Walking with Toby on the beach at Vila Cha yesterday evening, as I’m always on the lookout for a good place to have a coffee I’d clocked a likely-looking café just off the boardwalk overlooking the beach. So, after having done the necessary to close down the campervan – unhook from the electrics, empty the loo cassette, take down all the bedding and close the pop-top, empty the grey water, take down the stick-on blinds, the list goes on - that was the first port of call, to start the day with a coffee and a delicious pastel de nata.
A run for Toby on the beach, and then we were ready to head off, for our final day to the village near Sintra where my son and family live. When planning this trip, I’d mainly concentrated on the route - where to stop each night, how far I could go each day - without allowing for much tourism. But one of the reasons I’d chosen that particular campsite at Vila Cha was its proximity to Porto: a short taxi ride and then the metro would have taken us there. And I’d thought that with only about 250km to cover that day, I could fit in a visit to the lovely city. But when I realised it would have taken at least an hour or so each way, and then time to look around , I decided to leave it for another trip. It’s a city worthy of more time, so maybe a city break one day without Toby: to take a dog on the metro they have to be less than 20kg – were they going to weigh him?!
Driving through the suburbs of Porto was the only traffic congestion I’d come across on the trip so far, all the highways having been blissfully quiet. But around Porto, mega-tonne lorries get right up your backside as they try to encourage you into the inner lane – as if George wasn’t going fast enough.
As we drove south through the Douro towards Coimbra, the landscape changed from forested hills to vast stretches of vineyards. The weather was exceptionally hot, up in the low 30s; and as we were doing so well with time, after a quick consultation with the map I decided to head to the coast road and check out Nazaré. The only thing I knew about Nazaré was that it had some of the highest waves in the world that people had actually managed to surf. You Tube has a breath-taking video of a guy making the Guinness Book of Records for surfing there on the highest wave ever, at 86 ft.
At first glance, Nazaré looks like your typical European beach with a sandy shore and, for much of the year, relatively placid waters. And when conditions are calm offshore, you can actually have a very normal beach day at Nazaré. But just off the coast, the ocean floor is anything but normal. It's home to the Nazaré Canyon, an underwater trench that is 140 miles long and up to 16,000 feet deep. And it's this canyon that turns normal waves into monsters, as the waves rush in unimpeded.
But for the Nazaré Canyon to perform its magic, you need the winds from Atlantic winter storms. And although the Big Wave season in Nazaré is between October and March, this early October day was like a summer’s day, with the sea a mill-pond and no chance of any wave at all.
So I settled for a pistachio ice-cream and a short walk on the busy beach before heading back up the steep hill and once more onto the coast road south.
As I said, I hadn’t really studied the map for places of touristic interest en route, being more intent on reaching my destination in one piece; so the sudden glimpse of the mediaeval walled town of Obidos, high on a hillside overlooking the Atlantic, took me by surprise. With its castle towering above the town’s surrounding fortified walls, and the terracotta rooves of typical whitewashed houses clustered inside, it was a tempting sight. But the turning flashed past me and I’d missed my chance. To be added to the list to return to, maybe even later on this trip, as it’s only an hour from Lisbon. One of Portugal’s best-preserved walled towns, it’s small but full of history, having existed here since Roman times. The castle was built by the Moors in the 8th century; the area was reconquered by the first King of Portugal and Obidos was so beloved by the royal family that in the 12thcentury the King gave the title of the town to the Queen.
I was now on the final stretch to be with my family, in their beautiful home overlooking the Atlantic, in a small village near Sintra. So with the accelerator firmly down, I sped along the twisty, climbing road above the sea to reach the cobbled streets of their village – and a big hug from my three grandchildren. “I’ve driven 1000 km to see you!” I exclaimed. They were not remotely impressed. But I was.
Absolutely amazing trip you are on I love reading you blogs and can’t wait for the next episode. As you know I’m a keen surfer Nazaré has always been on my list of places to surf maybe not in the big wave session tho. Your blogs are always so well written is like I’m there on the trip with you, safe travels and I hope Toby is ok.
Lewis