The bed was so comfortable in Cavaleira last night. The kind that your body lets out a contented hum all night. So nice. I woke up early and wrote in bed, my thumbs happily pounding the glass screen of my iPhone as I enjoyed the dawning of the day, Sally snoozing soundly beside me. I wrote until 8:00am, our designated time to rise. I woke her up, then snuck downstairs to the bathroom. I used my throne time to add photos to my blog and didn’t make it back up to the room until 8:20am. Sally was still asleep. We had hoped to be walking by 9:00am, about 2 hours later than normal, but now we would be a bit later. It was not really a big deal because today was another short day, about 8 miles.
Again, the spacious apartment felt cold once out of the bedroom where we had the heater going. We had hot tea, Muesli and Yogurt for breakfast. Not boiling and frying eggs saved us some prep time.
We were out the door and headed back to the beach trail (or should I say bluff trail as it spends all its time up on the bluffs above the beach and expect for the first day, no time traversing the beach). Every town except for Porto Covo and the one we are heading to today are set back from the beach some distance, from as little as one mile to as much as three or four. The end of each day is walking to the town on beach access roads and the beginning of each day is walking another beach access road back to the ocean.
We were greeted by a lighthouse at the bluffs, our second in as many days. Judging by the roped off trails and numerous boardwalks this place must really be busy in the high season.
Today, the trail spent less time on the edge of the bluffs where ocean and ragged coastline views are constant. It moved inland just a hundred yards or so, sometimes more, depending on the terrain so that the views were lost except for those occasions when the trail returns to an outlook.
The winds were blowing off shore again, although they were not a diurnal offshore breeze. This was a frontal wind, brought on by regional weather. The surf was less vigorous today, still beautiful to watch, but not as towering.
On one of the outlooks we saw a stork nest complete with stork. The rib of rock it sat on made it approachable, so I wandered out toward it, taking pictures as I went until the hesitant stork decided I was too close and flew off. I was videoing at the time and filmed his flight.
After the stork, we turned inland and dropped down a set of stairs to anoher one of those super small, protected little harbors for fishing boats. On the other side was a restaurant at the top of the ramp emitting wonderful smells and for a moment we were tempted. We resisted the siren call of fried, delectable food and continued on another couple hundred yards to a picnic table where we had rolls, cheese, bananas potato chips and a soda. From here it was a two mile walk on paved highway, then a quick jog back to the coast on trail for some magnificent bluff and sea views, then into town, Zambujeira, right on the coast.
The huge, and vacant, town square is on a bluff overlooking the ocean. It must be hopping during the summer season. A church sits on the square.
We wandered town for a few minutes, checking out shops (mostly shuttered for the winter), then worked our way to the Hakuna Matata Hostel for the night, arriving at the outer door precisely at three. The owner arrived a minute later and let us in.
He registered us, then showed us around the kitchen and took us upstairs to our room, one floor up.
Again, a spacious affair with a balcony big enough for a table and two chairs, a sitting area, and a bathroom.
We dropped our packs, rested for 30 minutes, then headed out to explore the town more and do our shopping chores; something for dinner, tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch. We ended up back at the main square and succumbed to the glass paneled restaurant with a view. Sally had a shrimp salad and I had vegetable soup (it looked like grass soup) and French fries.
To the supermarket for tomorrow’s supplies. Sally bought another bottle of wine with plans to share it with whoever else walked into the hostel. Olga from Puerto Rico was the lucky recipient of Sally’s good nature. I FaceTimed the Caldwells and worked on my Spanish on Duo Lingo while Sally chatted downstairs in the common area.
The room had a heat pump heater mounted on the wall. I had cranked it to 25°C (77°F) when we got in. Right near the heater got warm but over by the bed remained somewhat cool. An hour later I cranked it to 29°c (84°F). The room still was coolish. In Almograve I watched a house being built. All buildings here are constructed the same. A frame of poured concrete beams and pillars is made first. There are four rebar sticking out of the pillars, so I assume the concrete is reinforced. Then the spaces between the pillars and beams are filled with hollow red bricks. Stucco is applied to both inside and outside of the bricks. Zero insulation. I was feeling the effect of this no insulation feature in our room.
With the earthquake in Turkey/Siria I began seriously wondering about the earthquake resistance of these houses built of ceramics. Each night as I lay in bed falling asleep I wonder what would happen to the building I am in if an earthquake occurred. Not enough to deprive me of sleep, but still, I do wonder.
Lighthouse just outside town
The scenery goes on
Long. Straight. No coastline.
Stork on his/her nest
Stairs down to the fishing cove
More beaches, bluffs and surf. Still Beautiful
Square in Zambujeira
Chuck relaxes in hostel
Typical construction everywhere in Portugal and beyond. No wood. All ceramic. What would happen in an earthquake?
With this being a fairly square building and having a good amount of concrete columns and beams spanning in between the masonry, the concrete could have some capability to transfer the earthquake loading down to the foundation. The masonry, without grout or reinforcing, would topple down like legos once the concrete frame starts swaying. So in the end, maybe not a total collapse like what you may have seen from the buildings in Turkey, but you definitely wouldn’t want to be walking around that building once the bricks start flying.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kreed! I have been sleeping in buildings constructed like that one and it does give me a moment of concern. Ceramic houses? Scary.
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