Falesia & 4 X 4 rescue

Sat 24^th

Cold overnight but the sun soon warmed up the van as it popped over the horizon. After brekkie we cycled into Vilamoura marina to a favourite café of ours for coffee and cake. The slices of cake were huge but we soon munched them. On the way back to the van we explored the tracks parallel to the cycle route. We followed a series of rough tracks alongside the beach and up and down some really nice little tracks. The descent back down to the van was steep and technical, Tina stopped but I continued through the trees to see what the tracks were like. Excellent was the answer, they twisted and turned up and down through the trees. There was a right little maze of wide tracks and narrow ones. 

I came across perhaps the ultimate wild camping toilet sitting on its own amongst the bushes! I cycled back along the cliff tops, which are very precarious in many places with huge cracks very evident.

free camping spot

if you go down to the woods today..............

After lunch sitting in the warm sunshine we lazed a bit before going for a walk along the cliffs. As we approached a gnarly downhill we spotted an old Range Rover stuck in a ditch on the other side of the fence, wheels spinning with no grip. The local had been out for a play on the tracks and had come a cropper. We helped him collect some rocks to put under the wheels and with me standing on the rear bumper and bouncing on the corner with no grip he edged it out of the ditch! His English was very good and he told me that it is ok to drive on any of these tracks and on many more similar ones all over the Algarve / Portugal. In England and Wales if you were to do this in a 4x4 or off road motorbike the Ramblers Association and Police would be after you like a shot!  Off roaders have very restricted access to a diminishing number of legal areas and trails in the UK compared to Portugal.  If we ever return I think it will have to be with an off road bike in tow!

amazing sand cliffs