Algarve - Day 4

We walked from the apartment today, intending to turn route 11 from the walking book into a circular walk. First we went down through Tavira then along past orange groves to the next place, a smaller resort and fishing village called Santa Luzia.

There were a bunch of locals playing boules on a pitch by the beach.

From there we went further along the coast to a pedestrian bridge across the lagoon to the beach/island.

At the other side was a little railway track with a path beside it, we took the path. It went out to the Atlantic beach on the other side of the barrier island.

There were a few shops and cafes there, we had coffee and a pastry, accompanied by many sparrows.

There was an anchor graveyard there, from the old fishing boats that used to be here.

We then walked along the huge empty sandy beach towards Tavira. It was about 4.5km.

At the other end of the barrier island were a few more bars and restaurants, but everywhere was suspiciously very quiet.

Our plan was to catch a boat back across to Tavira marina, but when we got to the pier we discovered why everything was so quiet - it was closed for renovations!

This meant we had to walk all the way back by our outward route, about 26km in all.

At the edge of the inner lagoon we noticed there were loads of crabs burrowing in the sand.

When we got back to town we had a drink at a bar by the river. Later for dinner we had chilli con carne.