#79 At the southwesternmost point of Europe

February 23, 2022: Sagres

J. When we were still in Spain, we wondered what the camper clientele would be like in Portugal. After all, you usually hear about retirees who spend their winters in Spain, but rarely that they go to Portugal. In contrast, you often hear about younger people going to Portugal.

However, in Portugal we have also seen huge luxury motorhomes the size of a coach, in which mostly older people travel (but not as often). But on the parking lot where we stayed overnight in Lagos, there were also many converted trucks and even a converted German city bus. Otherwise, there were motorhomes of all ages and sizes, and a lot of converted vans. We noticed particularly strikingly in Sagres that we are mainly surrounded by other younger travelers.

Sagres is popular with surfers because it is located at the southwesternmost point of Portugal and therefore has beaches in different directions, so that there are different difficulty levels for surfing on the different beaches in all wind and wave conditions. The main season is also in summer, but because of the mild winters, many of Europe's surfers can also be found here at this time of year. In the parking lot in Sagres, we were surrounded by German converted vans with surfboards next to them and wetsuits hanging on the wing mirrors to dry. The Algarve seems to be particularly popular with Germans. Since we don't have surfboards on the roof and don't have a dog with us, we seem to be outsiders here somehow. But in contrast to the German retirees in southern Spain, at least we fit in with the others here in terms of age.

Sagres is a rather small, sleepy town full of surf schools and surf cafes. The fort of Sagres is located on a promontory that juts out into the sea and stands on very high cliffs. There are good views of the coast and the many surfers lying in the sea in front of the beaches, waiting for good waves. On the rugged promontory there are also some blowholes. They look like inconspicuous holes in the ground, but they are directly connected to the sea 30 meters below. When a wave washes water against the rocks or into a cave at sea level, the air escapes through the hole to the outside. In the hole, a loud noise and roar is created, which appears somewhat threatening and gets closer and closer, until suddenly a strong wind blows our hair out of our face and the invisible power in the sky disappears. I can well imagine that authors of fantasy novels find inspiration here.

Only 7 km from Sagres is the southwesternmost point in Europe. There is a lighthouse and some snack bars here. However, the bratwurst stand "The Last Bratwurst before America" was closed. From here we could look along the wide cliffs in a northerly direction. From now on, we will only go north.

A little further north, at Praia do Castelejo, we were able to enjoy this impressive cliff coast in particular. The viewpoint Cordoama is about 100 meters above sea level, on steep cliffs. The view from the cliff over the beach, along the coast and out to sea simply blew us away. It was particularly fascinating to watch the huge waves as they approached the beach and broke majestically and violently at the same time. From our vantage point, we could not only watch the waves, but also listen to them. The sometimes 100 meter long standing waves broke with a very loud bang and roar that sounded a little like an explosion in a mine.

Day 131 - Total tour 8,539 km

---- Subscribe ----

If you would like to subscribe to our blog, you can either sign up with Vakantio and click on subscribe, or send us a message and we will put you in our own distribution list. We also welcome feedback, of course!

Email: querfeld2@gmail.com