Farewell Algarve, Farewell Portugal

It was our last day in Portugal, we were close to the border and keen to move on. Would the guide, would Julie have one last laugh?

To be fair, we had had some really excellent walks over the last few days. The areas had been beautifully isolated, remote, no tourism whatsoever and yet they were only an hour from the Algarve coast. Places where a Bosch washing machine had yet to arrive and chickens were slaughtered the old fashioned way, not plastic wrapped. But these were not really the walks from the guide, these were formal PR routes, marked out by the municipality, sanctioned by Europe. These were proper walks that just so happened to be plagiarised by Julie, there to make up the numbers, her so called 40 walks was in reality barely 25.

But the last in the book, the closest to the border, was all hers. We were optimistic, it was the last, surely there had been a learning curve, this one must be better.

From Casas Baixas meandering roads had taken us through more, remote rolling landscape. Back southwards, until eventually, once again glimpses of the coast. We headed to Tavira. We had been away three nights. Dora had coped very well, but we could do with an aire, fully equipped; water, electricity and Wi-Fi. We also need to stock up with food. The Lidl was busy and new. The concept differed slightly, and empty square of space at the front of the store, small, square, maybe 8m x 8m would, in the future, be a coffee shop. We mused over what it would be like, maybe an Ikea restaurant.

The aire was large and commercial, and €9. Even at this time of year it was packed. Motorhomes littered the streets of the compound, electricity cables snaking away to the connection boxes. Some had extended their habitation zones, erecting wind breaks tables and chairs, defensible spaces surrounding their mobile homes, that looked like they would be immobile for the next few weeks or months.

The aire had every conceivable facility, toilets, showers, washing up areas, disposal, water points, laundry and a large swimming pool, which was closed for the season.

‘We are quite busy.’ we were told, ‘better find a place first’. ‘Where is the best Wi-Fi place?’ we asked. It was outside the laundry. We snuck in opposite it, the closest we could get. Perfect. The laundry was not being used as a laundry, only as an online cafe. Maybe later the bandwidth would clear. It did, a pleasant night, blogging and posting and re-filling. The next morning we were off.

It started well, although the ‘well’ wasn’t mentioned.

But the walk through the pine woods was pleasant enough.

Pine becomes eucalyptus.

Which eventually opens up to a stream.

And in the distance a village, and a river. Which we walk along before……

And this is where the text gets really confusing, and eventually we end up crossing it.

We shouldn’t have, the map does not show two rivers joining, a confluence, and the description is the usual vague amalgamation of words. We are totally lost. We see houses, maybe villages, perhaps hamlets, but none of it makes sense. We traipse across a field to a road. The road rises, hopefully height will illuminated our predicament. A ridge with views is mentioned. Is it that in the distance, is that the hamlet mentioned? The road must take us somewhere.

We eventually see a junction, a sign. We drop into a named village, Malhada do Peres. We should have been here an hour ago. What have we done, where should we have been? Maybe that autopsy will have to wait for Google Earth!

We no longer have the time to complete the walk, yet again. We have been here before! Luckily a shorter version is described.

We climb out of the village, ‘views to the left and right’ there are none, maybe the hills have shifted, what was once view is now cutting, bank, tree. It seems in generally the right direction, hopefully. We will ever leave the Algarve, or be stuck in some ‘Groundhog day’ walk, courtesy of Julie ‘bloody’ Statham.

Many junctions, few described. We press on, hopefully towards Dora.

This looks hopeful. The woods are opening up. And a paved road. But the guide says, Julie says turn left.

This makes no sense at all. Left must take us away from the parking area, away from Dora. It cannot be left.

We ignore the guide, we turn right, and after a few hundred metres we reach Dora.

So the last instruction, of the last walk is wrong, incorrect, by 180 degrees, will take you in the opposite direction you need to go.

It will get you lost.

No surprise there then!

The red line indicates where we went.

The yellow line, where we should have gone, note we would never have found Dora again.

9km 3 hours

Have we been fair to Julie?

Maybe just a little too harsh.

This is only the Algarve, does it really matter if a few tourists get a little lost, they will turn up. The police haven’t got a lot to do, except maybe chase after lost children.

Probably a lot has changed on the Algarve. Towns have expanded, unpaved roads have been paved and tracks flattered to become unpaved roads.

But there is still no excuse for the sloppy writing and the numerous mistakes. We have added our review to Amazon. We didn’t read those already posted, but they tell of similar stories.

We will be sending our guide back to the publisher for a refund.

And a desperate plea to Ms. Julie Statham, please don’t write any more.

Regards,

SM and GDR