Jan 2nd
we packed up and said goodbye to Aid &
Tim then did a quick shop in nearby Lidls. Next stop was Monchique 22km inland.
The road was very good once out of the urban sprawl of Portimao. We arrived at
the outskirts of Monchique and parked up. It was very different from the
relatively neat towns down on the coast. There was a certain amount of “decay”.
It looked a poorer community at first glance. The streets were narrow and
cobbled, we walked around and back down to the main square. Yet again we heard
lots of Brit voices at the cafes, there are certainly lots of British people
here on holiday and living here.
narrow streets in Monchique
We then drove up through the eucalyptus
trees to Foia the highest point in the Algarve at 904m. it was a very easy and
scenic drive and we soon plopped out of the trees and up to the top which was
festooned with communication towers and antenna. However our phone signals were
poor and our mifi could only get a 2G signal despite being surrounded by
communications hardware!
west coast visible
lots of rock piles - a local trend
still had poor mifi signal
It was a popular spotand we could see why, the
views were stunning for 360 degrees. We could see the Algarve coast stretched
out below us right out to Cabo de St. Vicente the most southwesterly place in
Portugal and Europe. The west coast was very clearly visible as were several
wind farms. Wonderful.
We
parked up for the night after we moved slots to avoid being over shadowed by a
huge Concorde motorhome that arrived. You have to think about where to park at
this time of year to maximize the sunshine you get. Very often we use our compass to determine
where to park, sad but true. The sunset
was spectacular and the lights of the towns below us were soon twinkling.
sunset over the coast
Cooh. Foia looks like Jodrel Bank, but with a (nice) view. The Geology is also very interesting - why that mountain range? Something must have caused the uplift. . . . Wikipedia has this (edited):
ReplyDeleteThe South Portuguese Zone (SPZ) is an exotic terrane coming from a different continent to the more northern parts of the Iberian Plate. Prior to 380 Ma the SPZ was part of the Laurasia and attached next to what later became the Grand Banks (USA/Canada). This continent was actually to the north of Iberia, which in turn was part of the European Hunic Terrane (EHT). At 380 Ma SPZ impacted the EHT. At about 320 Ma, the SPZ again headed south sliding past the west side of the Ossa Morena Zone.
The South Portuguese Zone now forms a thin triangle on the south end of Portugal. Only rocks from the Upper Devonian to Carboniferous are found here. The Late Devonian is represented by phyllite and quartzite beds with graded bedding. Volcanic rocks from Tournaisian and Lower Visean contain manganese, zinc and pyrite ores. This is known as the Iberian Pyrite Belt. This is the remains of **seafloor hydrothermal vents**.
Mines in the pyrite belt area include Neves-Corvo mine in Portugal, Rio Tinto which has been mined for 2000 years.