Day 10 Wild Beach & Nazare Sunset

Weather was great today, first really warm day, sunny and about 20-22C. Morning lookout the condo balcony…

Went into Caldas da Rainha in the morning to buy some fresh vegetables and fruit at the daily market and went to the flea market in a nearby park.

Then we went to the Pingo Doce supermarket to get few other groceries and had the prata da dia lunch - chilli con carne, with rice, side salad, water and coffee for 12 euro for two of us, tax included and no tip needed. And it was really good!

We then drove to the nearby (our condo) Salgado Beach after lunch. This beach is about 15min drive from our condo. It is down a very long and steep (maybe 300 foot) roadway. At the beach parking lot there are a few houses, a small seasonal restaurant (not open when we were there) and room for about 15 cars. It is not a beach people would walk down to. The surrounding cliffs and hills are very scenic, the beach itself is 5km long with a sea to dunes width of about 250-300 feet. It has huge rolling dunes of sand. The surf is rated as very dangerous and for good reason. It is also spectacular. The day we visited it was about 20 degrees C and at most 10km wind, very light. Yet the waves varied from a few feet to at times shocking heights, probably 20-30 feet or more and they would crash violently on the beach and pull back with a scary undertow. We walked a lengthy part of the beach, staying some 50 plus feet from the edge of where the wave surf would reach and at one point while looking directly at the waves crashing realized one was coming in much farther and in seconds it was at our feet and up to Gale’s knees.

After taking in this amazing beach we drove about 15min further along the coast to Sitio de Nazare. This is the big wave location. We were too late in the day for the surfers but arrived just in time to witness a beautiful sunset. Only pictures will attempt to do these two settings justice…..but first our time in Caldas and lunch, lol…