting in the warmth overlooking this magnificent castle.  After lunch we tootled into town and found our way up to the castle.

The castle is first mentioned in documents in the 10^th C, when Silves was referred to as being the best town in the Algarve. Under the Moors, the castle was described as a place of grandeur, and “of shining brightness”.  But that all came to an end in 1189 when Sancho I arrived with an army of Portuguese and Crusaders in June, and 30,000 Moors retreated to the citadel where they survived through the hot summer until September, when their water ran out and they opened negotiations.  The Crusaders didn’t want to negotiate, so it ended up a bit of a bloodbath.  Obviously the castle that remains is not as it was then, but it is still very impressive with large water storage facilities and remains of internal buildings.

As usual in this part of the world, there are always storks everywhere.  Soaring in the skies above, nesting in some unbelievable places on top of tree trunks, pylons, or buildings.  Right now they all have chicks in the nests,  so there is lots going on in stork-world !  There were some down below the castle and it was interesting to be able to see into the nests from above, for a change.

Also looking down from the castle we could see a small “Motorhome site” as mentioned before – We thought it funny that they had located it right next door to the town cemetery !!  We then went down around a church (Silves Sé), built on the site of the original Grande Mosque, which was unfortunately closed because it apparently contains the tombs of Bishops and Crusaders who died when taking Silves back from the Moors.  I was also interested to see street lights that were on a kind of hinge – In the old days the person lighting the street lamp could lower the lamp itself with a lever, light the lamp, then raise it back up to its original position.  Very clever ! 

On the way out of town we went looking for a coffee shop, but the rest of the village was not as interesting or “quaint” as some of those we had enjoyed yesterday, so we headed off into the hills. We did find a man beside the road selling fruit, and bought some enormous (and delicious) strawberries, some bananas, and some tangerines from him.  The tangerines here at the moment are so good and so cheap – A great big bag for 2 Euro, and $3.20.  We just eat them all the toime as we are driving along.   I was still not feeling too good with my cold, so it was a bit of a struggle on the very windy roads we found through the forests up in the Serra de Monchique, though Monchique, and on up to Garvao. As a result not a lot of pics, but it was nice to just be out and away from the crowds for a while.  And most of the villages up there were tiny, and as the locals watched us drive through, we got the feeling they don’t get too many people wandering around here !

Finally, to find a place to camp we had to drop a little bit south of Ourique, where we found a gorgeous little camp site with only about 5 campers in there – No motorhomes, all caravans or tents !  Much more our style !   Ironically we find ourselves only about 95 kms from Faro, where we started this morning – If we had come on the Autoroute we could have been here in an hour !  But then, that is not my style !!  This camp site is run by a Dutchman, has heated floors in the showers, everything is spotless, and no one is too close to anyone else.  Perfecto………….  

Pics are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0428FaroToOurique?authkey=Gv1sRgCNewtZeF6JzhugE