Photographic Journey Log

Driving and arriving in Portugal

Portugal was hard work on the GTR, plenty of cobbled roads and "cobbled together" roads, the lowered and stiffer suspension really caught these surfaces badly, driving conditions were made worse by Portuguese driving styles being that of hanging 1 metre off your tail and half a car width out in the middle of the road at any speed. I gave up trying to shake drivers with my tail light button...... they ignored it. The North of Portugal was far worse with more potholes and less tarmacadam, only as you neared Lisbon and other higher income areas did the Tarmac improve, along with it, the various vehicular rattles. I was glad to return to the relative sanctity of Spanish roads with my car and life in one piece.

Would you believe it, theyre an hour behind Spain, this was a shock to my biological time clock and an embarrassment when I woke ,my Hotelier at 7.30am for an 8.30am breakfast!

First Stop Viana de Castelo

Secure underground parking in Viana de Castelo, my GTR in good company

A nice small town just south of the border, noticably feral dogs and cats are accepted, there is a dog that lives in the square, the square is territorially owned by that dog!

iI checked the surf and found that there was none, the local road driving was scary so I hopped on the expensive Auto Via to Oporto and follow the tourist trail

Oporto Vista, the City port area and Tourist focus showing the Bridge, mouth of the river and port where the wines were unloaded after their treacherous route down from the vineyards higher up river many miles away. The Douro boats being somewhat designed like surf craft for quick control and maximum visibility

I arranged one of my nicest Pensione/Guest House stays to date (35 Euros)

I 've used this travel methodology to get sorted quick in new towns,

1) Locate a couple of recommended stays on my in-car satellite navigation system (detail them by "push-pin")

2) Drive into the centre of town

3) Park and note my cars location (by Push-Pin) then take a photo of the Sat Nav screen on my digital camera and set out on foot with that as my map!

I found a decent popular locals restaurant The Portuguese appear to prefer simply prepared natural foods, no fancy sauces etc but Very generous portions. You could easily find yourself with a whole fish on one plate, a plate of salad, a plate of boiled mixed vegetables and a plate of chips too. The Menus often have a choice of Half a portion. recommend - Restaurante Churrascarca Assador Tipico, Rua D. Manuel II 4050-342 Porto

The following evening I tried the Port Wine experience at a special bar in the town dedicated alone to tasting Port, the Solana Bar of Port Wine:

It was a fabulous place to try Port, I had an introductory selection of Three from White, through Late Bottled Vintage to 10 years aged.

The 10 years aged was so good that I couldn't resist ordering a 20 years aged which was unbelievable in aroma and taste, complex and so rich like a drug of some kind.

The Wine waiter, patient and involved in my education sneaked me out a small tasting of a 1965 port (for free) I guess a very expensive bottle when you consider its age, that was on another level again. By this time I was quite "cut"and toddled off home:

Surf in Oporto

There was still no significant swell and the pollution concerns put me off entry at the local beach

Lack of Surf pushed onto further sight-seeing, I went to see this Art Deco House and contemporary Art gallery

Some Contemporary art, I'll let you guess what it is:

I also went to the "Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis" the Oporto free art gallery which was quite good, I saw a great painitng of a girl in a tree by Pousao but I could not get a postcard or Photo. Can any find me on the Interweb "Rapariga deitada no tronco de uma arvore" Henrique Pousao 1883 ?

Proper Surf in Peniche (Mid- Portugal)

The Surf went from not enough to too much pretty quickly, the main beaches had a messy onshore North Westerly 6-10 foot swel

I found a smaller cross-shore wave and world renown SuperTubos, along with about 50 Bodyboarders!

SuperTubos wasin the 2-4 foot range, the bigger waves were pretty scary and very very powerful, very few stand up surfers were making the drop.

I managed to get my left index finger pinned back underneath my hand under may arm under my body with the severity of the jacking wave.

I also tried my Shorty wetsuit on this first Portugal surf, deciding that the locals were soft with ther full suits, I got a real shock the water is cold, like real cold!

It was the weekend and it seemed like all of Portugal was trying to get a wave at that beach after two sessions I could only claim a few closeout take-offs and no Tubes!!

Here is some more exciting footage, I aplogise for pictures of spongers!

VIDEO - SuperTubos BodyBoard Tube - 0.7Mb Windows Media File - click on image below

VIDEO - SuperTubos Standup Tube - 0.6Mb Windows Media File - click on image below

I checked out alot of Peniche beaches, its all sand dunes, dust and flys around there, the West facing beaches were big and onshore, the North facing beaches were big and onshore too. I got a surf late in the day when the onshores had dropped on this "ledgy" point break reef, the 7 foot outer sets kept your attention.

What are those Portuguese surfers doing? Its common place to see a 10 minute warm-up on the beach before every session and most of them do it!

Challenging Surf in Ericera (South - Portugal)

I travelled down to what is obviously the surf capital of Portugal, a much more rocky, cliff based seafront than Peniche and considerably more developed with many real estate projects probably owned by people in the relativley close Lisbon.

Every turn had a new surfing reef with its own distinct version of scary wave. I would drive from one to the next thinking, this looks nasty, must be Coxos or whatever only to find something even more challenging around the next headland.

Coxos

I finally got to Coxos, a hot rocky strewn moonscape and a very long ledge.

The surf was piling in with unpredictable 6-10 foot sets, it was busy with 15 people out, I did not enter the water.

The entry point was a leap off the middle ledges with certain duffing from rolling sets,the exit point was worse with a 7 knot rip off th einside ledge where failure to alight meant a half mile rip around the bay to the next miniature rock strewn ledge amongst boulders.

I wave it self did peel but in sections and the duck dives involved a 7 second hold-down and drift onto the ledge.

I ended up surf whats called a beginners beach at Ribera, that was an experience too with a 5 knot rip onto rocks close to the beach,

20 minutes after entry I made it out to a ledgy right hander that would fill-up and petre-out or crash down on you.

That experience spurred me on to find a smaller more manageable wave which was very difficult to do, I found a small but very shallow groyne based wave in the south port beach at Ericera.

There were a beach of locals and some Californians on it, the locals were annoyed at the hassle/crowds , an altercation with a stand up surf and boogie boarder resultet in a broken board and a fight on the beach.

I had a couple of waves but decided to get out, here's a video: 0.9Mb Windows Media File - click on image below

a Visit to Sintra, the "real" Disney of Spain - A fairytale Palace on top of a pinnacle with a moorish castle in surround

Sintra was directly on route between Ericera and Lisbon so I thought I'd have a look, the hours walk to the top justified some photography

The lower Palace placed inside the town

The Moorish Castle that overlooks the town and protects the higher Palace

Lower Palace and town when viewed from the Castle ramparts

The upper plalce on a pinnacle inside the Castle

Lisbon

I had hoped to get a better surf in Lisbon, it faces South, less swell and offshore but unfortunatley the Swell was dropping.

I saw this nice little point break close to Estoril, it was hot by mid-day maybe 30 Deg C so I calculated a quck session in my shorty on the 2 foot sets

It was shallow and on my first swing around to take off my left foot caught on some thing sharp, I'd been Urchined!

There are Sea urchins with many sharp spines on these reefs, I had not bothered with booties.

2 Hours later on the beach I had picked out 9 spines from under my skin, I missed one and ended up visiting Barcelona Hospital to have it removed.

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Grand Tour in a GTR