Day 8 Peniche (where are the surfers?) & Beleal

Weather today was mostly cloudy but did get above 20C in the afternoon.   There was a coastal breeze all day though.

We visited Peniche & Baleal today.  Peniche is a beachside town about 40min drive south of Sao Martinho.  It is known for fishing and has two beaches, one to the north and one to the south of the town.  The south beach is called supertubos and it is known for world class surfing (not the big wave kind as in Nazare, just the regular wave kind).  At this time they were holding a world surf tour event at the supertubos beach, so we thought we would go and check it out.   We got to the supertubos beach and this event was a big deal.   Large parking lots, big gate where everybody enters through and upon entry you had various displays and sales tents.   There were grandstands, vip areas and a big event vibe with lots of people around attending - easily in the thousands.   These events are broadcast live on youtube.   Unfortunately shortly after we got there we we told the start was delayed until 1pm.   We got there at about 11 and had walked around a bit.  Now if we were going to stay for the 1pm start we needed some lunch.   There were several very pricey food trucks onsite.   But we decided to walk down the beach towards town and see what we could find in terms of a local cafe or restaurant.   Walked about 15 mins from surfing area and found the only thing nearby, that just happened to be a popular spot for locals.   Maresia Restaurant was it and they luckily had a prata da dia (meal of the day special).   Lunch was a 1/4 piri piri chicken, roasted potatoes, salad, beer and coffee, all for 10 Euro, tax included (pp)!  The food was great and shortly after we arrived the place filled up with locals.

We went back to see the surfing after lunch and, seriously, it was called off, surf too dangerous!   These are professionals!   Oh well.   So we went into the old town centro area of Peniche and walked around, had a coffee and sweet and looked in the shops and so on.        We also drove around the outer area of Peniche coastline, which has very unique geological rock formations along its’ seaside cliffs.

Then we went and drove to have a look at the north beach, which is just as nice as the south, maybe a little less wild in terms of surf, particularly given there were locals surfing there, yet the professionals had cancelled for the day, lol.   

We then went on a few more kilometers to Baleal.  Baleal is a town adjacent to Peniche and is reached by driving across a beach and the town juts out into the atlantic ocean as a peninsula.   It is truly unique and very picturesque.   We parked and walked around a bit of Baleal and walked some of the beach that you drive across to get to Baleal.   Hard to describe, so have a look at pictures!

This is a fort at the southend of supertubos beach…..

View from the south end of supertubos beach.   The surfing event is held at the far end of this beach…..

Surfing event (that didn't happend the day we attended)…..

North beach……

Coastal area around Peniche…..

These below are shots on or entering Baleal peninsula…..

Panarama shot of the road to Baleal……probably looks a bit confusing….

Locals surfers getting ready to hit to waves late in the day, just before sunset…..

This is the road that leads to Baleal peninsula.   It is one lane for vehicle traffic for both directions (you have to wait until the opposite direction traffic is clear to proceed) and it literally goes across a beach that is on both the right and left side of the road.   The second cobblestone lane you see is for pedestrian and bike traffic.  Both road and path become impassable during some tidal and big surf incidents……

Step count 18,645.