The Walk commenced on the promenade of Praia da Luz at 8:30 in the morning and everybody arrived at cafe Lazuli on time for the walk to start as advertised.
It was an early start but the heat of the previous few days had convinced us that we needed to start early in order to avoid the later heat. It was however never too hot as it was very breezy and on the top of the cliffs quite windy so we were very lucky with the weather. A perfect day for walking in fact.
A group picture was taken of 11 of us who commenced with Roz going to join us later by driving to Burgau to meet us there. Geoff stood in fofr alan to take the startr photo and triued to walk with us, but a gammy knee meant he had to go back for a coffee with a promise to meet up in Luz.
The walk commenced along the promenade at Luz :
and turned right with the Fortaleza (now a restaurant ) on our left and the church on our right before we turned left again and continued along and out of Luz onto the cliffs.
It really is a very beautiful walk as it continues along the cliffs with the shimmering sea on our left .
We walked to the fishing village of Burgau some 5 1/2 km away from Luz where we met up with Roz and Geoff who had also gone there to meet us.
Burgau is another beautiful tourist village with its sandy beach. We passed through its narrow streets which still retains very much of the old Algarvian character not withstanding its growing popularity.
It was originally a fishing village and still has its boats although not so much fishing now takes place. Geoff decided another cup of coffee was in order....before driving on to Cabanas.
We continued up the paved road for a few hundred metres before rejoining the cliffs above Burgau....
Have we got to climb that?
Well, we did it...
.... and walked on to Praia das Cabanas....the Rambos first...
Follwed by the wimps...
The small and very pretty sandy beach there has a café/restaurant and also a few trees where we sheltered and had our lunch
Some of us took advantage of having a drink and went to the café.
I had a coffee but as the café only functions during the summer and in order to make a profit the charge of €4 a coffee was considerable, and shocked some of the the walkers who thought it was disproportionate.
We sang Happy Birthday to Tim, a mere 75 today...
Whilst the group had been quite dispersed on its walk to Praia das Cabanas due to the differing speeds and terrain on our return the walk splintered.
The walk was advertised as not hilly but there were clearly one or two hills to contend with which separated the slower and faster walkers.
Due to some people wishing to get back earlier 5 left earlier than the main group of 7.
I was part of the seven. Whilst I have been a member of the AWW group I have never known a situation where we ended up with 2 groups but I do believe it worked for everybody.
No doubt it’s a sign of the times where people take different views and rigidly hold to them so we are very much à la mode. Anyway I hope so.
Whilst we returned by the same way we came it was of course very different returning going east rather than west and seeing the views from the opposite direction.
On returning to Burgau Steve and Margaret took us down some steps which took us into the village which meant that we did not go onto the road into Burgau
Sue decided she had enough and went back with Geoff to meet us at Luz. and we now 6 of merry women and men continued.
My Wikilocs showed that we’re done less than 16 km but I’m not sure if that is correct.
Either way we arrived back at Lazuli happy and well.
I had wanted to go on to Boca do Rio but Tim had assured me that none of us were getting any younger and this was quite enough.
I think he was right and we all had had enough by the end.
I think the photographs show the beauty of this western coastline and I thank all those who came very much and I hope you enjoyed it.
Bruce...thanks to Tim & Geoff for photos
