November 21, 2024
We had talked about a boat excursion and today seemed like the perfect occasion…from our perch on the hill above the Albufeira Marina we could see the sea was flat and the skies cloudless, with a forecast for a high of 21C. We hustled down to the marina and booked with Algar Experience for a Dolphins & Benagil Caves trip which left at 10:30 so we had about 45 minutes to while away…
The tour will head east along the shoreline until it reaches Benagil Beach and Cave, allowing us to see many of the area features except that it would be from a water perspective…the boat, a catamaran is crewed by the Captain and the guide who quickly establishes that explanations will be offered in English and French…and away we went with a warning to only wander around the boat when instructed that is safe to do so, as for safety stuff like lifejacket location etc. not a word was spoken. Of interest was a marine biologist (actually from the Netherlands), she joins the tours 4/5 days a week and has been at it since May ….it was interesting to ply her with questions which she readily responded to. In the pic below the coastline and a fishing boat hauling octopus traps…an item featured on most menus in local restaurants…
The town of Armação de Pêra with a glorious stretch of sandy beach stretching for several kilometres followed by some of the caves where the rocky cliffs begin:
The area is a mix of imposing cliff faces with intermittent sandy beaches with various levels of access difficulty …one with easy car access is Praia de Nossa Senhora da Rocha on the west side is the promontory of Fort Nossa Senhora da Rocha, the Fort served to ward of pirates and the small chapel was dedicated to the safe return of fishers challenging the ocean …the site is best seen from the shore and the aerial pic is from the internet to lend context. As for the Submarine Rock, they played “Yellow Submarine” over the speakers, seemed a bit silly but the passengers liked it!
The star of the show was the Benagil Cave which we saw from the top of the cliffs a few days ago, very cool…
The second part of the tour was dedicated to searching for dolphins which the Captain found but unfortunately, they were not inclined to put on a performance, but pleasant to see the beautiful mammals in their environment nevertheless…
As we were motoring back we heard a weird sound from the engine and low and behold a small emergency….the boat’s propellers became entangled in nylon rope so we had to stop and sort this out …having encountered this before on our own boat we knew what came next…the Captain stripped down, dove in and checked it out, returned for a knife and resurfaced with an armful of nylon rope, quite efficient and we were on our way…a last cliff and cave stop…
…then a quick turn in front of Albufeira for some obligatory photos of the town …
…….and then back to the dock….a very pleasant outing!!