29/06/18 – 01/07/18 Falésia & Benagil
Leaving Estoi, we were starting to miss being on or close to a beach, so our next stop (Thanks to searchforsites) would be on Falesia beach midway between Faro and Portimão.
We had read about a couple of Moho sites in the town, but thought we would chance the free overnight stop directly next to the beach. We passed both sites on the drive in and soon afterwards the road changed from tarmac, to dirt track….roads in Portugal are pretty terrible but this was extra bumpy and dusty but we decided to persevere anyway. So, about a mile or so later and having a few fillings rattled out in the process, we arrived at the overnight stop on a section of the beach called Praia dos Tomates. (Perhaps because of the colour of the cliffs facing it).
The carpark is now under private ownership, so we paid our €2.50 for the rest of the day and half expected we would get moved on at 19:30. There was only one other Moho on the land the other side of the carpark, so feeling unsettled, we stayed in the van for much of the afternoon. Both of us talked of home and how Marley was struggling when it was too hot. Was this us starting to have doubts about our choice of lifestyle? The more we talked we realised if we did go home, we would only start missing being away….The grass is always greener…….Anyway we both agreed it was a temporary low, a bit home homesickness probably brought on by waiting to be moved on at the end of the day.
19:30 came and went and so did the carpark owner who didnt even look over at the 4 Moho’s now parked up, and with that, so did any feeling of homesickness.
There are some good clifftop walks along the beach, so we took a walk into Vilamoura which was about a mile or so to the east, half expecting a pretty Portuguese village or town, we were both disappointed to find that it was largely an expensive marina surrounded with resorts and a gold course. there may well have been an historic part, but we didnt find it.
The second evening, feeling more comfortable with our surroundings and when the lifeguards had left for the day, we braved it on the beach with Marley. He was so excited to be back on the sand, chasing his ball and dodging the waves as they hit the shoreline – I dont think he’ll ever be brave enough to run straight into the sea to cool off. Instead, we now pick him up, take him out and let him swim back to the shore. He seems to like that 🙂
We left the following morning having spent a couple of relaxing days on the beach, feeling like we had our Moho-Mojo back, passing the carpark owner at the barrier on the way out – he didnt ask us for any more money…bonus!
Benigal
By chance we had spotted sign promoting cave tours and it listed Benigal as one of the places, so we decided to stop here on our way to Portimão (a 45 min drive).
Arriving mid-afternoon, it was far too hot to take Marley with us, so we took it in turns to have a look around, so I headed off first down a very steep road on foot to Benigal beach. The beach itself was quite small and pretty enough, it had a couple of small but very busy restaurants (it was a Sunday afternoon after all) but it was definitely one of those beaches that look better from above as you can appreciate the colour change of the sea as it gets more shallow.
Disappointingly, the majority of caves were only accessible by a boat tour and as they were sold out for the day and I didnt fancy paddle-boarding around solo , I headed up to the clifftop to follow the coast around and view what I could from there.
I wasnt disappointed, as some of the bays were up there with the prettiest we had seen on our trip – its just a shame we weren’t all out together to appreciate them. ‘The Money shot’ shown on the promotional photos was only accessible from the water, so we were left with appreciating it from the photograph but we were both mightily impressed with what we had both seen on our walks.
