The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Portugal

We arrived in Lagos in southern Portugal after a 4 hour bus ride from Lisbon. The bus run by EVA was spotless, comfortable and fast. It was a beautiful day and we arrived to a 35 degree sunny day. To get to our hostel we had to walk for a few hundred metres through the cobbled streets of Lagos which are lined with cafes, restaurants, clothes and souvenir shops. On our first afternoon we headed down the main walking street from our hotel to a restaurant for a late lunch where for under $5 each we had beautiful meals of lamb chops and piri piri chicken before heading to the famous beaches by the cliffs and basked in the sunlight with the hundreds who had flocked to the beach, before going in for a swim. Unfortunately, despite the weather, the water was about 16 degrees!

After an afternoon rest we headed out to find some dinner and ended up a bit pub/bar/restaurant after being talked into a meal there by one of the staff who was Australian, and had another huge $5 meal before heading downstairs to another bar to have some 3 euro cocktails (about $4 AUD each) where we met a nice couple from the UK. We ended up staying there for a few hour and had a few drinks and organised to meet up with the couple from the UK the following night.

Day two in Lagos and we had planned to head to the beach/horse riding/wakeboarding but we were unfortunately a bit hung over and tired from all the travelling, so we had a relaxing day and booked a horse riding trip for Bec the following day and I made some inquiries about Wakeboarding which we had seen advertised. We booked Bec on an all day trail ride 45 minutes from Lagos including lunch and transport for about $100.

Day three and Bec headed of for her horse ride, and I walked towards the eastern beach to organise some wakebording, but unfortunately the swell had picked up and it was not good enough conditions to head out. I spent most of the day at the beach swimming and laying around until a girl got thrown from her jetski a few hundred metres from shore and was too shaken to continue with her family, who kindly let me use if for about 15 minutes after swimming out to help! Due to the size of the swell it was an excellent day for jetskiing!

Bec arrived back at about 6pm exhausted from a long days ride, and we headed to another restaurant where we had $10 steaks before having an early night.

Day four and I headed back over to the eastern beach to get some wakeboarding in. The wind was a little strong on this day so after meeting the beach, we headed further east into an area called the lagoon, which is like a massive area similar to Whiting beach in Yamba, but about 10 times bigger, and ideal for water sports. The boat we used was an inflatable zodiac with a 100 hp Yamaha engine on it, so it had plenty of pull for a morning of Wakeboarding.

I was the only person booked in for Wakeboarding, so only three of us headed down in the boat (which was a great ride as we used the swell as jumps for the zodiac on the 10 minute ride to the lagoon). For $50 i had booked a 15 minute lesson followed by a 15 minute free ride session (and for those who Wakeboard you will know this feels like forever!) but after 10 minutes I was ready for a rest and the boat driver happily swapped with me to have a go on this amazing day. We spent perhaps an hour and a half swapping riders before heading back west where they dropped me off an a wharf right near our hotel. Definitely worth the $50 so I booked in for some more boarding the next morning.

Day five and we we both very sore. Myself from Wakeboarding and Bec from horse riding, but we headed back to the beach (about a 3km walk) and got on a different boat to do some Wakeboarding. This boat was another zodiac but had a 190 HP engine on it and had amazing power! Unfortunately the ocean was a bit choppy, and coupled with how sore I was, it was a bit of a disappointing after the previous day. When it came to Bec's turn to slalom ski, we decided it was too rough and changed her booking from 15 minutes skiing to 15 minutes Para-sailing.

Para-sailing looked amazing. The let Bec up 150 feet above the ocean and we cruised up and down the beach for 15 minutes. The view would have been incredible and I will hopefully get a chance to do this once we get back to Phuket in October.

The following day we headed on a Bus to Tarifa via Seville, where we were due to catch a ferry to Morocco on the following day.