South.....with a heatwave in prospect...and it wasn't wrong.....with home being forecast as around the same temperature as Southern Portugal it may have seemed like it was pointless going....though you cant beat getting away from all the stress of being an intelligent Monkey with his family (see a few post below where I introduce the others)….and of course, the olds and the young'un....
Anyway, two and half hours away was the delights of the Algarve....here I am....the olds think its amusing sticking me on a cactus...I went with the general humour of it, as I do with all humorous situations they think they can put me in....little do they know....
….prick....
The first week was spent at a 300 year old Olive Mill, where they crushed the olives to extract the oil and send it many miles away...
….swim time....and I might take my jumper off...its snazzy and new...
...out for a stroll near the house....
Lighthouse....situated near a thing called...Go Ape...where people climb all over safe and secure ropes and ladders and obstacles....where as I had to take the Ape insult....still I did show them how it was done....
Another town….another cactus up me chuff....a funny place....we headed to the castle which gave us a view of....another castle....though that one over there seems more Moorish that the traditional one we went to on this hill....different times and histories....
It was places like this castle that had these big pots of, no doubt, olives and olive oil imported from the surrounding groves....
It had a fine exhibition of all the excruciating things humans have, over the years, had a go at doing to each other...depending on who is in control...or which religion is usually top dog at the time...as to who got it in the ear....or...in this case...
….in the neck...
Please....take a seat....no cushion required...being strapped to this for a minute might make you see the other persons point of view....
This is a good one....tie them to the wheel....light a fire underneath and keep turning them....roasted...
I will ask this only once...and then I will say youre guilty anyway....she looks like trouble....so do something unspeakable to her anyway....what a pecualiar lot humans are....still....you've done a fair amount of killing off animals and ruining the planet, so as history goes its all coming together to show youre a right bunch of dingbats most of the time....
Back to something else...a view....
….and that Moorish castle over the way again...
So it was time to go to the beach.....we walked there....and caught a little train on the ay back....mostly cos the olds didn't want to walk back....lazy...so I went with them on the train, just to keep them company....
When you go to some Roman ruins....you have to get your picture taken with the top geezer of the day from back then....
Nice mosaic...though shoddy workmanship really, couple of thousand years old and its falling apart...
….and this is where you would have put your things on the way in to the baths....no locks...nothing safe....
Balanced by some water....the olds, no doubt, hoping for the ultimate oh look the silly ferker has fallen in photo...
They seem amused by these little things...Mr Belchior was obviously a rumblingly big man around town some time...
Man....nor Monkey....can not live on orange alone....Dad stole these from the neighbouring garden...he said not to tell anyone....so im keeping quiet....
Top of the world...well....hill....from which was a fine view...
The second week was spent inland....the Alentejo….which is the Portuguese version of the Steppe....rolling plains of cereal growing country....which means....birds that like to hide in the ceral and love dry areas....
Little Bustard
Great Bustard
Off to another castle....and this guy was the guy that owned it...
….it had a fine tower from which there were fine views....an I reckon from here you had time for breakfast, lunch and dinner before your enemy turned up for a fight if you saw them coming...
Talking of lunch....pizza....a rare excursion away from the usual local cuisine of black pork...
I get taken to all the best places.....an old copper mine.....where if you get in to that water....
….youll do yourself a right bad time.....acidic as you like...and oddly coloured brown ish….anyway….it hasn't been occupied for some time now...usual human story, get as much as you can as quick as you can and who cares about tomorrow.....
Heres somewhere that isn't ruined....Mertola….we stayed over nigh in a lovely hotel with this rather fabulous view of the town just the other side of the river....
….off to the vier….after a kayaking session for a couple of hours....this is as close as it got to a waterfall....though it was spectacular....
Hot day....hot beach...I sat on the cooler....nice....well...me arse thought it was nice...
….and the beach in question was this lagoon....which was not very deep and lovely and warm to get in to....
…..two weeks of hot weather....lovely....cant wait for the next outing.....
