Our own company and the final visit from friends

The next week was somewhat quiet. On the Tuesday we went into Lagos and bought some spices from the Asian grocery store. We decided to walk back along the cliffs past the lighthouse. We had last walked this route four years earlier and, as we were to discover, things had changed since then. Much of the route was now a boardwalk. We assume this is due to the volume of walkers from nearby hotels causing erosion of the cliff paths but that, together with the fact that a high proportion of the walk is on tarmac means that, despite some fine cliff formations, it is not one of our favourite walks.

We also visited the shopping centre in Portimao to stock up on essentials and we revisited the delightful  walk from Salima  through  scrub and woodland with emerging spring flowers to the secluded beach at Figueira.

The weather was so warm that I went for a dip in the sea whilst Scruffbag enjoyed relaxing on the beach.

Our final visitors were our good friends Sue and Mally. The weather was glorious and we walked to Lagos on their first day with us. Other trips included a visit to Sagres, where we walked around the fifteenth century fort and watched the waves breaking backwards from blowholes.

We revisited Alvor, where I finally got to see a bluethroat, which, unlike the whimbrel and the linnet, evaded capture on camera.

This time we also saw the emerging yellow broomrape, a parasitic plant whose roots attach to those of other plants.

                                    

Friday proved to be a very warm day so we packed our swimming things, took the bus to Salema and once again undertook the lovely walk to Figueira for a swim on the secluded beach. The waves and the undertow were very much stronger than they had been on our last visit so swimming proved too dangerous, but much fun was had jumping in the waves and a friendly dog chose to attach itself to us for most of our stay until a group of young women with bags of crisps arrived to tempt it away.

After a meal in Lagos and a Saturday trip to Lagos market, Sunday found us on our own for our last week in Luz. This was to be a lazy week, enjoying the weather and a few walks. On Tuesday we were invited for a fondue night with cheese brought from Switzerland on board a boat in Lagos marina with the Swiss couple we had met in Sao Miguel in the Azores.