Van on the run: Dinosaurs, storks and snails....

30th September 2014

The beach that we have camped on is enormously long.......and this morning we decided that we would walk the length of it.

Golden sands, crashing waves and the most amazing rock formations.....

stripes and lines of rock, just like books on a shelf stacked up, squashed up hard against one another...

Some tumbling over and others completely straight.....and others looking like a dinosaur buried in the sand....

the colours and textures are totally awesome. Some of the rocks were strung out right into the sea ...looking just like railway tracks that reach to the bottom of the ocean!

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This one, with all the tiny barnacles and limpets, reminded me of a night sky...!!!![/caption]

On our return, we packed Bluebelle up and took to the road again...well, I say road...it was more of a dirt track...bumpy, dusty and steep! We're really not sure we should be dragging Bluebelle through all of this! I think that when we arrive home, climb out and shut the doors for the final time, Bluebelle will sigh a huge sigh of relief and then...crash...the wheels will collapse, the doors drop off and she will just crumple into a heap...and if that doesn't happen, it will cost us dearly to have her fixed up again!!!!

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Struggling up the hill....[/caption]

When we arrived in Portugal, we bought a book describing several walks that could be done in the Algarve. One of them, The Seven Hanging Valleys Trail, we did a few days ago..today we have picked another one which starts in a small village called Carrapatejra. The walk then takes you put to the coast at Praia de Amando........

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Looking back over Praia de Amando[/caption]

along the cliffs above the beach, and eventually turning back inland again towards the village. We were both pretty weary after our long beach walk this morning so this one just about finished us off...however, it was just so beautiful it kept us wanting more the whole way round.

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Shells and fossils captured at a moment in time....[/caption]

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Loving these Autumn colours...[/caption]

The highlight for us both was to see this pair of storks nesting on the cliffs high above the crashing waves.....

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A pair of nest storks...[/caption]

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Can you spot them here?...[/caption]

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Our last views of the sea before turning inland again...[/caption]

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Snails everywhere....[/caption]

Poor Bluebelle...we put her through yet more dirt track driving and to end the day...a steep, stoney, wiggly road leading to a grassy area right by the beach...the scary this we realised as we headed down this track was that our brakes are now next to useless.....I was just praying that BT would turn the corners, no matter what, or we'd end up in the sea!!!
In contrast to everything we have seen so far, this beach is very rocky, but still just as beautiful.

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