First week in Olhao on south coast. An amazing town fronting huge tidal lagoons with sand-bar beaches half an hour boat ride away. The distance and effort involved in reaching the beaches mean that they are pretty quiet - small clusters of people where the boats drop off but five minutes walk to blissful solitude. The sea is clear, turquoise over the sand. The seaward side is gently wavy, the lagoon side flat calm. Both are warm but not obscene, probably 20 degrees.
Week two and a new area - halfway down the west coast from Lisbon in the Alentejo. The coast here is more dramatic and wild - huge beaches, crashing waves, jagged black rocks and impressive tidal ranges. The water is cooler too, very similar to the UK at 18 degrees. There are no big towns along this coast and not much agriculture either so the sea is amazingly clean.
One of the beaches at Almograve
Rockpools at Almograve - sheltered from the waves and perfect for snorkelling or swimming
Quiet beach at Malhao
The sea can be a bit wild on this coast and with so many rocks and dangerous tides I kept my swims brief. Inland, there were some very special river swimming spots which allowed for longer and safer swims.
The Rio Mira at high and low tides. A vast tidal river with brackish water at this point, about 10k inland. The water seemed to flow alarmingly fast in the central channel but the edges were gentle enough. The banks were made of thick, black, oozing mud. While this was a bit odd underfoot it did help the water really warm up; in the evening when the rising tide ran over the mud heated by the days sun the water became almost bath-like.
Pego das Pias - Spring-fed natural pond up in the hills between St Luis and Odemira. A long and dusty walk ends in this spectacular swimming spot. The natural pond is huge and extends between sheer sheets of rock, narrowing to a mini canyon, I only explored half of it. The entrance to the pond is gentle and shallow. There were snakes swimming at the warm edges (in alarming shades of red, green and yellow - are water snakes poisonous??). The water was cooler than the sea but far from cold. Beautiful, clean, green-brown. Terrapins sunned themselves on the rocks, diving suddenly when startled.
A great place for a swimming obsessive to spend two weeks..
SW
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