On Your Bike.

Let me immediately apologise for the lack of activity on this blog since August.

I have no excuse apart from the fact that I am a lazy self centered blogger. ( You may replace that last adjective with one of your own choosing...................i deserve it.)

Since Joan and I visited for the Festival dos Pescadores in August I have in fact been back to Santa Luzia twice.

In October I travelled from Leeds with boyhood friends Les Healey and Micky Smith in my Vauxhall Vivaro van along with 3 pedal cycles, 2x 24 packs of baked beans, a wholesale pack of Pek chopped pork, several trays of Tetley bitter and Carling lager, copious amounts of back bacon and a number of items of furniture we felt would enhance our beautiful Portuguese home.

We did it the hard way.............departing at 4am on Wednesday driving from Leeds to Dover we took a ferry to Boulogne and drove non stop through France and Spain arriving in Santa Luzia at about 6pm on Thursday.

I have for a long time harboured thoughts of driving to Santa Luzia and circumstances conspired to bring this about when my old friend Les was struck down and had to undergo life saving surgery due to a brain tumor.

In the early days after his surgery when it was by no means certain if he would survive I promised him a holiday in Santa Luzia upon his recovery.

Fortunately the tumor turned out to be benign and Les has made a great recovery but due to the fact that there may still be pockets of air inside his skull it will be some time before he can fly.....so we drove.

I must say immediately the cycles added a whole new dimension to life in the village and I would recommend this means of transport to one and all.

Myself, Les and a camera shy Micky Smith exploring on our bikes.

On the Tuesday of our first week in Santa Luzia we were surprised by the unexpected arrival of Joan.

Having spent the entire day moving furniture and equipment for Feliz Beto from his Cafe Anna Raquel to his new business premises in Tavira (the owner of his current premise having terminated his lease in order to add apartments above) we had thoroughly enjoyed our reward of a meal of Arroz de Polvo prepared by his mother in law and washed down with copious amounts of vinho tinto, aguadente and beer.

We were consequently pretty much rolling drunk when she arrived at around 8.30 to find us still gathered around our dinner table in Cafe Anna Raquel enjoying Beto's ongoing hospitality.

It was really quite amusing the day we arrived when on pulling up outside Cafe Anna Raquel Beto came dashing across the street with a completely uncharacteristic grin on his face and declared "Stewart, how you know I needed a van?".

Joan was to remain in Portugal when we left and ultimately I had to return some 3 weeks later and put an end to her 5 week stay!!

This time I flew out from Liverpool with friends barney and Darran on the much maligned Ryanair.

Those additional charges for everything from a suitcase to actually checking in really are infuriating and, in particular, the administration charges of £5 pounds per passenger per leg of the journey manage to somehow make you feel that you have been had despite the price being many pounds cheaper than rival airlines.

Beto had by this time opened his new venture in Tavira and I am pleased to report that he has been an immediate success. We visited on three occasions and enjoyed various authentic Portuguese dishes prepared by the mother in law who provided our feast in October.

Prato do dia is priced at a very acceptable four euros twenty five cents.

Called O Seu Cantinho and situated on the junction of Rua Poeta Emiliano da Costa and Rua. Alm. Candido dos Reis it is a great little place to enjoy an authentic and inexpensive Portuguese lunch.

Summer snow.

Now I know that last year I promised to post details of this year's Festival Dos Pescadores in advance of the event, and to that end I visited the offices of the Junta De Fergusia in Santa Luzia during the month of June to obtain all the gen.

Despite the fact that the festival was less than six weeks away they were unable to provide me with any details over and above the start and finish dates.

Thus I arrived with Joan on the 6th of August with no prior knowledge of the itinerary for this year's festival.

It was once again a great success and I will post more details later as the story I wish to relate on this occasion revolves around an altogether different and far less welcome event.

The forecast record summer temperatures were much in evidence and consequently my first fishing expedition was left till late into Friday afternoon when the sun had passed it's fiercest.

As I left the house to walk to 50 or so yards to the pier I immediately became aware of a huge ominous looking black cloud hovering in the otherwise perfectly clear blue sky above the Serra Do Caldeirao some 8 kms inland.
Further observation of the cloud from the pier itself revealed a gigantic column of what was by now obviously smoke rising from the hills to the atmosphere above.
The Serra was clearly well on fire.

Nevertheless I set up my gear and commenced my quest for fish and it was some two hours later with the acrid smell of burning vegetation growing ever stronger in my nostrils that I noticed what looked like snowflakes falling all around me.
The fierce up currents caused by the heat of the blazing hillsides had sucked tons of ash into the stratosphere and it was now being deposited on the coastal towns and villages of the Eastern Algarve.
By the time people arose from their beds on the following morning everywhere was covered in a fine layer of grey ash which was to remain throughout our 2 week stay.
Summer snow in the Algarve!!!!!!!

Later enquiries revealed the full extent of the disaster.
The fire started around 3.00pm in the district of Cabeco Velha near Sao Bras De Alportel and burned on a six kilometre front to Santa Catarina Do Bishpo.
Three hundred firemen with 106 vehicles and 5 aircraft managed to bring the conflagration under control by 7.00am Saturday morning but not before many beehives, fruit and olive trees, vines, cork oaks and other agricultural assets were lost on the 1ooo hectares of land affected.