May 28

I told John daily blogging was unteneble—not just for him, but for you too. For now, I will jump back in.

In the morning, we strolled along that lovely inland bay to a tunnel that led to the ocean.   Sao Martin do Porto’s quiet and elegant ambiance makes it John and my favorite place to date.  It has a perfect half-moon beach, the width of a soccer field.  Signs of its fishing village past still linger.  Over there is the king’s house.  We peer at the realtor ads in the windows. 

Buffett breakfast at the hotel.  This is a treat since the traditional breakfast is just bread or pastry and an espresso.  A ride out of town, uphill of course, and through the accustomed narrow stone streets.  We are heading to Nazare at last—our destination for several days now.  Once there, we rode around getting lost trying to find camping gas and a money changer. (No luck.)

Nazare is home to the world’s biggest waves.  We went up to the overlook which houses the Surfers Museum, where we learned about the deep trench off the coast that causes those giant waves.  Cool museum, not just featuring the legendary surfers, but the equally crazy jet skiers that tow and rescue them, the boards and board artists, and the videographers that capture those nearly 100 foot rides.  Sheer awesomeness.  The waves didn’t seem so terribly big on the day we visited but it was easy to imagine them since I’d seen plenty of surfer reels from here.

Below: View of the famous big wave beach at Nazare and Sally in the surfing museum on the bluff atop the beach (no big boys today).

Portugal is a hot, dry, windy, hilly country.  No wonder they have terrible wildfires here.  (Wisely, none of the homes are built of wood.)  There are forest plantations of pine and eucalyptus so far.  Both give off highly flammable resin vapors and are natural disinfectants.  Eucalyptus, being from Australia, forms biological deserts in regions it is nonnative.  We have not camped in a eucalypt forest, but we heard birds in the pines that I never knew existed (Merlin, who is from this continent, knows about Zitting cisticolas, serins, caffinches, firecrests, and the like). Otherwise, we have seen little sign of wildlife. But the wildflowers!  So beautiful and varied—easy to botanize from the saddle.  It must be peak.  Many familiar genera but I don’t use battery power to verify.  The reds, blues, and yellows party on the hillslopes.  I haven’t captured the full splendor on camera but if you’ve experienced the Columbia gorge in April, it’s that festive.

And the most common plant we’ve seen on the coast is an edible succulent called Sally-my-handsome (middle flower image).  !!